Dinner Party!

So The Hub and I went to this awesome dinner party in April, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Titanic's sinking. Kind of macabre, when you think about it, but we had fun. There were just four couples at our little table and dressing up was encouraged, but not required. The hostess had placecards, a replica of one of the meals served on the Titanic, some decorations, and some information on the Titanic itself. It was pretty darn fun.

In the meantime, I knew that a couple of my friends had not necessarily been invited. Since the Titanic party was a success and so simple, I figured I could pull off something like it, but on a much smaller scale. I scheduled with my friends, thought up a theme, and went to work.

The theme was Steampunk Light. (Wikipedia "steampunk" entry, for enlightenment.) For me, it was really, really light. It could have been Victoriana Light, honestly, aside from the metal fan I'd borrowed from my helpful mother-in-law, and some metal accessories that I put up. But there were no corsets involved (sigh of relief) and I made it very clear to all participants that costumes were optional and only needed to be as accurate as they wanted to be.

I called the event An Evening in the Den of the Lost Wanderer. Strangely enough, I had all kinds of fun "artefacts" that I could pull together--a handmade pirate hat, a real dagger, some leather pouches, lanterns, flowers in iron vases, leather bound books, paper fans and lanterns and parasols, a kimono-like robe, bamboo poles, maps, a LEGO pirate ship, crystal candlesticks, and scads of velvet and silk. I borrowed another globe from my mother-in-law and felt like I was set. In my mind, the room was part of a mansion abandoned by some Victorian-era explorer who was lost in some remote wilderness on the other side of the world.

(Side note: It sounds like I had this complete vision I was working from. Not really. It evolved as I continued to plan. Also, my mother made a trip out here just to babysit. Okay, maybe she wanted to spend some time with us, but she was a fantastic sport and took care of the kids so we could party uninterrupted.)

It was a success! The food was potluck, the conversation flowed continuously, and the games were fun. We played The Sentence Game and Other Foot, which is homemade Apples to Apples. My cheeks hurt because I was laughing so much. I kind of wish I'd taken more pictures--the ones I have are from the next day, before I took everything down--but I don't care. The important thing is that everyone had fun. And I am SO doing this again!