11.10.2008

New ParTea Blog Header

What do you think of the header makeover?

Figured it was time to make some changes 'round here.

They are images from the photo shoot for the TeaTime Magazine article. I can't believe it was almost a year ago when we did the staging for it!

Did I ever mention some of the behind-the-scene drama that took place while preparing for the photo shoot? I'll try to remember some of it:

*I knew for a while that TeaTime wanted me to do a feature. So I waited. But when they were ready to rock 'n roll with it, I had five days notice to put it all together. I was informed a couple of days after Thanksgiving.

*While I was collecting all the items I wanted to use for the shoot, I had to move mountains of totes of china I have. I finally found the teacups in my favorite pattern, Homer Lauglin's Marilyn floral pattern. I don't have that many and they are hard to come by on eBay. So when I found them, because I was at an awkward position (you know - mountain of totes), one of the saucers slipped from my hand, bounced off the chair and broke on the floor. Mind you, I was also PMS'ing at this time. When I saw the saucer fall in slow motion and then break, I got off the chair and screamed at the top of my lungs. For like two minutes. Then started bawling. Hubby thought I was losin' it.


*I was going to go with my signature pink & green color theme design, since this was going to be in their Spring issue. But the DAY BEFORE the photo shoot, I received Mari's gorgeous custom hand-painted banner. She had stayed up until the wee hours to get it finished for me in time. When I saw how she painted the darling songbird in an aqua blue hue, I knew I had to add the aqua accent color to the table decor. My linen rental company would not have time to deliver any runners or overlays in time, so I needed to make my own. So the night before - when I should be loading up everything into the van - I'm heading over to JoAnn's to get aqua fabric and ribbon. I was also bending the forks late at night, and putting the glitter on the place card flowers at around 2:00am.


*I had brewed hot tea and had put in a vacuum pump carafe. It fell out of the van when my assistant opened the door and shattered the internal glass. So we had to ask the cafe near the photo shoot venue to make us some tea. It was so brewed too long and was so dark it looked like coffee.

*My caterer that I use for most of my tea parties and events is a great guy. But a little on the busy side, so he misses a lot of details. I ordered petits fours in pink. My other assistant picked up all the food since it was on her way. So she didn't know what I had ordered. When I opened up the bakery box of the petits fours they were decorated in red & green CHRISTMAS motifs! Augh! I was livid and said a select few cuss words (forgive me Lord)......remember I am still PMS'ing.....

*The handle on my silver bride's basket broke, so I tried to use clear duct tape to hold it down.

*I did not have any jewelry, forgot to pack anything with all the hoop-a-lah going on. So one of my friends, Kathy (in the tea party scene) had some pearls in her purse and put them on me. She IS a true Southern lady, being from Georgia and all.

*We were losing the sun and FAST. So we had to run around - click, click, click - get the photos done before the sun went down. And what was also strange was that we were doing everything all spring looking, but there was Christmas music playing from the The Cliff Restaurant above us! Just seemed odd...


Photobucket
But all in all, it was a great experience! It wouldn't be memorable if there wasn't any drama, eh?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Risa, there is some truth to the old saying, "Misery loves company"....

I found your stories about the photo shoot brutally honest and wonderfully entertaining at the same time.

Sometimes I feel as if I am the only hostess on earth with broken tea cups and a list of other last minute dramas.

Let's face it, when we read about lovely tea parties in books and magazines we mistakenly believe everything is sooo beautiful that it must have gone off without a hitch.

Thanks ever so much reminding me that EVERYONE has a crisis from time-to-time. None of us are imune to it....

I guess true talent isn't in making things beautiful it is "surviving" all the little problems in such a way that guests would never ever guess there was a crisis to begin with:)

Your new blog header is devine!! I am just happy you are back at it.

Anonymous said...

Oh.My. I would never have guessed that you'd been through so much drama before the beautiful shoot! I'm glad you didn't give up because I love the finished product!

Glad you're back!

Dawn

Elizabeth Fedorko said...

Love the banner! Glad you survived the shoot!~~~XXOO, Beth

Anonymous said...

Wow, who would have known what lies behind those peaceful pictures? Thanks for giving us the inside scoop. I can relate to the chaos! It seems like everything goes wrong when you have a deadline. I imagine that you needed a BIG cup of tea when that was over! ;)

LillyB said...

Thanks for sharing your honest story! Bless your heart! I had a similiar experience with my first large church tea party. I was afraid to relinquish creative control and it overwhelmed me...the church gave $100.00 to spend on food after I had already spent $300.00, so I didn't get my budget approved ahead (my fault),but the director had said go ahead with the party we have the money...ummm no they didn't...she later said she was expecting store bought cookies and cheetos (head shaking)If you ever find the time please go to yourphoto.smugmug.com and click on tea party. all of the things were mine. It was a great, expensive adventure but I loved every minute of it. I had to make the tea in huge pots and pour them into the tea pots (therefore cheating) but the girls loved everything. They thought they were going to a slumber party, the director first told them to wear their Sunday best, then she told me at the last minute they were coming in jammies (my heart broke because I wanted this to be a regal experience)It was for me and I know they loved it too. I had way too much food and waste but I only had 2 pieces of glassware break so that was a blessing! And I couldn't cuss because I was in church hahahaha. My next tea party will be on a smaller scale and lower budget!!
God Bless!

LillyB said...

p.s. I don't use my real name on the blogs, so you will see another name get credit, but it is me. I intend to write a book one day and use this blog name as the author name. I know it sounds secret squirrell type stuff but I never was too sure how safe the internet was so I used my grandmothers first name and maiden name and it kind of stuck!
God Bless again!

Lady Katherine said...

You could never have known, you were going through so much. The photo shoot was so lovely! Everything turned out great and you were so lovely. Its is fun to know what went on behind the scenes. I hope you are laughing about it now. You did great fixing it all! Just Lovely, I know you were proud, even if a lot of things went wrong.

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