Forget You’re in a Tent. Decorate Elegantly for Outdoor Events

Summertime means outdoor parties, barbecues, and bonfires. If you’re planning a summer wedding or a more elegant graduation party, maybe even an outdoor prom, you’re challenged with decorating in a tent. With the right decorations and the proper planning, you can make it so your guests completely forget that they’re in a tent! With a few tips and tricks, your decorations can be elegant enough to make your venue seem like an outdoor wonderland, not a party under a tent.

Table Settings Make a Difference Outdoors

If you have tables under your tent for your summer event, you’ll want to use them as a decorating tool. By covering your tables with a white cloth and a shimmery strip of gossamer as a table runner, you’ll create a light, airy feeling for your summer event. A centerpiece for your tables will play a huge role in creating an elegant event, also. Depending on your theme, you could choose a centerpiece that will fit with the theme. You could also simply choose an elegant centerpiece that will go with any theme, such as a candelabra. When the sun begins to set, switching to candlelight versus bright LED lights or no lights will make your event that much more elegant. Also, the candlelight reflecting off a shimmery gossamer fabric will create an interesting effect.

Don’t forget about the chairs that will go with your tables. Seeing just a simple folding chair doesn’t say elegance. You can use folding chairs for your event, but look into chair covers. You could just use a ribbon or you could use a complete chair cover and a ribbon.

Hide the Tent

As you’re preparing your decorations, try to find a way to disguise the tent you’re decorating. Try wrapping the tent poles with shimmery silver iridescent chiffon. If you decide to use candles when the sun sets, the candlelight will reflect off the chiffon. You could also station a bunch of balloons at each of the four corners of the tent, as a way to disguise the corner tent poles.

If you want to disguise the poles running along the top of the tent, try twining garlands and flowers around them. Or you could do a combination of chiffon, garlands, and flowers. Another good option is hanging decorations from those poles, such as an ivory floral topiary.

Remember, summer outings don’t have to be all fun and no elegance. Even if you’re using a tent for your event, the decorations and the table settings can help you create an elegant sure-to-be-remembered event. Centerpieces and chair covers are a way to help guests forget about the tent, but if you want to disguise the tent, shimmery, flowing fabrics are the way to go. As you plan your elegant summer event, choose fabrics and other decorations that will set your colors off perfectly—create an event that your guests will remember for a long time!

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Ten Trivia Questions and Answers to Ask At Your Memorial Day Party

Everyone gets together for Memorial Day – It’s what we do! We grill out, we set up the barbeque, we roll out cold drinks, we often go to the lake if we can… It’s a fun holiday where we get time off work, and there is usually a parade and a commemoration service to honor our veterans.  This Memorial Day, before or after prom this weekend, quiz your friends on how much they know about the Memorial Day holiday:

1. What do bumblebees and the Air Force have in common?

Answer: The Air Force used aerodynamics discovered during research on bumblebees on their F-117 fighter.

2. Just because you “remember the Alamo,” doesn’t mean you know what the word means in Spanish. What does Alamo mean in Spanish?

Answer: cottonwood

3. Where was the first “official” observance of Memorial Day?

Answer: Waterloo, NY

4. While the first official Memorial Day celebrations began sometime in the 1860s, when was Memorial Day an “official” U.S. holiday?

Answer: 1971 – yep, it’s fairly recent!

5. Which U.S. State is closest to Bermuda?

Answer: North Carolina

6. Of all the “Founding Fathers” who signed the Declaration of Independence, how many of them went on to become U.S. Presidents? (Bonus if you can name them!)

Answer: Two – Thomas Jefferson and John Adams.

7. We know the famous line, but what was the actual first word spoken on the moon?

Answer: Houston.

“Houston. Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has Landed.” – Neil Armstrong’s first words back to base when his shuttle landed on the moon.

8. On Memorial Day, is the flag raised to the top of the pole or kept at half staff?

Answer: This is a trick question! The U.S. flag is supposed to be at half mast until  noon, and then raised to the top of the pole. Whoever gets this one right definitely deserves a prize.

9. What time is the “National Moment of Remembrance” on Memorial Day?

Answer: 3pm

and…

10. What state boasts the longest running Memorial Day Parade? And bonus points if you can name the town, too!

Answer: Ironton, Ohio – it has been holding a Memorial Day parade every year since 1869.

Now, when you start throwing out trivia questions left and right, it would be fun to sweeten the pot by offering an incentive to winning at trivia. However you decide to celebrate this Memorial Day, be sure to keep it fun while remembering the reasons behind the holiday.

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Four Star Decorating Tips for Military Balls

There are few events that are both as formal and as fun as the military ball. Once a year, each branch of the military holds a formal gala where military personnel attend, decked out in their Class A’s or Dress Blues, with their spouse dressed to the 9s. Without a doubt, there is a lot of pomp and circumstance, and proper etiquette to accompany the customs and traditions of each branch and military post, but it is also a chance to unwind and celebrate all the hard work each service member does all year round. Many college and even high school ROTC and jROTC outfits also maintain the practice of holding a military ball, and while they mimic the etiquette of the formal military ball, there is also a little more wiggle room.

 The Big Entrance

A Night of Music – Event Decorating Ideas for Instrumental, Dance and Vocal Enthusiasts

Greatful Dead drummer Mikey Hart once said, “There’s nothing like music to relieve the soul and uplift it.” And while music is certainly a beautiful thing for the ears to hear, it can also be an outstanding visual for A Night of Music. Impress the instrumental, dance and vocal enthusiasts at your next event with these decorating ideas.

General Music
If your event guests are lovers of all things music, go with a general music theme sticking to the black and whites of the piano and sheet music. The Music of the Night Kit is a quick, easy, and elegant way to decorate for this theme. It includes eight different standees and columns perfect for a music theme. For your tables, consider marking where guests will sit with music place card holders. They look classy and double as a decoration on each table. If your event isn’t too fancy, you can’t go wrong with musical note balloons. Tie them to chairs or use as a table centerpiece.

Music of the 50’s and 60’s
A Night of Music doesn’t have to be black and white. If you focus on a specific decade of music, you can really go crazy with the color, especially if the event isn’t formal. Dangle some colorful music notes from the ceiling to help provide a bright, fun atmosphere. Hit up the local thrift store to see if you can find some old albums to toss on the tables as centerpieces, or purchase some plastic records to use. You might also want to hang some of them from the ceiling. Since it’s all about the music, decorate with lots and lots of music note silhouettes. And don’t forget the staple of this era- a jukebox!

Jazz it Up
Jazz lovers will be blown away by the decorations in the All That Jazz Kit. Capturing the essence of the Roaring 20’s, this kit includes a city skyline, dancing couple standee, jazz guy standee, bandstand and a flapper girl silhouette. Make sure your decorations are flashy and fun, just like the jazz era was. Decorate with saxophones and other jazz-related instruments. Invite guests to wear 20’s attire like flapper dresses and gangster suits and they’ll be a great decoration in themselves!

Piano Paradise
The black and white keys of a piano make for a super classy decoration idea. Start by lining a wall with this 19-feet long piano keyboard standee. Cover tables in a bold color like red or yellow and then cover each one with a keyboard table runner. If possible, use a real piano as part of your decorations, and take things to the next level by having someone play it throughout the night. It will truly be a Piano Paradise with all the elegant piano keyboards around the room!

Music is beautiful to the ears and the eyes. Make your next music event one to remember with one of these ideas for “A Night of Music.”

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Drown in Love with a Lost City of Atlantis Prom

Keep the Royalty, but Make New Prom Court Traditions

Prom season is in full swing.  Unfortunately, the glitz and glamour of this special night frequently comes with drama and fighting among students.  The quest to become prom royalty often leads to poor behavior from teens in an effort to win a popularity contest.  This is one area where the beginning of new traditions could be a valuable tool in making your school’s prom more successful than ever.

This could be a great opportunity to help students learn real life skills that could help them when applying for colleges or jobs.  Instead of a popularity contest, select candidates based on pre-determined criteria and a series of interviews. Create challenges to encourage students to conduct themselves in a professional manner and develop marketable skills.  Get creative and think outside of the box!  There are a ton of fun and educational ways to make the quest for prom royalty a growing experience for young professionals.   This would be an especially great way to add practical skills to the resume of young people who often have a difficult time gaining experience. Encourage students to focus on education by setting a minimum GPA requirement for the candidates.  By mimicking the college application process you can start students thinking about the steps sooner rather than later.

Community service is a great way to build the resume of young people.  Set a minimum requirement for volunteer hours and have the candidates present an essay or multimedia project on their experiences.  This will help to build public speaking skills as well as help students learn how to put together a professional project.  Get the A/V department involved by taping speeches and interviews.  They can edit them and broadcast to the school.  Students can also learn great skills by creating quality video projects. Have students make practical, applicable plans on how they can solve a prominent social problem within the school.  Schedule debates during which candidates can present their plans and discuss social issues and potential resolutions in a constructive way.  By guiding the conversation and making it a positive discourse students will learn to be tolerant of opinions different than their own and to work through problems in a constructive way instead of arguing.

Social Media is more than just a way for teens to communicate with one another.  The development of this branch of marketing has opened vast opportunities for networking.  This is also an area where teens struggle with what information is appropriate to share.  Have them create accounts to spread their ideas and further their campaign using social media.  A short compilation of the data gained from their social media experience could be a great tool in college applications as well as applying for jobs and internships. This video is a great example of using technology to promote your candidates.  If you would like your prom’s campaign to take on a more professional feel, encourage students to be more serious.

Let’s re-write the meaning of prom and use this as a jumping off opportunity for a more positive and productive prom experience.  Our high quality prom court items will offer a fantastic reward for the winners of these coveted prizes.  Students will truly appreciate the meaning behind their crowns when they have had such a positive experience and put such hard work into earning them.  Reward their hard work by welcoming them with a walk down our luxurious red carpet.  Make them feel really special by going all out with our robes and royal scepters.  Our wide selection of tiaras and crowns will allow you to choose the perfect finish to your royal ceremony!

5 Places to Wear Your Tiara and Sash

Every Girl Loves a Tiara

Tiaras and sashes have always gone hand-in-hand, whether for a prom queen or a bachelorette. While many girls buy pretty tiaras to wear to prom, not many girls can wear the tiara and sash of a prom queen.

You may be thinking to yourself, “how many places can a person really wear a tiara (and get away with it)?” The answer: many more places than you think! Here are a few examples…

Where to Wear Your Tiara and Sash

1. Dances: While homecoming is typically a much more casual affair than prom, you could still wear a small tiara to set off your dress.  A tiara is almost a staple for any girl going to prom. It’s a great way to add just a little bling to any dress. And if you’re crowned queen at either dance, you’ll have a beautiful sash to wear with your tiara!
2. Birthdays: A Quinceañera, Sweet Sixteens, 18^th and 21^st birthdays all give you a great reason to don a tiara and sash for the day! It’s your day, why not wear a tiara? Typically, a Quinceañera and a
   Sweet Sixteen both give you the perfect reason to plan a huge party and wear a “Birthday Girl” sash and a pretty tiara. You could also get matching tiaras for your best girlfriends to wear.
3. Pageant Queen: If you’re into the beauty pageant circuit at all, you know pageant queens get crowns or tiaras to wear with their sashes for various public appearances. A few of those appearances will include county fairs, state fairs (in some cases), and maybe even parades! Whichever event you’re involved in, you’ll get to show off your tiara and your sash.
4. Bachelorette Party or Wedding: Either at your bachelorette party or at your wedding, you will wear a tiara. If your bridesmaids are sweet, they’ll buy you two tiaras—a wild, fun bachelorette tiara and a pretty, elegant bridal comb tiara. That way, you’ll have a special way to remember each special event. You could also find small tiaras for your bridesmaids to wear for the bachelorette party.
5. County Fair: Many county fairs have small beauty pageants or talent shows, too. If you’ve competed in a state pageant and won the title, you may be called upon to don your tiara and sash to crown a county queen or simply make an appearance at the fair.

These are just a few places to wear your tiara and sash. You may, if you’re crowned prom queen or a pageant queen, be required to wear them to a few other events. You could even reuse the tiara on your own and be a medieval princess for Halloween! You could wear the costume a few times—and it gives you the perfect reason to wear your tiara again and again. Always make sure to find a reason to wear your tiara and sash more than once! Every girl needs to feel extra pretty every now and then.

Spring Track Team Spirit Ideas

Even before the weather starts to truly warm up in the springtime, you’ll often see scores of adolescent runners out, jogging through neighborhoods and byways in spandex, track jackets, and certainly not warm enough headbands. If you are the parent, relative, or coach of one of these doggedly determined individuals, you already know that you are witnessing the birthing pains of the springtime track and field team.

Countless young men and women across the country are working and training hard — really hard, incredibly hard — while continuing to study and work their way through high school, and sometimes even holding down jobs part time in the workplace, as well. Too often it is too difficult to get them the recognition that you know they deserve. Here are a few things you can do to celebrate your spring track team.

Raise awareness throughout the community with yard signs.

Yard signs are fairly commonplace, but they are often for (aside from the political) biggies like football, basketball, baseball, and sometimes soccer. On the whole, you see them for what are typically thought of as “team” sports, while people who aren’t in the know tend to view track and field as a sport composed of individual events. Yard signs can be personalized with individual player names as well as to announce weekly events. Use both at school and throughout the neighborhood. This way, the community at-large can see that track players live and work among them, and perhaps be encouraged to go support their local high school or neighbor at an event. Yard signs with players names can also be used to line a pathway or the school quad for a track and field spirit week to celebrate the individual team members at school.

Have a spirit week at school… just for track and field!

Yes, baseball and softball are coming, and soccer is looming on the horizon as well. However, spirit weeks don’t have to be massively costly to be successful at their original purpose: giving credit where credit is due and raising enthusiasm and pride across the campus. Banners promoting the track and field team can be draped across the entrance (or exits!) of the school, where everyone can be sure to take note.  As a track and field promotion during spirit week, if you are selling school or athletic-related apparel like hoodies and t-shirts, let everyone know that if they purchase anything during that week, they will get a track and field personalized drawstring bag, as well!

Make sure everyone at school knows who the motivated athletes on the track team are!

• Pick a certain day of the week for the track team to wear their team jackets to school, and have everyone do it. Fellow students may be surprised who is in their class on the team!
• Following a meet, announce the team members who placed first in any given even that next Monday in homeroom or over the intercom.
• Long-haired track athletes can get fun and funky with Bling Strings in their hair. Check regulations, but these can be tied up in ponytails or buns tightly and will also help your school stand out at meets!
• Make notebooks available for all the track athletes to use, and offer personalized track spirit notebooks for sale as part of your track and field fundraising. The more visibility, the more awareness, and the more excitement!

Give those motivated fans something to cheer with!

While noisemakers can be a touch inappropriate for track and field events that require concentration, unless there are regulations prohibiting their use, sprinters could use all the encouragement! For other events, such as shot put, long jump, or discus, create special signs with prominent, easy to read lettering. Right before the athlete makes their winning put, hurl, or jump, they can look up into the crowd and gather extra momentum from all the support they see in the stands.

Finally, don’t forget to bring along some extra megaphones so that your encouraging cheers don’t get swept away in the wind.

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The final year of high school is rich with memories. We’ve got some outstanding examples of how you can make Senior Sports Night memorable for the class of 2013.

Welcome the seniors and their families with

Diamonds are a Prom’s Best Friend–Bring the Sparkle Out in Your Theme

All About the Bling!

Year after year, junior and senior high school girls go on city-wide searches for the perfect prom dress.  Typically, the more the dress sparkles, the better. The jewelry, the accessories, and the shoes often sparkle and shine as well. With glittery accents making such a huge splash in the world of prom attire, why not plan a prom centering around every girl’s best friend, diamonds?

Shimmery, Shiny Dream Come True

A great base to use for your sparkly diamond-like prom is a themed decorating kit—you’ll want to find something that has a good selection of pieces so you can add a few other creative touches to the event, but not so many pieces that you set up the kit and are done. Try the Dream Come True kit for a solid base to a diamond-themed prom. Then you can add a variety of other decorations around your event space to expand the theme and play up the sparkle factor that so many girls love.

Another great start for your shiny, diamond-like decorations is a Fire and Ice theme kit. You could either use the whole kit or put more focus on the ‘ice’ decorations, as those will be the best addition to your diamond-themed prom. Using the kit will add another color to your prom—similar to how precious gemstones are used to complement diamonds. Following that concept, you could also pull in green to represent emeralds or blue to represent rubies, but those should be accents to your shimmery diamond decorations.

Sparkly Additions to Your Diamond Prom

After you have the decorations for your sparkly diamond prom started, you’ll want to look into the additional touches not found in the kits. For example, look into various fabrics to work with in your event space that will enhance the diamond theme you’re building. Drape your tables with iridescent chiffon (silver fabric over a solid color would add a bit of dimension to the tables).  Look into metallic gossamer to use as wall covers. Choose either one color or a few different colors (try to keep it to three colors at most), hang a couple sheets of metallic gossamer from the ceiling to the floor—make sure to leave excess at the floor. Black, white, and silver would be great colors for your diamond-themed prom. When you have the sheets hanging from the ceiling, gather them together about four feet above the floor. The walls in your event space will be hidden and extra shimmer will be added to your room.

The last touch is the selection of prom favors. The best favors to go with a sparkly, diamond-themed prom are glassware favors. Flutes, goblets, snifters—whichever glassware favors you choose for your diamond-themed prom guests, you’ll be able to get them personalized for that extra-special, memorable touch.

By starting your prom planning with a solid decoration base, you’ll be able to transform any event space into a memorable moment in time for your prom guests. There are many options to work with for a sparkly prom—try diamond accents on your school colors!

Decorate for Your School’s Own March Madness

While the History Channel claims that March Madness was born 74 years ago with the “first-ever NNCAA men’s basketball tournament,” high school teams everywhere know that small town school spirit has played an important role for decades. The squeak of basketball shoes on gymnasium floors, roaring crowds, and the swish of basketballs bouncing off the backboard and falling down to bounce on the shiny floor, while the audience holds its collective breath for just one second, a second when time stops, before erupting into screams of delight while their favorite players rush back up the court, dripping with sweat and motivation…This is March Madness, and it is catching once more.

Illinois and Indiana both claim to have started March Madness with high school basketball playoffs, but whether you’re playing in the Midwest or coast-to-coast, school spirit has an insatiable thirst this month. Give in to the enthusiasm and make sure your players and biggest fans have enough to drink with durable polycarbonate or plastic water bottles personalized with your school’s name, the year, certain player’s names, or even just “March Madness!” You could toss these out during basketball games to get the crowd even more pumped up, or sell them as part of a sports fundraiser.

Next, advertise your school spirit with banners for pep rallies, star players, and all the big games that are happening this month. Weave your school colors through fencing and around the hallways using gossamer or even durable, flame-resistant poly vinyl. Nothing is more exciting than walking into your high school or college gymnasium to find huge signs promoting the team and the starting players surrounding by bright streams of school colors.

Speaking of color, you can use lots of it to spruce up the hallway in your high school with affordable graphic banners that are designed for lockers.  Personalize them to match your school colors as well as with names. These can be used for all your superstars, too; marching band, the yearbook, or even just that special person in your life that needs a little bit of motivation as the end of the school year looms, but is still very far away.

Finally, be sure and surprise boys and girls, women and men’s basketball superstars with Big Heads; use them in the crowd or attach them along the walls or fencing with their number and cheer them on throughout March Madness and for the year to come. Remind them who their biggest fans are and frighten the opposition with your school spirit, to boot!

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Combining Prom Themes

No matter where you have your prom, an easy way to make it a memorable event is to combine two themes to make your own! Your prom will be much more personalized for your school and your students. If you do it well, you can tie in a variety of themes. This will also take focus away from the physical location of the dance. Combining themes makes it easier to have a dance anywhere, from the school gym to a banquet hall to a cruise ship!

Combining Nautical and Carnival Themes

Combining a nautical theme with a carnival theme gives you the opportunity to tie in a few other themes. Subtle hints are all you need—many cruise ships, for example, have a casino room, so you could also incorporate a casino theme. You can also tie in other themes with your favors. If you choose to add the casino theme, section off a portion of your event room with alternating red metallic curtains and black metallic curtains to create a mini-casino! Create Black Jack and Texas Hold ‘Em tables and give your guests personalized poker chips as a fun party favor.

A great way to combine prom themes is by mixing up the party favors. Give male prom guests gob hats and the female prom guests feathered masks. Also, rather than simply handing out beads to your guests, work the beads into the centerpieces for your tables! This way, not only will your dance have a much more “finished” feel, your guests will feel like they’re taking home a piece of the dance.  You can also place personalized candy jars around the table filled with extra snacks for your guests to enjoy while they’re dancing the night away.

If your prom is in a school gym rather than on a cruise ship, you can still combine nautical and carnival themes and make a splash with your students! Use decorations to set the cruise ship scene—hang anchor and porthole cutouts along the walls to give your guests the feeling of being on the lower deck of a cruise ship. You could also hang an ocean background on a wall and place a few lengths of ship’s rail in front of it— your guests will be able to lean over the rail and look out at the deep blue sea! Then, to incorporate the carnival theme, you could create a few different stations with carnival-themed snacks for your prom-goers. For example, you could hand out popcorn, cotton candy, and mini pigs-in-blankets. You’ll probably want to stay away from things like snow cones, as they could stain clothing.

The possibilities for a prom with more than one theme are endless! You just have to use a bit of creativity. Combining prom themes will make your even fun, memorable, and exceptionally personal for your high school and your students.