Colored Paper Weekend

Pom poms! I thought they were stunning and looked like giant mums!

Pumpkins as labels.

I had a few extra pom poms so someone put them on pitchers and they looked fabulous!

We used Japanese washi tape to seal the popcorn bags--one of my favorite details of the night.

My soup! Pumpkin and tomato.

Apples and the dip that makes the ladies go crazy.

Goat cheese rolled in toasted hazelnuts and dried cranberries.

Herb butter.

My friend Kristin asked me to be on the food and decorations committee for the RS broadcast. I agreed because she is amazing with all things food related and I like decorations and mostly, I like her! Considering we were planning food for 350 people--working with Kristin and the committee was effortless. She's not fussy or high maintenance so it was easy. Plus, I asked my friend Rebecca to join us as an excuse to spend more time with her. So fun! Our friend Kirsten suggested we serve shots of different soups and that was a genius idea. She also recommended that we give the ladies 'desert to go' so they could eat something while they watched the broadcast. Again with the genius idea! In addition to the soup we planned on various breads and spreads. Easy and delicious.

In terms of decoration I suggested doing a pom pom display with cascading colors--very much inspired by the recent ombre design trend. I confess that pom poms may be so five years ago but I still love them! I also suggested potting mums in pumpkins and also smaller mums in apples. I think it was Kirsten again who suggested using smaller pumpkins as labels to identify the various spreads. It was all pretty effortless except there was some tissue paper drama. I thought I had ordered the tissue well in advance of the event but it didn't show up until noon the day before! Mercifully I have the greatest friends (a big shout out to Kristin, Jocelyn, Noelle, and Sarah!) so they helped me whip out nearly 40 pom poms! Their company made the volume of the work actually fun!

The food was a huge hit. We served four delicious soups: tomato pumpkin, butternut squash, black bean, and potato. We offered french bread, whole grain bread, pumpkin bread, and challah bread and each bread was paired with a spread (honey cinnamon butter, goat cheese, herb butter, and plain butter). In addition we had little cucumber/salami bites and slices of apple with a cream cheese toffee dip. Also! We served pebble ice with water and apple cider! How awesome is pebble ice???

Several single guys from the stake served the soup, cucumbers, and apple slices. They were true gentleman because my back was absolutely killing me by the time the broadcast started and when it was over the thought of cleaning up nearly made my back spasm. I teared up when I found that the same men who volunteered to serve food had cleaned up! They scrubbed our crockpots and all the dishes and put away tables and chairs. Their kindness was such a tender mercy.

I had a great time and loved the food and was edified by the message.

(FYI: Turns out Whole Foods has the best selection of pumpkins and the best prices!)