My Element Was Sky

This past summer NACE's Phoenix Chapter had the excellent idea do put together a table top competition and this years theme was focused on the four elements of Earth, Water, Fire & Sky. Like any planner, I love designing tablescapes so I jumped on the chance to enter. Immediately I was assigned my element of Sky. What's the first thing people think of when it comes to sky? Fluffy white clouds with a crisp blue sky. Well, not me, I wanted to surprise people and think outside of the expected. I chose to focus my table decor with what Arizona is known for; "Wicked Sunsets". First things first, I did some research on some of our more richest sunsets through photography and came up with this breathtaking picture below. This was to be the inspiration of Life Design Event Planning's table design.

Below are pictures detailing my final design of "Wicked Sunset".


All the stemware, flatware and chargers were provided by Tri-Rentals from their Unique Line. The particular stemware I used was called Amber Frost & I also used their Scallop chargers. The flatware I chose is called Antique Gold Swirl.

I wanted a fun way to incorporate our paper products so we used gold push pins with name tags displayed on a juicy pears as the place card and had custom square menus made with beaded embellishments all provided by The Invitation Lady. As you can see the menu card is propped up by a fold. We wanted to give it a three-dimensional look.


The floral was provided be Fiori Floral. I wanted the richness of purples, oranges, & golds to echo the vibrant colors of true Arizona sunsets. If you dim the lights we hid mini electric candle votives in the gold rock marbles and when it was dark streams of light would radiate out just like a sun trying to hold on to day light for just a bit longer. It was so beautiful.

The linen was by far my favorite part of this table design. BBJ helped us pull the whimsical strides of a sunset with different and absolutely non-traditional pinning and tying.

When walking through the displays at this competition I was taken back by the astounding creativity and thought that I had no chance with competing with the top florist, planners and designers in the Valley. Vendors had spent thousands and thousands on just one table where I had spent only a few hundred. Well, my mouth dropped when I was announced as the first place winner in my assigned element. It was a wonderful feeling to run to the stage for my "medal" (yes, we got metals) and award. It just reassured my feelings on the fact that you don't have to spend thousands to get that Wow Factor. It's all about design and being creative. Thanks Laurie for teaching me that lesson. :)

There was also a competition among cakes so I thought I would end this post with a few pictures of some outstanding cakes that were on display. I didn't know all of the cake designers by the pictures alone so if you are reading this and one of your cakes are posted I would be glad to give you the props you deserve by listing your company. Please feel free to email me.

Classic Cakes and Confections are an excellent resource for amazing cakes. They taste and look fantastic. Here is Ella and Neil struttin' their stuff next to their element cake. Great job guys!

Both cakes above are the element of water. The second one is from Honeymoon Sweets.

Element of Fire. So creative!

Element of Earth. Such detail!

Again, thanks to all that participated and Kudos to Jennifer from Phoenix Bride & Groom Magazine and Laurie from BBJ linen for planning this madness. It was so fun.

Can't wait to see what everyone does next year!

Special thanks to Harold of To Have & To Hold Photography for these beautiful pictures.