Oliver's Monster-Themed Birthday Party

It's hard to believe that my little man turned 1 last month.  Everyone tells you that time flies when you're a parent and man is it true!

Fall Cookie Bouquets

I've never made a cookie bouquet before, but when I got a request for 30 of them last month I figured, hey, why not?  Go big or go home :)

The bouquets were used as centerpieces for a company picnic that was held at the home of James Monroe in Charlottesville.  Luckily, it was a local event so I could assemble the buckets on site before the party started.

I wish that I could have gotten a picture of the tables after they were set, but they only had linens on them while I was there.  I'm sure they looked beautiful once the event planner was done with them though.

Figuring out the best way to assemble the buckets took some research online.  I ended up weighing down the buckets by filling the bottom with stones.  Then I cut squares of floral foam to fit in the buckets, leaving about 1" of space in the top (floral foam was easier to push the sticks into compared with styrofoam).  I filled the remaining space in the bucket with ivory crinkle paper, then pushed the sticks through.

Since they would be sitting on round tables, I arranged the bouquets so that they could be viewed from all sides.  I never thought that the floral design class that I took a few years ago would come in handy for cookie decorating :)

Overall, I thought my first cookie bouquets were a success.  I'm looking forward to doing these again!