Host A Masquerade on The Moon Dinner Party for NYE !

Gatherings

by Cortnie Fausner

The universe is a wondrous place full of the unknown, and as we enter 2016, we celebrate entering into 365 days masked in mystery. We don't know what the year ahead holds for us, and that is the beauty of the New Years Eve celebration. We dream of the unimaginable and the unthinkable as we celebrate under the moon at midnight with confetti, champagne and wild dance parties. NYE celebrations are for the dreamers and believers.

Now, imagine hosting a 'Masquerade on the Moon Dinner Party!'. You create a celestial, sparkling, star-lit flooded scene with gemstones, geodes, ivory quartz and small touches of glistening gold. You will serve up star caviar appetizers and magical chocolate moon pies for dessert over a dinner table flooded with dripping, ivory taper candles. Maybe you even invite a fortune teller or an astrologist to give your guests a fun peek into the new year!

The dress code? Glittering sequined dresses, faux fur jackets, funky white sneakers, heels and moon boots perhaps? The quirkier and sparklier the better. You shimmer and shake under the shiny mirrored squares of a disco ball before dinner. You all sit down for a feast at your fantasy-filled dinner table, put on your silly masks and the moon masquerade begins.

Symbolism:

The moon is often considered to rule the senses and emotions. The changable nature of the moon with it's easily identifiable phases helps us to slightly understand our place in the universe.

The moon also serves as glowing ball of illumination against the dark night sky, and has been the way we have tracked the passing of time for thousands of years. It represents emotional journeys, spiritual growth, mystery and magic. Is there a better symbol for a NYE gathering?!

You can buy the coolest moon backdrop (like ours) from Annewall Decor on etsy and a custom handmade flag from The Wild Standard (that you can hang in your house after) from

Dinner on The Moon Menu

This menu is comprised of fun names that you can attach any salad, cocktail or pizza really. There are a few specific items (like the desserts and the apple pie moonshine recipe) but you can wing all of these with your own creations!

'Fly Me To the Moon' Cosmic Cocktail - serve up any fun cocktail!
Apple Pie Moonshine - recipehere.
Caviar Stars Appetizer- Golden Buttered Crostini topped with Osetra Caviar
Harvest Moon Salad - Mix up your own fun salad and attach this festive name to it
When the Moon Hits your Eye like a big Pizza Pie - serve up your favorite pizza!
Astronaut Ice Cream & Moon Pies with Vanilla Gravity Ganache - you can buy Astronaut Ice Cream from a TON of places and these Moon Pies are found at grocery stores and online. You can also make Moon Pies from scratch with this delish recipe.

DIY Cement Moon Chargers

All celestial gatherings need a moon charger to go under the dinner plates, especially being that charger plates are round! The opportunity to get creative here was too fun to pass up. The rocky cement creates the perfect moon texture.

Supplies:

White drying cement with rocks in it
5 gallon paint bucket AND the plastic lid (this will serve as your moon charger mold)
Water

Instructions: Mix the cement in the paint bucket according to directions and pour it into the paint bucket lid. Let it completely dry and bend the lid to pop out the mold. You may want to use several paint lids at a time to make the process go quicker.

Note: After filling the cement into the molds be sure to level and even out the top so that when you take the mold off and turn the charger upside down, the bottom will be level.

DIY Cement Quartz Placecards

Do you see those fantastic placecard holders in the photo above?! These are easy to make along with the chargers as they require the same supplies.

Supplies:

White drying cement with rocks in it
5 gallon paint bucket
The smallest paint roller tray you can find - the indentations in the tray will serve as your mold
Water
Gold aint en or an awesome calligrapher like Twinkle and Toast Calligraphy.
Small quartz rocks

Instructions: Mix the cement in the paint bucket according to directions and pour it into the small indented portion of the tray that the roller sits in to absorb the paint. Even out the top so it's as flat as possible and place the small quartz rocks into the top of the wet cement. Let it dry and pop it out! Tip: Buy several trays to speed up the process.

Fringe Menu

This menu was SO much fun. The moon table is all about a monochramtic palette and layering on tons of textural elements, so anywhere we could add a bit of whimsy and texture we did!

Supplies:

We are an animal-friendly bunch so we purchased leather scraps from old sample packets. You can also purchase faux suede or other faux leather products. Etsy has a ton of both faux leather andreal leather scraps.
Gold paint pen or calligrapher

Instructions: Cut the leather scraps into your desired menu size, then take the leather pieces to a seamstress to stitch across the menu about 6" from the bottom. Cut fringe from the very bottom of the menu to where the menu is stitched horizontally. If you are in a time crunch or want to save money, the stiching is not necessary, it just give it a really polished look.

Next, you will need to write your menu items on the leather with a gold paint pen, or use a local calligrapher to make it perfect!

Geodes, Quartz and "Moon Rocks"

We love geodes for these table and purchased a ton! The magic of geodes is that when they are not broken, they look like moon rocks. When they are broken, you can see them in all of their glistening glory. Breaking them is fun and they break up into irregular pieces which is important for this messy moon look. Sprinkle the broken and "un-broken" pieces all over the center of the table, scattered between the bottles and candles. You can purchase the 'break your own geodes' at most gem stores in your city or online.

For the napkin treatments we tied gold dipped quartz pendants around each setting. Clear quartz is known as the "master healer", so is a perfect take home guests for your guests as well as a great way to start the new year!

Finally, we scored some really long pieces of rough quartz sticks that we used as cocktail drink stirrers! SO fun and another great energy healing element to go with your cocktail. Maybe it will help ease the NYE hangover? Who knows!

Supplies:

Taper Candle Holders

Do you see those really cool cement blocks with the two wires sticking out? We purchased those from Home Depot for .30 cents each! They are called wire dobie's and are used to suspend rebar in construction projects. We used them to hold our taper candles instead by centering the wire in the middle of the bottom of the candle and twisting the candle onto the wire. The wires are very bendable, so once the candle is on nice and tight, you can bend them to any angle you wish.

We also used clear bottles as candle holders so that the wax from the drippy candles would drip over them to create an ethereal floating vibe. You can either purchase actual beer-filled bottles, drink the beer, soak the lables and peel them off or purchase them at a craft store or home brewing company. We then pre-dripped the ivory drip candles onto the bottles. These candles have a very fast burn rate, so burning them ahead to get that magnificently messy candle look is key!

The last step is to plop the non-drip taper candles onto the clear bottles that are covered in drippy wax. Viola!

Supplies:

Masquerade Masks!

To complete the 'Masquerade on The Moon Dinner Party' you need the masks. We made our own silly astronaut helmet and masks, but you can just buy these super cute ones from Anthropologie. They also have these 'Wild Masquerade Fortunes' illustrated by Parisian artist Florence Balducci, that would make for great dinner party conversation!

Happy New Year! Cheers to you and yours!

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