This year I’ve tried to really make an effort to be a “Yes Girl,” that is someone who will accept any invitation barring previous plans. I realized that no matter the event, you can always find a way to have fun with friends and you never know who you’ll meet or what you might discover about yourself.
When one of my girlfriends told a group of us she had found this event called Night in White in the nearby village of Arden, of course, I had to say yes. Basically we dress all in white, design a tablescape all in white and have a great night out with friends.
Other than that I had no idea what to expect, but this was one of those times when everything I could come up with was completely exceeded.
I have a great group of girls who organized us, divvying up the menu and decorations. As the date got closer we only got more excited.
We all arrived at the historic Gild Hall and then processed with the entire group to an Arden resident’s backyard where the event would take place. The house, barn and guesthouse on the property were all beautiful – a Pinterest lover’s dream. The barn even had two sofa swings, perfect for intimate chats at the event.
By the time we arrived at the event’s secret location we were all pretty hungry, so of course got right to work setting up our tablescape and laying out the food! While our tablescape was definitely a coordinated effort, it turned out so cohesively gorgeous. Gretchen did a great flower arrangement in one of my mom’s yard sale find vases, I had some battery operated white pillar candles and Ash not only donated white wedding lanterns, but also wedding chair decorations.
The spread was amazing and all of the contributing chefs did a great job.Although we didn’t display a printed menu like our neighboring table, we had so many great options – a cheese and charcuterie plate, sweet curry chicken salad lettuce wraps, summer peanut broccoli slaw salad and caprese and basil-melon skewers. To top it off, Gretchen (@gebriz) and Dara (@darakmcbride) worked together on a gluten free, two layer cake with a blueberry vanilla filling – not only beautiful, but so, so delicious. (Keep an eye out for recipes!)
The rest of the night was filled with great conversation with everyone from our own table as well as all of the artists and patrons from Arden. Bonus: Ashley and Steve had actually had their recent nuptials blessed that morning, so everyone loved that she wore her wedding dress and chose to spend her second wedding night with them!
Following dinner, the winners for Best Tablescape and Best Dressed Couple were announced, along with the raffle ticket winners. Ashley and Steve won Best Dressed, of course. I mean, how could anyone compete with an actual wedding dress on the day of the wedding?
Lucky for me Ashley and Steve had one of the winning raffle tickets but are so #humble they didn’t feel it was right to win twice so I gladly stepped in to accept their raffle prize – a free dance class at the Gild! What a cool thing, especially for a Yes Girl. I’m thinking about using my free class to learn Israeli dance. How many people can say they’ve done that?
We wrapped up the night with the entire 150 person group doing a sparkler sendoff. It was honestly one of those moments that was truly enchanting.
It really was just such a beautiful night. I’m so glad I had such a great group to share it with!
