Advent Dessert at Mary Our Queen

The women's club at my mom's church is the bomb. It's a large and fun group to begin with, but couple that with all of the activities and events they have . . . it makes me want to start a women's club at my own church (which I'm seriously considering pitching). Every Christmas season my mom has talked about their advent dessert, an affair where 12 women (or a team) each get a table-for-eight to decorate. The club members then gather for a sit-down dessert and coffee.

This year mom decided to sign up to decorate a table and asked moi to help. Hullo!!! Wouldn't turn this opp down for a million bucks. She started with ceramic figurines of the three wise men (inherited from her late mother), and from there we went crazy. We brainstormed and crafted, went to church days before and staged our table like any pro would do. And here's where we netted out.

The white tablecloths and chair covers were supplied by the church. Mom made the green overcloth, complete with gold trim and tassels, as well as the napkins and the chair drapes. The chargers, dishes and gold utensils are all her own. She found the gold (I'm thinking they're carnival glass) glasses at an antique shop, perfect for the theme.

The palm trees are from her Fontanini nativity set. The candleholders are ones I got at Goodwill ages ago (used them at Jenn's Moroccan wedding shower). She got the wooden chest at Michaels and then stained it. We filled it with costume jewelry from my craft room stash.

We were told to have a coffee carafe at our table, but none that either of us had seemed to fit into the theme, so I took a plain white one I had, cut up a gold paper doily, and Mod Podged it on. Poifect!
For favors we did ornaments and notepads (each with a scripture).

For our dessert, mom got this beautiful raspberry filled white cake at Publix which we put on a cake stand decorated with trim and a "jewel" worthy of the theme.
Once the lights were dimmed in the fellowship hall, and candles were lit at each table, it was all magical. The Consecrated Women of Regnum Christi made the evening meaningful with their angelic harmonious singing, readings and prayers. Here is a video of one of the songs they sang as part of their Christmas Lingerings Advent performance.

Needless to say, Mom and I are thinking ahead to next year's table!