Cinco de Mayo Weekend Wrap-up!

Hola! Happy Cinco de Mayo everyone!

This past weekend, I had the honor of hosting the 10th annual Dance Team Banquet. I've been the coordinator for this event for the past three years and this was one event that I will never forget. From the endless days and nights of planning to the 22 hour all nighter I pulled this weekend making sure that everything from the flowers to the food was perfect.

Since May is one busy month - we decided to make the banquet as early as possible to not conflict with other senior events. We picked on the 3rd of May and since it was so close to the 5th, and I love all things Mexican  - it was only appropriate that the banquet be Mexican themed.

Now on to the fun part - details! From the decor to the desserts - I planned out everything to the finest of details to ensure that everyone - seniors especially would remember this event for a very long time! I started by finding a perfect location, Kendall Indian Hammocks Park. I picked the deck instead of the typical party gazebo since the trees and shade over the deck screamed "Mexico". With this being said, I went to pick details that would allow the Miami heat to not kill them. We picked mexican papel picado as our banners that hung from tree to tree to create the Cabo, Mexico feel.

On each of the tables, I decided to opt out of the typical table cloth and did an authentic Serape, or table runner.  I ordered these from Etsy and they turned out to be fabulous against the colors of the banners. On top of the serapes, I placed two picture frames with pictures of the team from over the years and a white metal vase with yellow and white spider mums. This tied the entire Cabo chic look together.

For the food, I wanted to tie in the mexican feel as much as possible and what mexico without tacos right? So thats what I did! With the help of my super team - my abuela and mom, we were able to pull of a build your own taco bowl bar! We cooked salsa chicken, pulled pork (carnitas) and ground beef along with typical cilantro lime rice and warm tortilla chips to go along with it. The taco bar was a hit from everyone!

Every party isnt complete without a dessert bar and my oh my did we have one! Thanks to Do Re Mi cookies and Ohh My Sweetness, I was able to pull off a dessert bar that was gone within minutes! Marsha from Do Re Mi created three different types of cookies for our guests - mustaches, pinatas and sombreros and they were delicious! Vanessa and Melyssa from Oh My Sweetness created three different desserts that fit in perfectly with our theme. We came up with dirt cup "cacti", dirt cup margarita glasses and cupcakes in a jar that resembled a little "muchachito".

After everyone indulged in all the fun foods that we offered and look plenty of pictures in our photobooth, my coaches gave each of the seniors a little token of appreciation for all the hard work that we've not only given our team but ourselves as well.

All in all, this event was one that wouldnt have been pulled off without the support and help of all my vendors, family and coaches. I would definitely recreate this event in a heartbeat and I will truly miss being the event coordinator for the Diamonds Dance Team, its been an amazing four years on this team and I know that this team will only grow and prosper from here on out!

XOXO, Vivianna