Our animal shelter is hosting a chocolate festival and auction. We need an idea for inexpensive centerpieces and decorations. The event is casual and the tablecloths are black. Please help!
By Susan from Seattle, WA
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If I am reading your request right, you are having a chocolate festival that will benefit your animal shelter, so the theme is chocolate, not animals? If so, you could make cake balls, which are bite sized mixtures of cake and frosting, dipped in chocolate. You can use the chocolate for candy molding that comes in so many different colors.
Maybe serve them in cute decorated dog bowls if you want to tie in the animal theme? Or else you could use those cupcake tiers and place them in little paper cupcake holders and display that way. Perhaps you mold candy animal pops and place those on the holders too, or put photos of animals from the shelter on card stock and attach to the tops of each holder. I have seen the mini cupcake tiers at craft stores and even Target. They make cute centerpieces.
Can you go to local dessert bakery's, candy making factories, or high end restaurants and ask for a donation of a centerpiece showcasing their specialty. Maybe ask them for donations of their desserts and then you can make an arrangement to display.
Another idea is to take animal shaped objects and cover them in chocolate then making a display out of them.
How about making cookies shaped like dog biscuits and skewering them. Then dip them in chocolate, let dry. Arrange in a vase or container like you would flowers. Add stems of greenery for filler. You can also make fish shaped cookies for a cat theme (same idea) so it would not only be dog themed.
I applaud animal shelters trying anything to help fund sheltering and saving animals, and I am sincerely not trying to be mean, but I hope no animals will be attending the festivities because chocolate can be highly toxic to animals :-( What if someone fed any meaning it as a treat?
That being said, perhaps wrap/glue wreath shaped Styrofoam with something like candy bar wrappers and place photos of homeless animals in need in the center of the wreaths? I hope this helps.
Depending on how much time you have before the event, I've got an idea. Go to your local veterinarians, pet supply stores and groomers. Offer them the chance to provide a table decoration, advertising their services, showcasing their products, giving small gift certificates, etc. Tell them the color scheme, and give them a deadline for pick up. Each table will have a different themed centerpiece and you can find a way to "award" the centerpiece to someone at each table as a "party favor." I guarantee that the local businesses will appreciate the free advertising and the attendees will love to take home the centerpiece to their pet (or better yet, maybe they will donate them back to the shelter).
I would connect chocolate kisses to pet kisses and decorate with the silver foil candy, which would also look nice with your black tablecloths. Come up with a cute line like, " Nothing sweeter than a kiss!" Then put pet photos in the middle of each table and decorate with the chocolate kisses. You could make huge fake candy kisses with Styrofoam, cardboard and foil. Have fun! And thanks for helping all the shelter pets. I've gotten all my pets from shelters. They are the best!
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