BUTTERFLY * DRAGONFLY JAPANESE DINNER

 Theme Concept: A sophisticated dinner for a highly stylized celebration.   

 Guest of Honor Profile: For a couple that loves sushi and sake. 

 Invitations: Postcard with a butterfly watermark and a sage green velum overlay with a diagram of a dragonfly.   

 Invitation Verse:  Print the engaged couple’s names in Japanese at the top of the invitation. (print party information) 

Décor: Hang (4-foot-wide X 10-foot-long) burnt orange fabric panels vertically from roof eave with (2-foot wide X 10-foot wide) vertical strip of muslin fabric in front of orange fabric.  Stencil Japanese characters down muslin panel using black ink marker or draw sketches of dragonflies and butterflies.  For more colorful banners find photos of butterflies and dragonflies in books and photocopy them onto iron-on transfer paper.  Iron images onto banner, about 3 per banner keeping the design very simple.  Transfer paper can be found in sewing, craft, and some large stationary stores. 

Menu:  Purchase sushi from a Japanese restaurant unless you are a sushi chef.  Inquire as to the price for a chef to come out and prepare sushi on the spot.  I’ve found the cost to be very reasonable.  Ask them for sake recommendations and purchase sake from a liquor store.  For chopsticks, plates, sake vessels, and, sake cups, ask to rent them from the restaurant or purchase them from their wholesale distributor. 

Cake Décor: Adorn the top and sides of the cake with wall-to-wall silk butterflies purchased from a craft store. Or, make sugar butterflies from the cake sugar crafting instructions in this book.

 Games/Activities: Sake tasting .

 Music: Contemporary selections or artists favored by the engaged couple.

 Party Favors: Cool imprinted matchbooks or chopsticks.

  Theme Substitutions 

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