24 | July | 2017 | Tablescapes at Table /Twenty-One

UPDATE, July 29, 2017: SHE WON!!!!! SHE WON!!!! Sophia Dominguez-Heithoff is MISS TEEN USA 2017!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Looks like we’re getting along, but I’m silently plotting against him!

I will publicly admit (for the first and only time) that Andres Dominguez is one of my dearest friends. I put it that way because we (good-naturedly, of course!) razz each other like siblings…or sworn enemies.

Amy was taking NO chances here! She knows I should not be allowed the freedom to wield sharp objects…especially that close to Andres!!! No prob…I’m actually going in for a choke hold!

I get him with the bunny ears a LOT!

Truth is, though, he is one of those people who come into your life for a reason. Among those reasons: for me to watch as his family grew. I met Andres the year he married Amy. They’ve since put their hearts and souls into raising two incredibly gifted and kind children, one of whom in recent months was crowned Miss Missouri Teen USA. I have watched Sophia grow from a super cute baby into a talented, compassionate, intellectual (she graduated high school a year early and is headed off to college in August!), inspired/inspiring, confident, graceful, jaw-droppingly beautiful young woman.

She will be competing in the Miss Teen USA Pageant this coming Friday/Saturday, July 28/29 at Symphony Hall in Phoenix, AZ. We are so excited and plan to have ourselves parked front and center to watch and root for her.

I was honored when Sophia’s mom, Amy, called to ask if I’d lend a hand with setting up the send off party in Sophia’s honor this past weekend. Are you kidding me??!??! A chance to use a bunch of my silver pieces?!??!? Oh, “HELL to the y-e-s” as the kids say! I hope you enjoy the pics as much as I enjoyed creating what Amy and I ultimately dubbed “The Tiffany Room” and helping to pitch in on other rooms for the party.

This is Sophia’s Mom/Andres’ wife, Amy. Amy and I work together like hand in glove and get on quite well because we both run on 2 speeds only: “Bugatti Chiron” and “speed of light”!!!

So much to do setting up the “Tiffany Room” including stacking dozens of macarons just right on miniature cake plateaus.

Sophia’s exquisite (and delicious!!!) Tiffany blue cake was created at Wally’s Pastry Shop in Kansas City, MO.

I wanted the table to resemble a Tiffany’s gift box, so I started with a Tiffany blue pintuck tablecloth from YourChairCovers.com. I glitzed it up with bling ribbon and scattered rhinestone brooches.

There were fabulous French macarons and petit fours everywhere!!! To balance the sweet with a little savory, I brought along these faceted crowns (purchased at Hobby Lobby that I first used for a “Princess Pink Birthday Dinner” back in 2011) for a peanut/butter mint mix. I have used the miniature cake plateaus in other settings, most notably “Fairy Tale Wedding Shower – Princess & the Frog” and “Springtime in Paris“, both posted back in 2012.

A few additional touches around the “Tiffany Room” included custom M&Ms and a delicate ballerina posed atop another miniature plateau placed next to one of Sophia’s many crowns. The ribbons are from her Quinceañera.

More inspired touches from Amy’s brilliant mind included these custom-made cookies from April at Sweet & Saucy Life in Platte City, MO, just north of Kansas City. This woman can create!!! Just LOOK at those crowns and ballet slippers!!!

The living room was a great place to display a couple of Sophia’s ball gowns including the spectacular red one she wore when she won the Miss Teen Missouri 2017 pageant! The room is decorated with festive Mylar balloons proclaiming her title.

There’s MUCH more to Sophia than bling and balloons as the “KU Room” showed with snippets of her many accomplishments. Look closely at those M&Ms. Yes, a 4.0 GPA!!! No wonder…pardon the pun…she’s a Wonder Woman!!!!

It was a crazy hot & humid day here in the Kansas City area, and the hosts were ready to keep their guests cool with these stylized water bottles.

Handsome photographer/hubby Ramon and me taking a much-needed break.

Posing with the ecstatic family. That handsome gent on the other end is wardrobe stylist/fashion consultant Wlaa of Wlaa Style. I hear ya, ladies. I hear ya!!! 😉