Nighttime Fun with Daytime Soaps!

Now that it is summer for many of us, that means the occasional lapse into daytime television.  We all love to avoid drama in our own lives, but so many women love to obsess over the drama of soap operas! This is why I decided, in July of 2009, to have a little fun with this idea.  My monthly dinner theme became: Nighttime Fun with Daytime Soaps!

Invite:  I created a simple postcard-shaped invite with the party details using the Days of our Lives logo.  I used a little television lingo to fit with the theme in my wording.  As a fun addition, I asked guests to come prepared to divulge a dramatic moment from their own lives that the writer's of daytime soap operas could use for their next script.  It was fun to hear everyone's stories, and since we are all close friends after years of these dinners, no one minded sharing!

Decor:  I set the table with a black tablecloth, and incorporated as many daytime soap operas as possible into my centerpiece...

• Camping Lantern for Guiding Light
• Hourglass for Days of Our Lives
• Vase with Photos of my guest's children attached to sticks for All My Children
• Globe for As the World Turns
• Stethoscope for General Hospital

I also included a Soap Opera Digest magazine as part of this centerpiece.

The funniest decor aspect was these place cards I made for each guest.  I found photos on Google images of soap opera couples.  Then replaced the female stars face (not hair, etc). with my guest's face.  These were hilarious!! *Note: these are scanned, so the picture is not very clear...sorry!

Menu:  Wanting to stick with the theme as usual, I made a menu card to list all the entrees as well as let guests see how I altered the names to fit with soap operas.  Our menu was:

The "Bowled" and the Beautiful Spinach Dip

(served in a bread bowl)

All My Chicken

(aka my recipe for Gourmet Chicken)

Young and the Restless Baby Vegetables

(baby carrots and baby peas)

As the "Salad" Turns with Guiding "Lite" Ranch

General Hospital Dessert

As you can see the dessert was Cheesecake bars that I cut and shaped to look like band-aids.  The red "blood" is a bit of cherry pie filling. 

Favor:  As a parting gift, I made Soap Opera Soap for each guest.  All you need for this is a bar of soap, the photo you wish to use, glue, and paraffin.  Cut out the photo (mine is the image of a cover of a Soap Opera Digest) and glue it to the front of the soap so it covers the brand name.  Then melt the paraffin and dip the soap in it to create a glossy cover and permanently adhere the paper to the soap.  I dropped these in a clear candy bag tied with a ribbon and attached a tag that read "We shared our Soap Opera Drama; Now Cleanse Your Mind of the Filth!"

Thank You Card:  At the party, one thing I did was take a photo of each guest acting out a dramatic face.  I made a collage of all of our faces and crafted a magazine cover to represent our evening in a funny way.  This can serve as the front of your thank you cards for an added laugh!

Overall, this is a pretty silly theme, but great for a girl's night party.  It definitely brought out some laughs with the place cards, the poses, and the drama stories that were shared!!