Girls Gone Wild - African Safari

I have been hosting Monthly Dinners for over 15 years now, and sometimes it is a bit of a challenge to come up with a new theme.  It was the Friday before my Monday dinner when my friend and colleague asked me what my theme was.  When I said, I wasn’t sure and asked if she had any ideas, she started naming a few great ideas, but they happen to be themes I had already done.  Then, she mentioned an African Safari which got my mind thinking of all the fun things I could do with that.  On top of my ideas, my friend had African decor from her trips to Africa and from gifts from her daughter who lived there for ten years that she offered to loan me.  Perfect!

Invite:  The decor from my friend was very authentic and beautiful, so I wanted my invitation to be classy as well.  There are a lot of safari invitations that are cutesy and made for baby’s 1st birthdays.  That is not what I wanted.  I found a background design online that was more sophisticated and added my party details.  I downloaded safari-related fonts, Cute Animal & Animal House, to use for my text.

Party Decor:  Isn’t this table decor beautiful!  My friend won first place for this setting at the fair, and you can definitely see why!  I love the pattern of the tablecloth with the safari animals along the edges.  Even more amazing, is that it was hand painted! 

For the centerpiece, I placed the loaned zebra and giraffe masks on unlit candles to keep them standing.  At the center, was a African continent wall piece that I set down.

The animals and gorgeous candles also added to the centerpiece to really make the theme come alive.

For the place setting, my friend loaned me these amazing chargers and plates.

Cloth napkins and carved wood napkin rings with African animals on them were another beautiful touch to the table scape (you see why she won first place now, huh?).  She even had silverware to tie into the theme.

For place cards, I bought some fake leaves from Michaels Craft Store and used a Posca pen to write each guest’s name on a leaf.  I bought a container of African Safari animals from Five Below, and pulled out the larger ones to set next to each leaf.

On my drink/appetizer table, I used another amazing mask and African statue from my friend.

The container of safari animals I bought for the placecards also came with small red and yellow safari animals that I used as wine charms.  I used thin fishing line to attach an animal to each glass.  The beautiful glasses were another loan from my friend, and they were perfect for this theme.

Menu:  Africa is best known for the “Big 5” referring to the water buffalo, rhino, lion, elephant, and the leopard.  I wanted to incorporate as many of these into my menu as possible.  I decided to create a Safari Map to showcase my menu and fit with the theme.

Our first “stop” on the Safari Menu Map was the “watering hole.”  At this stop I highlighted the rhino.  One of my wine labels read, "You're Such a Rhino Wino" with a photo of a rhino drinking from a bottle of wine.  The white wine bottle read, "Wanna Wine about it? I'm all ears" with a photo of an elephant, the glass of wine in his trunk.

The second stop of our menu safari was the Cheese-tah Lowlands.  I cut a block of mid cheddar cheese into cubes and put them on a toothpick.  I made a cheetah print flag to add to the top.

Next was the main dish in the Water Buffalo Chicken & Potato plains.  When trying to come up with a menu item to go with the water buffalo, all I could think of was something with buffalo chicken.  I looked up recipes, and I found this interesting recipe for a buffalo chicken and potato casserole.  It was really good.  We all really liked it, and it is something I will definitely make again.

The fourth stop on the safari menu was the Elephant Valley.  Here I served watermelon chucks and cut a watermelon to look like an elephant head.  Didn't have blueberries to use for eyes, but cutting bits of watermelon from the rind worked perfectly.

The fifth stop I called the Grazing Greens which was a simple green salad.  I served a mixture of spinach and romaine lettuce with hard boiled egg, tomatoes, and sunflower seeds.

The final stop of our safari was at the Zebra Grasslands - a sweet Savannah.  One of my best friends works for Small Cakes, and she offered to make this zebra cake for me.  She made white and chocolate cake mix,  poured them alternatively into the pans, swirled them, and then baked them.  It turned out exactly like a zebra coat!  It was tasty too.  

She put vanilla buttercream frosting on the outside of the cake, and we made some chocolate shavings from a Hershey bar to adorn the top.

Favor: As a parting favor, I made tiger and leopard pretzel sticks. Super simple to make as I dipped half the sticks in orange candy melts and the other half in yellow.  Once that layer was dry, I melted dark chocolate candy melts which I used to drizzle on the orange sticks and piped spots on the yellow ones.

Special thanks to my friend Joan for making this dinner theme possible with all her amazing decorations & table settings. This was probably one of the best tablescapes I have ever had.