Since I am a 2x cancer survivor, the past 4 years The Event Divas have volunteered for the American Cancer Society in some compacity or another. This year we decided to participate in the Cattle Barons’  Ball.

From the beginning an outdoor theme was in my head. My excitement quickly began to wane when I was reminded we would need to have the event indoors. Who would have known we would experience one of the hottest months of May in history?!  I could not get the visions of barns, fences, and trees out of my head so I went to my Event Engineer, otherwise known as my husband, and shared my vision with him.Surprisingly he wasn’t looking at me funny but he was definitely speechless.  Batting my eyes I reminded him he built me a tree inside the Hilton so constructing a forest for table tops would be a piece of cake. Right? Before I knew it he had chopped a  few small trees that needed to be thinned out on our property and, whalla, my forest was created! Yes, he is amazing and no, his brothers are all married ; )Now to the fun part. The volunteers were excited when they saw the finished trees but kept fretting over where we would have room to put them. As lovely as the Museum of Natural History is the space is a challenge to work in. You should have seen their faces when I explained they would be going on the tables. “You mean the stage”? “No, on the tables”. They just could not wrap their heads around it until John actually put one on the table. I love the reaction to unexpected moments! What a thrill! The finished product was magical and everyone felt transported.A huge thank you to all of the volunteers that helped me pull this together and www.shannonwhitakerphotography.com and Debbie Bradshaw Norton Muga for the pictures they took of the event.

P.S. I would love to see a bride use these in her wedding. Add a little “bling” and it would be unforgettable.