Hi Friends!
Kate here.
It’s hard to believe that we had our TENTH dinner in October! Remember what a huge deal it was to enter the double digits as a kid? It felt a little bit like that.
The theme for this dinner was Harvest Moon. It was just a few short days before Halloween, so we wanted to nod to the holiday without being completely on the nose. A huge thank you to the beautiful Kristine Claghorn for the moon prints she made for each guest to take home. For the remainder of this post, I’m thrilled to pass the blogging baton off to one of our talented Dinner No. 10 attendees, Karissa Raya. She runs Olive La Vida.
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At the end of October I had the pleasure of joining an intimate dinner with creative women. A dinner party so unique because every woman in attendance contributed to the dinner in some aspect. Whether from the florals, printed menu, place cards, the 16 women in attendance created something for the evening. My contribution was to the styling of the tablescape.
Create Dinners are quarterly gatherings where 16 creatively-driven women, most of whom have never met before, come together and share a meal, conversation, and inspirational experience. Every single attendee brings something both literally and figuratively to the table, and the night’s success, from the tablescape to the food to the entertainment, relies upon the group’s collective efforts.
As difficult as it was to not bring out my camera, I enjoyed the mingle time while creator of Create Dinners, Kate Moran did her thing. Kate is a photographer and all of the photos featured in this post are Kate’s.
I found Create Dinners when Leah of Brujita Skincare attended Dinner No. 8 and posted about it on Instagram. When Dinner No. 10 was announced, Leah tagged me in a post and I applied. I instantly fell in love with the concept because I deeply admire dinner parties and time with other women.
Not only did I immediately love the concept, I appreciated all of the attention to detail that Kate provided: a comprehensive run down of mood boards, timelines and the Instagram and role of each attendee all weeks before the dinner. I am so accustomed to being the one responsible for coordinating that when I received all of the details neatly packaged in a pdf I was ecstatic.
I got to focus on one part of the dinner— the tablescape. So mostly I got to arrange what other pieces were brought by others; the menus designed by Emma Trithart, florals by Sally Noh and most tablescape items from Kate and our host, Katie. Because the theme was the harvest moon Katie found the cutest salad plates that look like moons, it was my favorite touch.
Truthfully, what I appreciated so much was that I didn’t have to think about anything and just be present. Everything ran so effortlessly, each woman presented herself when it was time. Kimberly Bozeman served the mulled wine she prepared while us ladies mingled and learned what each of us brought to the table.
A space for creatives is exactly what Kate has created, every woman there had so many similar traits and interests but such different strengths.
Celebrities get decorated in diamonds for events they attend, creative women get decorated in handmade jewelry at an intimate dinner party… Katie Marble, of The Happy Hunters and our host, handmade the geometric earrings pictured below. I loved the neutral colors and shapes, I couldn’t come to a decision which ones to wear but the white crescent moons called to me. One thing I so so so value is getting photographed. I am so often on the other end of the lens that getting photos taken of myself is such a treat.
Not one thing was better than the other: cocktails, earrings, followed by a beautiful spread of cheese and crackers by Chef Danielle Campbell for us to enjoy before dinner and we were the most content bunch of women ready to listen to our moon teaching by Whitney Freidell of @canyonandthemoon.
This was Dinner No. 10, so it’s no surprise why this dinner went on so flawlessly. Kate has found a method that works for her and the attendees.
Whitney Freidell of Canyon and The Moon taught us briefly about our ancient connection to the moon and how to incorporate beauty rituals into moon cycles. She prepared a blend of herbs for a hair tea!
And then it was dinner time… waiting for us at the dinner table was a plated dinner prepared by Chef Danielle.
There were conversation questions under our plates, a touch I appreciated so much. The question I so fittingly received: What lesson has the universe taught you recently? I told the story of being reminded of the true power of my thoughts.
The story: I was leaving to Mexico City in a quick trip with my parents and grandfather. Though the trip was only for 4 days (2 travel and 2 in the city) it was a big trip emotionally. Leading up to it I kept thinking: “I’m going to forget something”. We traveled on the CBX bridge again and a passport is required to use the bridge. Upon arrival and getting our CBX tickets— I realized I didn’t have my passport. My stomach dropped and the thought I had been playing in my head for a couple of days rang loud… “I’m going to forget something”… my own thought had manifested. I told this story to the women at the table and it was so fitting to the theme of the night. The theme was the harvest moon, and the moon’s power but with that a lot of conversation about women’s intuition and moon time was discussed. The lesson the universe taught me? To trust that my thoughts manifest themselves and instead of self sabotaging, think positive thoughts that I want to manifest.
The conversation questions were thought provoking and insightful to the character and personality of each woman. Hearing everyone’s answers while passing around wine and enjoying our dinner led us to the end of our meal.
Dessert and entertainment ended our beautiful evening. We enjoyed a rich chocolate mousse by Elizabeth Eichhorn as we listened to an essay by Joy Thompson. Joy had mentioned she read the book The Red Tent and was inspired and moved by the revelations she had. Her essay was well thought and it was so lovely to follow along to her reading her written piece about the moon.
Dominique Arciero closed out the night with a few acoustic songs of hers. She introduced us briefly to the songs and telling us of when she and her mother drove across the country with a film production team documenting.
Speaking of production, Amelia Damplo was documenting the entire night and I can’t wait to see the video recap. Giving everyone FOMO was Priscilla Vega documenting via the Create Dinners Instagram stories.
As if that weren’t enough, we get take home goodies… we got an opal infused rose water mist made by Elise Apffel of The Happy Hunters and a chocolate covered macaroon made by Marina Holmes. I ate the dessert right away, oops… but the mist, every time I spray myself I am reminded of the beautiful evening that was Dinner No. 10.
