Soiree Special Events: ISES REC

This past weekend, Jessica and I attended the ISES Regional Education Conference in Providence, RI! After a very long drive on Saturday night, I was glad to see the beautiful city of Providence. Here is the view from Providence Place mall, which was attached to the Westin where we stayed:

We started off Sunday at 8am and sat in classes all day. Fun! No really, it was actually a lot of fun. Jessica looks surprisingly perky after only 4 hours of sleep:

Here's what most of the classes looked like:

Our last class was led by Christine Brower, owner of C. Brower & Co. event planning. She spoke about creativity and how to think outside the box to create beautiful decor on tight budgets. As an exercise, she asked each table to grab a bunch of stuff from the front and create a centerpiece with it. After a few minutes, Michael Cerbelli judged the centerpieces. Here's the room of attendees:

And what they had to work with:

Here's what everyone came up with! "Golden Harvest:"

"Mardi Gras:"

"Morocco:"

"Springtime" got third place:

"Monica's Sweet Sixteen" received second place:

"Under the Sea" scored first place! They sprinkled blue sand on the table for water, set the papier mache fish on acrylic stands for height, and used their drinking glasses as votive holders. Super creative!