place setting details

One of my personal favorites from the party was the place settings. The final look included a black cloth napkin that was folded on top of the plate with the Gourley Manor candy box sitting atop it. The best part of the place settings...the silverware - one of my favorite things!

I scoured ebay, antiques stores and asked friends just so I could find enough place settings of old silverware for 80 people. It was not easy but boy was it worth it. The mis- matched tarnished silverware added such a cool look to the tables. The designs on the silverware were amazing. The fork below is one of my favorites. I googled "eating with tarnished silverware" to make sure I wasn't killing anyone off and found out we were good to go. I can't say enough about how much I loved this. I like the mis-matched look so much I am polishing up some of the pieces to use for Thanksgiving and Christmas - I figure tarnished is good for Halloween but not the other holidays. Then the silverware will have a couple years to tarnish itself back up for the next Victorian Halloween.
I found a how-to for these candy boxes in Paper Crafts magazine. I typed Gourley manor (the name we used for our home) in word and added it to the pattern from the mag. I printed enough of these out, one for each person and then the fun began...cutting them out. My friends and husband who work as hard as I do to make this party come together helped with all the cutting and folding. I inked all the edges and my girls, Megan and Emily filled them with candy and tied them all up. This were definitely a group effort.