Elaborate dinner parties

snosrap5

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I have a question...
Have you ever attended those fancy dinner parties where you have a centerpiece in the middle of every table? Anything from a flower arrangement to a small sculpture.

Is it normal for people to "steal" the center pieces at the party is over?

I attended a dinner party as a guest at the Beau Rivage in one of their ballrooms. It was absolutely gorgeous. The theme was under the sea and the centerpieces were large conch shells with blue crystal like beads with hydrangea flowers inside. They were beautiful and set off the tables and place settings perfectly.

At the end of the night as people were leaving it was a mad scrabble to take as many centerpiece as they can get their hands on.

Is that normal? One lady had 8 stacked one on top of the other and she was rushing out the door.

I was so shocked!!
 

rockcat

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That IS shocking. I know that at weddings the bride and groom usually give away the centerpieces. I can't imagine someone being invited out to a nice dinner and stealing the centerpieces!
 

yosemite

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You'll find people with no class pretty much anywhere and this IMO shows a real lack of class and just pure bad manners and greed.

My husband's company puts on a very large Christmas (yes, I said CHRISTMAS) party for the employees. The centrepieces are usually very beautiful. There are 8 persons per table. At the beginning of the evening it is announced that the person who finds a tag under their seat/ has a birthday closest to that day's date / finds a dot on the bottom of their plate or something similar gets to take the centrepiece home. Everybody at that table knows who the centrepiece now belongs to and doesn't walk off with it.
 

adymarie

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Usually it is announced that you can take it, but to just walk off with them....wrong, wrong, wrong!
 

MoochNNoodles

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I have a difficult time with that. I could never take someting unless offered. At my wedding I made little signs for the tables that let people know the centerpieces were not to be taken, but even still...I would rather ask or be asked!
 

rapunzel47

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As Linda said...
You'll find people with no class pretty much anywhere and this IMO shows a real lack of class and just pure bad manners and greed.
Tacky. Incredibly tacky.
 
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snosrap5

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Originally Posted by Yosemite

You'll find people with no class pretty much anywhere and this IMO shows a real lack of class and just pure bad manners and greed.

My husband's company puts on a very large Christmas (yes, I said CHRISTMAS) party for the employees. The centrepieces are usually very beautiful. There are 8 persons per table. At the beginning of the evening it is announced that the person who finds a tag under their seat/ has a birthday closest to that day's date / finds a dot on the bottom of their plate or something similar gets to take the centrepiece home. Everybody at that table knows who the centrepiece now belongs to and doesn't walk off with it.
We had the same problem at my husband's Christmas party last year. People were actually getting ugly with each other. I like the ideal of a dot or tag placed somewhere and giving it away. I might have to mention that to DH.

I really was blown away that people would actually take something that didn't belong to them. This dinner party at the Beau was fancier than anything I had ever been to before so it was such a shock to see people fighting each other. Our dinner companions at our table were not surprised by this at all. They actually had a few well chosen words for people like that but it wasn't just a few people taking the centerpieces. There were 100 tables and 10 people per table. I felt like everyone was trying to get a piece of the pie!
 

gailc

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These are people that probably afford to purchase the centerpieces too!!
I agree with the others that taking the centerpieces without permission seemed pretty tacky unless somehow someone knew that they would be discarded (which would also be a shame).
 

natalie_ca

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Originally Posted by Yosemite

You'll find people with no class pretty much anywhere and this IMO shows a real lack of class and just pure bad manners and greed.
Yeppers! No other way to describe it really. The more you give the more people want and the more they take.
 

carolpetunia

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That's just astounding. To take them without being offered... to take more than one... appalling!

But even worse is the idea that they got into disputes over the centerpieces -- just how incredibly graaceless can these people be?

If I were in charge, I'd have someone announce that "After the party, these centerpieces are being taken over to brighten up patient rooms at the nearest hospital so don't even think about it, you selfish boors."

Hmph.
 
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