Hale's Pass
Hale's Pass is a historic schoolhouse in Arletta, Washington. It is also the first venue the FPA used for one of our Fabulous Parties. Though we outgrew it after a few years, it has served us well.
By day, the hall holds a preschool. When we enter for the first time, the room we are allowed to use usually looks something like this.
It can be messier, and at times the preschool has left the room full of tumbling mats and a big toy. From this blank slate, we've created an Arabian Bazaar, a Renaissance feast hall, the Villa Diodati and some less-heavily-themed canvasses for our events.
The first event we held at Hale's Pass was the FHHCB. The theme for this party was rather vague, and our decorations leaned towards "rustic country Christmas" more than anything else. Unfortunately, there were few pictures at this event.
The second time we used Hale's Pass was the following winter, for the FHHCBII. The theme for this event was officially a Gorey-inspired "faux mournful," though we couldn't find much in the way of decorations for this theme. Instead, we decorated the room in silver, black and white.
 Once we removed all of the children's art projects and posters from the walls, we first lit the room with white icicle lights. The area that would house the buffet was separated by dramatic black draperies hung from the ceiling, and red and white crepe paper decorated the walls and windows. It was all thrown together at the last minute when our original theme (urns, black tableclothes and crepe paper, skeletal trees) didn't come together at the dollar store. We were young.
This party began with a large buffet dinner. The tables were dressed in white, and (hardly visible in the image) tea lights twinkled on the tables, nesting a swirling line of tinsel down the center of each table. Black taper candles added some height to the mix, and the buffet tables themselves were covered variously in white satin, black lace, and other decadent fabrics.
While the theme did not come together as nicely as we wished it to, the transformation of Hale's Pass for this party was highly effective.
The following summer, we went in a completely different direction for our Arabian Night. This party was held in mythical Agrabah, and our goal was to create an oasis inside the large room of Hale's Pass. In the rear two-thirds of the room, we hung expanses of colorful fabric from the center of the ceiling to the walls and down the sides of the walls. This gave the illusion of a tent, which was then filled with lush furniture and rugs.
Hale's Pass came with a small loveseat and some beanbag chairs which were also covered in fabric (we have a lot of fabric) and the whole thing was separated from the rest of the room with some sheer tiger-print sparkley gold fabric hanging from the ceiling.
Outside the indoor tent, the oasis was completed with potted pretend trees and plants.
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A similar effect was created for the Ludi Romani party, but with the "tent" filling the entire room:
For this incarnation, we neglected to bring any additional lights and instead dimmed the overhead lighting which filtered through the fabric.
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 We then took a break from Hale's Pass for a season, and returned for the Day and Night Regency Ball, where this time we would convert the schoolroom into the Villa Diodati. It would need to be filled with antique and pretend antique furniture, rugs and lighting to give the feel of a large, mostly empty, creepy rich villa.
There were a lot of adjectives to incorporate into this look, but luckily the resources of Paisley Glen were there to help. We used fabric only enough to cover the white part of the walls, and had an assortment of chairs and low tables (some brought, most borrowed from the venue and covered in fabric--you can tell somewhat that the leftmost chair is an aluminum folding chair covered in a blanket.) The lighting, as it is hard to tell in the flash picture, is ambient and comes from an assortment of table and floor lamps. Having a great, unlit beyond added to the spooky feel of the "night" portion of the event.
Outside
Hale's Pass also has a large covered outdoor area that we used for our dinners in the summer. The outdoors is generally its own wonderful decoration, but fabric draped hither and thither, along with a lovely table set up, make for an enchanting outdoor mood. Here is a picture of the set up from the Arabian Night. Arranged in one side of the pavilion, we put the tables together with brightly colored tableclothes in a horseshoe shape to allow for dinner entertainment:
Other summer events would sometimes have a different layout, like the one long table from the "day" portion of the Day and Night Regency Ball:
There wasn't a lot of outdoor decoration here, because we were very proud of the table as a focal point. The dishes and goblets were mixed from 4 or 5 different designs, and we bought tons of red and black cloth napkins online.
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Our outdoor dinner for Ludi Romani, being on a hot September night, was after dark. It's not fully visible in the picture, but in addition to the lanterns on each table we lit tea lights all along the stone counters around the covered pavilion. Visible long the top of the image, we also hung some real ivy (gathered from the woods on the property) from the rafters and of course draped some fabric from the rafters too.
The buffet was on the stone counters on the other side of the shelter, and also lit with candles and a lantern. A few banners hung in the "windows" between the supports.
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Generally our outdoor setups are similar to one another, and we may maintain Hale's Pass as an option for summer parties because of the variety of spaces it offers, but the purpose of this page is to show that any space, be it a preschool, a private home, or someone's back yard, can become a fabulous party venue. Fabric is a big help, and the dollar-a-yard section is a wonderful resource for that. Creativity is the most important element.
Another event we hosted at Hale's Pass was the Gathering of the Clans. There was an unfortunate camera episode and most of the pictures from that night were lost, though some of the larger setpieces are showcased on the custom decorations page. For this event, Hale's Pass was transformed into a Renaissance feast hall. We hung long banners from the ceiling at the back of the room, and shorter banners with emblems from the Paisley Glen mythology above the tables. We again arranged the tables in a horseshoe, and one wall's chalkboards were hidden by lovely walls of greenery. The lighting for this event was pretty standard: Christmas lights on the walls. Tables were covered in cream cloths, with gold and green plaid runners on each one (made from dollar-a-yard fabric, they were only a few cents each!) There were also vases of teasel tied with ribbon at each table, as well as large candelabras. the only picture that really shows these decorations was taken after everything was moved out of the way for cleaning: 
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