Deacon/Beehive Cotillion

A few weeks ago, Jacob received an invitation to attend the Stake Deacon/Beehive Cotillion. He was excited to attend and Kyle and I were asked to be the hosts from our ward. That meant we were given a table to take care of. We had to provide formal place settings for eight, serve the dinner and give needed instruction on etiquette. I don't actually have formal place settings for eight so I borrowed dishware from a lady in our ward. This is the table we set. The salad plates are already back in the kitchen waiting for the dinner to start. The event started at 6:00 with a short combined meeting in the chapel. Then they divided into young men and young women and had separate etiquette instruction. They boys were told how to escort a young lady to the table and pull out a chair for her. There were more young women than young men so each young man got to escort at least two young women. The young lady in the picture with Jacob is from our ward and it was just coincidence that they got paired up. Yes, I know their arms are not linked the correct way. It looks like she is escorting him but they were not the only ones who made that mistake. An easy one to make when you are just learning.

Jacob was not seated at our table so I had to take pictures in between serving our table. The menu was Salad, Pasta (spaghetti), green beans and brownie. They learned to place their utensils and napkins correctly, wait until everyone was served before eating and which utensil to use at what time.

This is the leader who was in charge of Jacob's table. She used him as an example of correct utensil placement. She asked the other youth at the table to figure out what they needed to correct to make their placements look like Jacob's. Eventually, she had to tell them that it was the way the blade of the knife was facing. A minor detail but it is etiquette.

Here is Kyle serving the youth at our table. Among giving the kids etiquette reminders he told them what to do with the hand they were not using and tried to help them start a conversation. Kyle is very aware of how our table is set at home. He was a good person to have at this event. When the kids at our table asked him what they could call him he said, "You can call me Mr. Sir". What a comedian.

There was also dancing instruction. There is a man in our stake who is a professional dancer and taught the kids how to waltz, foxtrot, and swing. The main purpose was to teach the young men how to ask a girl to dance, to teach the young women how to accept the invitation to dance, how to hold each other properly and move to the music. Jacob flatly refused to dance. He was disappointed that the dancing part was not just playing music and letting them dance how they wanted to. He thought the dances that were taught were stupid and he was not going to join. That's fine. You can't make that boy do ANYTHING he doesn't want to. Here is a picture of him not dancing.

The event turned out well. The kids had a good time and so did the adults, but they were glad to be done at the end of the night. All that running back and forth to the kitchen and the tables was tiring. It was a fun night and I think the kids learned and will remember at least one thing that they didn't know before.