Real Event · Clarence Metheny Ministries, Limuru
A Safari Banquet, Built From Hay Bales and Kitenge
Turning a round dome tent into the African bush after dark — string lights, colour-shifting uplighting, and not a blade of real savanna grass in sight.
Commit to the Theme, Not Just the Colour Palette
A safari theme can mean two cushions in animal print and calling it done. This one meant hay bales as the actual seating base, director's chairs instead of banquet chairs, and a savanna sunset backdrop built big enough to be the room's real focal point.
We dressed every hay bale in hand-stitched kitenge patchwork, ran leopard-print linen down the dining tables, and let the tent's own lighting rig do the rest — red, purple and teal washing across a curved ceiling, so the same room reads differently depending on where you're standing in it.
It was built for Clarence Metheny Ministries, for an evening celebrating a group of young leaders, and the brief was simple: make the theme considered enough that nobody mistakes it for a costume party.
Designing Inside a Dome
A curved tent ceiling and a shifting lighting rig change the usual rules.
A Room That Changes Colour
The tent's own rig shifts through red, purple and teal across the night. Every fabric and print had to hold up under all of them, not just one.
Hay Bales as Real Seating
Not a decoration next to the chairs — the hay bales were the seating base, upholstered in patchwork kitenge and built to be sat on all night.
A Backdrop to Anchor the Room
A full savanna sunset mural with a balloon arch, built to be the first thing guests see and the thing every photo ends up in front of.
Theme to the Last Detail
Painted pots and dried grass plumes down the tables, so the close-up shots hold up as well as the wide ones.
The Setup
Clarence Metheny Ministries, Limuru, Kiambu County.
The Room After Dark
Red, purple and teal uplighting against a curved tent ceiling, hay-bale seating and a dance floor down the middle.
Hay Bales, Properly Upholstered
Hand-stitched kitenge patchwork over every hay-bale seat, not a loose throw in sight.
Table Detail
Leopard-print linen, a painted clay pot and dried grass plumes — the small stuff that holds up in a close shot.
Seating, Row on Row
Fairy-light curtain walls and a red-draped light feature behind rows of dressed hay bales.Walkthrough: Across the Room
Walkthrough: The Dome Ceiling
What We Supplied
Full theme styling, built and struck inside a rented dome tent venue.
- Hay-bale seating, fully upholstered
- Kitenge patchwork cushions
- Savanna sunset photo backdrop
- Balloon arch
- Leopard-print table linen
- Painted pot & gourd centrepieces
- Director's chairs
- Colour-shifting uplighting
Planning a Themed Night?
Send us the theme and we'll build the room around it — safari, vintage, cultural, anything with a clear idea behind it.
The more specific the theme, the better we can commit to it. “Colourful” is harder to design around than “savanna sunset.”
Get a Themed Event Quote