50 Golden Years

Thursday marks my parents 50th wedding anniversary! 50 golden years is a big deal, so a few weeks ago we through them a small party of family and a few friends to celebrate. We had to do it before school started so everyone could attend. I think it turned out well. I started the planning process at the beginning of the year and wasn't feeling super creative. Thankfully there are plenty of creative people out there sharing the ideas on the world wide web. The "theme" was gold, since it was a golden anniversary. The "50" photo collage was Martha's idea, that woman is amazing. I decided to do a mix of color and b/w photos, mainly because I was lazy and didn't want to change them.

My niece made this cute arraignment from pie tins. Isn't it so cute!! You can find the full tutorial here.

I saw this idea last year on Ohdeedoh and bookmarked it, I knew I would want to use it and this was the perfect occasion. Instead of a guestbook, we had everyone "leaf" their thumbprint. We bought a foam board from the dollar store and cut it to 16x20, my husband the artist drew the tree, and my sister in law made the names and date in vinyl. Here is the before.....



And the after. Once it was full we framed it and my parents now have it hanging in their home.

We had a small luncheon with sandwiches, salads, and desserts. I found this fun gold star edible glitter at Hobby Lobby. It was way cute, but since I made the cupcakes the day before it bled a little and wasn't as gold. Lesson learned for next time.

One of my other sister in laws made the cake. SHE MADE THIS.



It was so delicious, yummy red velvet, and an absolutely stunning cake.

I did a DIY favor bar where guests could take a little scoop of gold with them.



We put our projector to good use and my brother made a slide show of the pictures throughout the years. It was great, he had the photos set to songs from the decade they were in. I loved it.

For the centerpieces I found some wood letters at Hobby Lobby, with a little gold paint, and some super glue, they turned out really cute. We added "50" confetti throughout the tables.

These tissue pomanders were fun and inexpensive, but I am not going to lie, they took awhile to make. My sisters, sister in laws, and nieces had a craft night and it took all of us a good 4 hours to make 12 of these. We found the candelabras at the dollar store, and did 2 different sized to signify my Mom and Dad.

Overall it was a great party, it is always fun to get together with family, visit, and eat don't you think?

Golden Invitations

We have been slacking a bit on the posts lately, I know. It is summer time though and that means lots of fun in the sun with our kiddos! Posts might be a little thin this summer, but I think that is just the way summer goes. I am in party planning mode again, these days it seems I am always in party mode. My amazing parents are celebrating their golden anniversary this August, 50 years, how amazing is that? We are throwing a small party (per my Mother's request) at a church in Southern Utah. It should be fun, we are going to get a family photo taken, which seems to not happen very often anymore with everyone so spread out. Due to financial constraints I am not going as all out as I want to, but I am still trying to make it nice on a small budget. I think that should be my tag line for parties, LOL. I made some simple invitations using Photoshop Elements and I think they turned out nice. I had them printed out at Costco, they ended up being super cheap, I think I spent about $8.

Of course this copy doesn't have the real address, sorry if you wanted to party crash! :) Aren't my parents so cute? I love them so much and can't wait to celebrate their special anniversary!