Friday, May 9, 2014

55 years

This year, my Grandparents celebrated their 55th wedding anniversary, and decided to throw themselves a big party to celebrate with family and friends.  When I received their adorable invitation in the mail, the creative wheels started turning.  My sister and I had volunteered to make decorations for the party.  My sister suggested that we mirror the style of their invites and do the party in a chalkboard theme and keep the same colors featured on the invite.  With that, we divided up the duties and  got to work. (My sister lives in a different state than me and would not be putting both our halves of decor officially together until the day of the party.)

My sister was in charge of part of our centerpieces. She took mason jars and applied blue painters' tape, in the shape of a heart,on the center of them and then spray painted them with chalkboard paint.  Once the paint dried, she peeled off the painters' tape to reveal a heart shaped, clear area on the jar.  She then tied a piece of yellow or teal ribbon around the top of each one and drew details onto the jars with chalk.  During the party, a tea light was placed inside each of the jars and lit.


My contribution to the centerpieces was quite simple.  I got 14 different picture frames from the dollar tree store and disassembled them.  I then spray painted half of them yellow and half of them teal.  Once they dried, I put them all back together and placed different old pictures of my Grandparents' together into each frame.  Each one was placed on one of the tables with a mason jar with a contrasting colored ribbon.



My sister also made this beautiful photo collage chalkboard that was placed in the entry-way to the party. It was filled with all sorts of pictures from my Grandparents' lives together. I really love how this turned out!


I was also in charge of streamers.  I took yellow, teal and black card stock and traced small (3inch) hearts onto the paper and cut them all out. Once they were cut, I took a white paint pen and wrote "R+S" on all of the black hearts.  I then strung them all together on a continuous strand of bakers twine.  On the morning of the party, we pulled out lengths of them and taped them up around the edges of all of the tables.


We had a bunch of leftover black hearts, so we "sprinkled" them around the tops of the tables, around the centerpieces.


My Grandparents had also found some decorative hearts that they wanted us to use somewhere at the party.  To help incorporate them into the theme, I added some further details.  I cropped each of their faces from their wedding picture into its own 5x7 size.  I then mounted each picture of a separate sheet of 12x12 black scrapbook paper.  I cut a nice oval around the pictures to frame them.  I then drew some added flourishes on them with the white paint pen and they were then hung from the bathroom doors as fancy bathroom signs!



I think they turned out pretty cute!
 
 
My sister and her husband also made a really lovely slide show video of photos from throughout my Granparents' lives and marriage. They did such a great job on it and my Grandparents got a kick out of watching all the old pictures.
 

 
They also had catered in food and a lovely caked that  they had made, featuring their wedding photo.
 
 





It was a lovely party that highlighted the incredible journey my Grandparents have traveled together and the wonderful family they have built. A great time was had by all the guests and almost all of the family were able to attend.  Those that weren't able were certainly there in spirit!





 
It was a wonderful celebration and just like the song says... "All because two people fell in love!" What an inspiration it is to have such examples of longevity in a society where the disposability of relationships is commonplace! I feel very blessed to have such an example before me. Love you Grandma and Grandpa!
 
 


4 comments:

  1. Oh my goodness....they are ADORABLE!! That last picture...are you kidding me??? TOO CUTE! 55 years is definitely something to celebrate. Congrats to both of them! :)

    You and your sister did an amazing job on those decorations. Beautiful!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Dawn! We had a lot of fun coming up with the ideas and putting everything together. I can't take credit for the pictures though, they are actually all my sisters. LOL :)

      Delete
  2. Congrats to your grandparents!!! 55 yrs is an amazing love story... You and your sister are sooo creative and talented ... Great decorations ... What's with holding up the shoes??

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Marcy! As for the shoes, its a bridal shower game we used for my sister's wedding shower and maybe my other siblings as well but everyone just LOVES it! Basically you sit the bride and groom back to back and they both take off their shoes. They each keep one of their own shoes and give the other shoe to their partner. Then the host asks them a series of questions like "who is the first to say sorry? who cooks?" etc and the couple is supposed to raise the shoe belonging to the partner who fits the answer best. It HILARIOUS because sometimes they agree and sometimes they don't but only the audience can see the answers so its just really funny! My Grandparents have always loved the game and asked if they could play it at their party. It was so stinking funny!!!! Who knew that 55 years later a game like this would still be funny?!

      Delete

Friday, May 9, 2014

55 years

This year, my Grandparents celebrated their 55th wedding anniversary, and decided to throw themselves a big party to celebrate with family and friends.  When I received their adorable invitation in the mail, the creative wheels started turning.  My sister and I had volunteered to make decorations for the party.  My sister suggested that we mirror the style of their invites and do the party in a chalkboard theme and keep the same colors featured on the invite.  With that, we divided up the duties and  got to work. (My sister lives in a different state than me and would not be putting both our halves of decor officially together until the day of the party.)

My sister was in charge of part of our centerpieces. She took mason jars and applied blue painters' tape, in the shape of a heart,on the center of them and then spray painted them with chalkboard paint.  Once the paint dried, she peeled off the painters' tape to reveal a heart shaped, clear area on the jar.  She then tied a piece of yellow or teal ribbon around the top of each one and drew details onto the jars with chalk.  During the party, a tea light was placed inside each of the jars and lit.


My contribution to the centerpieces was quite simple.  I got 14 different picture frames from the dollar tree store and disassembled them.  I then spray painted half of them yellow and half of them teal.  Once they dried, I put them all back together and placed different old pictures of my Grandparents' together into each frame.  Each one was placed on one of the tables with a mason jar with a contrasting colored ribbon.



My sister also made this beautiful photo collage chalkboard that was placed in the entry-way to the party. It was filled with all sorts of pictures from my Grandparents' lives together. I really love how this turned out!


I was also in charge of streamers.  I took yellow, teal and black card stock and traced small (3inch) hearts onto the paper and cut them all out. Once they were cut, I took a white paint pen and wrote "R+S" on all of the black hearts.  I then strung them all together on a continuous strand of bakers twine.  On the morning of the party, we pulled out lengths of them and taped them up around the edges of all of the tables.


We had a bunch of leftover black hearts, so we "sprinkled" them around the tops of the tables, around the centerpieces.


My Grandparents had also found some decorative hearts that they wanted us to use somewhere at the party.  To help incorporate them into the theme, I added some further details.  I cropped each of their faces from their wedding picture into its own 5x7 size.  I then mounted each picture of a separate sheet of 12x12 black scrapbook paper.  I cut a nice oval around the pictures to frame them.  I then drew some added flourishes on them with the white paint pen and they were then hung from the bathroom doors as fancy bathroom signs!



I think they turned out pretty cute!
 
 
My sister and her husband also made a really lovely slide show video of photos from throughout my Granparents' lives and marriage. They did such a great job on it and my Grandparents got a kick out of watching all the old pictures.
 

 
They also had catered in food and a lovely caked that  they had made, featuring their wedding photo.
 
 





It was a lovely party that highlighted the incredible journey my Grandparents have traveled together and the wonderful family they have built. A great time was had by all the guests and almost all of the family were able to attend.  Those that weren't able were certainly there in spirit!





 
It was a wonderful celebration and just like the song says... "All because two people fell in love!" What an inspiration it is to have such examples of longevity in a society where the disposability of relationships is commonplace! I feel very blessed to have such an example before me. Love you Grandma and Grandpa!
 
 


4 comments:

  1. Oh my goodness....they are ADORABLE!! That last picture...are you kidding me??? TOO CUTE! 55 years is definitely something to celebrate. Congrats to both of them! :)

    You and your sister did an amazing job on those decorations. Beautiful!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Dawn! We had a lot of fun coming up with the ideas and putting everything together. I can't take credit for the pictures though, they are actually all my sisters. LOL :)

      Delete
  2. Congrats to your grandparents!!! 55 yrs is an amazing love story... You and your sister are sooo creative and talented ... Great decorations ... What's with holding up the shoes??

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Marcy! As for the shoes, its a bridal shower game we used for my sister's wedding shower and maybe my other siblings as well but everyone just LOVES it! Basically you sit the bride and groom back to back and they both take off their shoes. They each keep one of their own shoes and give the other shoe to their partner. Then the host asks them a series of questions like "who is the first to say sorry? who cooks?" etc and the couple is supposed to raise the shoe belonging to the partner who fits the answer best. It HILARIOUS because sometimes they agree and sometimes they don't but only the audience can see the answers so its just really funny! My Grandparents have always loved the game and asked if they could play it at their party. It was so stinking funny!!!! Who knew that 55 years later a game like this would still be funny?!

      Delete