by Last week’s flurry of real life busyness spinning every which way and added to 50th anniversary “stuff” had me up each night wa-ay past midnight and up again early enough to get the girls ready for VBS at my sister’s church. But in the end, all the details worked together to make Saturday’s bash even better than I’d hoped it would be.
My sisters and I were pleased to find a favorite out-of-state uncle and his wife waiting at the reception building Thursday night when we arrived to decorate. With his help, 25 tables and the accompanying chairs went up quickly…we soon busied ourselves building backdrops for the cake table.
We used zip-ties to fasten several 4×6′ framed screens together and then covered them all with white plastic tablecloths. Over this we draped white lace in swags and trailed navy and gold gossamer liberally across the whole creation. Gossamer, btw, is a really affordable way to dress up a nice occasion. Beautiful looped bows… We got ours from shindigz.com, a great party supply online. We did a similar backdrop behind a table with photo albums that my mother put together from each of the five decades. They were a real hit, with many people crowded around picture-gazing at any given time.
We covered our guest tables with navy tablecloths, using 10″ gold foil doilies at the center of each, and a sprinkling of gold confetti bells. We’d had 4 of the windiest days to contend with, but amazingly, the hour that we picked up the 50 navy and gold helium balloons from the florists was calm and beautiful! Two balloons tied to a tulle-bundle of gold Hershey kisses were our centerpieces, centered on the foil doilies. Having all those balloons trailing up just filled the room with a festive feeling. We also made sure to leave plenty of Hershey kisses down the table’s centers for treats…
All of our “special tables” were covered with navy cloths, topped with white lace, except for the photo album table–we had a really beautiful gold tablecloth for it, also borrowed. The guest book table had many pretties we’d borrowed from a friend at church who in recent years had decorated for her parent’s 50th…candle holders that said “50 years” on them, gold wreaths, etc. Her box of 50th “supplies” was a real blessing.
We also had a picture-taking area…with a lattice archway and picket fences…I’d borrowed two baskets of yellow roses and white daisies from church that we set on pillars, and one of my sisters bedecked the arch with gauze and flower
garlands, and more gossamer!
Tomorrow I’ll tell you what we served our out-of-state family and friends for Saturday’s lunch, including the best-ever recipes for smoked brisket, and a party-yummy dill dip recipe that you’ll want to try at your next gathering!
