The BIGGEST Party of my Life - Part 1

I don't need drugs. I just plan parties. :-)

You can quote me on that.

There's a rush you get when that party you've been planning finally comes together. There's an excitement when your vision takes place before your eyes. Then...it's over too quick. I hate tearing down. I hate putting things away. I just wish it could last longer. And just like that, you begin to scheme your next party. When only a couple hours earlier you promised you'd never do something like it again!

Well...I actually won't do anything like the party I recently threw...at least...not for me. For others? Absolutely...if they ask! :-)

Here are the first glimpses of my recent wedding reception. We're gonna do it in parts, since there's so much to share with you.

If you didn't know already, Mike Stoudt (my lifetime lover) & I got married July 30, 2011 in Hawaii. We honeymooned. Then had a backyard reception August 20th. I know, we did things a little backward. But it worked for us. I'll show you some of our Hawaiian wedding pictures in the next post.

When I read blogs, I prefer pictures to reading. Nothing's really changed since elementary school. So here are the before & after pictures of our backyard -

Before

Yeah, it was a challenge - no grass, no landscaping, no fun...

(That little man at the bottom of the picture above? That's Guinness Stoudt, my new step dog. He also answers to G-money & chunky monkey...and basically any name if you have anything remotely edible) 

After

I'll do a break-down of the table set-up in my next blog post. This post, I want to tell you about what I did for the wedding reception favors.

First of all...the table runner there? It's a coffee bean bag that I got from Thousand Hills Coffee here in Roswell, GA. I begged for some when they came to the radio station I work for. After I started harassing them for more & more bags (I did it in the nicest way possible. promise. ) they informed me that they usually ask for a small donation to their non-profit organization, Drink Coffee Do Good. 

I'm all about free stuff & recycling used items but I'm also all about what Thousand Hills Coffee does through their company...so I'm down with donating. :-) 

Okay...back to the favors. I did favors for the guys & for the gals. The guys got the matchboxes I put together in this post. 

* I got the basket on extreme clearance from Wisteria 

For the gals, I made bath salts: 

I wanted the set up to be similar to the candy bars that are so popular now. I rounded up the apothecary jars I already had (if you are looking for some, HomeGoods always has some at a good price & I've run across some cool ones at Cost Plus World Market) along with the silver scoops. The silver scoops I had from a party I had thrown almost two years ago. I found them on Amazon.com for a great price. 

This favor ended up to be under $0.50/person. It's so easy to make too. 

What You Need:

1) Epsom Salts (I used 20lbs for an estimated 75 ppl)

2) Fragrance (I used three different ones that you can find in the soap-making section at any craft store. You could also use a certain fragrance you like/have) 

3) Coloring (In the past, I've just used food coloring but this time I used a dye specifically for soap/bath salts just to make sure it didn't turn anyone's bathtub a blood red) - I also got the color from Hobby Lobby, in the soap-making section. 

Once you get all this together, just use a large bowl & spoon & mix the color & fragrance into the salts. I added some real lavender I had to add a little something. 

The labels I had left over from some other project & I used the stamp from the matchboxes. 

I choose lavender, grapefruit & a "relaxing" blend as my fragrances. 

I knew guys didn't like instructions, so the girls got the instructions...the boys just had to pick something up. ;p 

It was a big hit. Everyone grabbed one of the clear plastic bags, scooped one or two of their favorite bath salts in & tied it with the hemp cord. 

This was also on the same table. Instead of doing a normal guest book...we did a caption guest book. Instead of just signing their name, guests had to leave a "caption" on one of the photos in this book & claim it. 

It was really fun to go back & read the captions, but not everyone signed it. Maybe if it was in a better location or if people had more down time, we would've gotten more participation. I think we may still put it out for guests that come to the house to add to. 

Oh...and BTW...the frames were from Goodwill. Under $2 each. I painted them with leftover paint from another project that I'll show you in another post. 

Here's the whole spread again. The flower vase I got from Ikea with another one for $9.99! :-) And the pen holder was free...using an old can, twine & my trusty glue gun. 

I can't WAIT to show you everything else! I'll try & post one more this week.