My mom and dad had their 40th wedding anniversary on Sunday October 6th! To celebrate, my snister and I threw them a party (we also gifted them with family photos the day before, which I was going to blog about here, but this is already quite long).
My snister did the majority of the party planning, and I helped by offering my input (hee hee), contributing monetarily, being the RSVP contact, creating a playlist, finding old family photos to share, shopping, setting up, playing hostess, and tearing down.
We held the party at the Waterloo Boat House, the same location where we had Christina’s (my snister’s) baby shower. We had a lovely, sunny, warm day, which we were so grateful for – it had rained all day the day before and we don’t think we’d have had the turnout we did in that weather, or the car show!
On the invite, we encouraged people to drive their classic cars. Dad has been in to cars since he was a kid, so my family is too, and they have a lot of “car” friends. And a lot of them drove their schweet rides! As a result of that, it took quite a bit of time for people to make it in to the building for the party – they were too busy checking out the “show”! I kept looking out the window from the party to see what other rides had shown up. Mom and Dad brought four of their cars, my older brother brought three of his, and my younger brother brought one of his. Sadly, we couldn’t bring our Datsun.
But I’m getting a bit ahead of myself! We held the party from 1-4 pm and booked the boat house for the whole day so we’d have maximum amount of time to set up and tear down without feeling panicked. I’m so glad we did that. We started bringing things in and setting up at 10:00, and used that entire three hours to set up!
We had light refreshments, cake (of course!), and drinks. Christina had the cute idea to have an apple picking theme, so we had a lot of the snacks in baskets, and had a caramel apple bar and apple cider (among other food and drinks). We used craft paper as our “tablecloths,” which is neat because you can write right on it. Christina did all the signs for the food by hand – she has gorgeous penmanship!
The table decorations followed the apple picking/nature theme. A tree had fallen on Mom and Dad’s property and Dad cut disks out of the trunk for us to use as centerpieces, and Christina put fake garland and apples on them. We also had a balloon arch at the entry table, and a cutout of Mom and Dad from their wedding. Again, these were ALL Christina’s ideas, and she did such a fantastic job bringing everything together! I’m so grateful she has that vision and I can just be her helper.
People really liked looking at all the pictures!
The party was open house style, and like I said, not many people came in right at 1:00 since they were out in the parking lot. Eventually we had a full room though (about 50 people came), and Mom kicked off speeches a little after 2:30. Her speech ended up being a hilarious roast of my dad and his gas, ha – keeping it classy. Several other people gave speeches as well.
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It was one of those events where I was busy on my feet the whole time. I tried to talk to everyone, and keep an eye on what was going on with the food and drinks (our sister-in-law and aunt helped us keep everything stocked up. I overestimated on all food items EXCEPT chips and cheese dip. Christina brought cheese dip from Costco that people were raving about and that went FAST.).
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It was great to see so many people come out and support my parents! Steven’s dad came from Kansas City, and one of my Dad’s cousins came out from Chicagoland. I wish I would have had more time to chat with everyone. It was over in a flash then time to tear down.
Dad, Mom, Me, Steven, Steven’s dad
After the party we gave my little nephews rides in the cars in the parking lot, then it was time to begin the back and forth process of taking the cars home. I hung out with mom in the parking lot while people did that, then realized I was SO HUNGRY because I’d been on my feet since 10:00, hand’t had lunch, and had only snacked a bit.
So we all went to Christina’s Airbnb to hang out and eat. It was almost 10:00 by the time we were done there, and too late to drive home, so we got a hotel. I had hoped we’d be able to go home that night, but that was an unrealistic expectation!
I wish I would have gotten more photos of people at the party, but I didn’t have my phone the entire time since it was being used for music. I don’t even have a pic of me and my snis setting up, or of us kids with our parents. Blah. But hey, that is why we did professional photos the day before!
The party was a success, and mom and dad both enjoyed it. A lot of people told us how nice they thought it was, which made me and Christina feel good, since we worked so hard on it. We were happy to throw it, but it’s always more fun for me to attend a party than throw one – you just don’t get to connect with people as much when you are hosting! I had a lot of interrupted conversations, but that’s how it goes!
It sounds like the celebration went really well – you guys did a great job! I love the idea of writing what the food is right on the tablecloth!
I didn’t realize you all were into classic cars – so cool that the whole family shares that hobby…
And I know what you mean about feeling like you didn’t get a chance to talk to people – that is the big trade off when you are hosting something. You’re in your organizational bubble and never find the time to catch up with people you’ve invited. I’m not sure there is a way to avoid that.
Thank you! I think it did! I liked that idea too. And I didn’t know Christina was going to do it so fancy. It looked great! I wish I would have taken a more close up pic.
Oh yeah. It’s a HUGE hobby. And my dad was a mechanic, my older brother is, and my younger bro went to school in that field. My dad got in to it growing up, and got his dad in to it, which is cool. So the grey car in the pictures is my dad’s mom’s. I can’t remember the history of its ownership.
I don’t think there is away to avoid it unless you hire out!
40 years is such an amazing milestone these days! Happy Anniversary to your parents! 🙂
And that WAS so nice of you and Christina to do for your parents! My parents just celebrated their 45th anniversary in April and, oops, my brother and I didn’t even think to do anything to celebrate them (I happened to be in town and the 3 of us went out to dinner, but not the same!).
I didn’t realize how much your family was into cars. My dad’s brother and his sons have a huge collection of classic cars (mostly Cadillacs) and are at shows all over Ohio and Michigan just about every weekend this time of year.
I actually love throwing parties because all the organizing/planning is right in my wheelhouse (so is not socializing, ha!), but I hear you on not being able to eat! It’s just like your own wedding, so many things to take care of/worry about that you forget to do the basics, like eat and drink water. Anyway, I’m glad it was such a fun and meaningful party 🙂
Thanks!!!
Do you think your parents would have wanted something like this or something smaller? My mom had been requesting a party to me, for years, but my dad would have been glad to do nothing. Or maybe a dinner. Maybe. (He had a good time though.)
Oh fun! That is the kind of stuff my family goes too – shows, swap meets, etc. etc. It’s a fun hobby to have, and a great way to meet people!
Ha, it was like that! And I knew it would be, but I should have planned better with eating, at least! That is good you like to plan this sort of thing. The world needs people like you 🙂
I know this party had been too-of-mind for awhile, and it looks like all your and Christina’s careful planning meant it went off smoothly. What a nice celebration for your parents. The picture of them by their cutout was neat to see. I realized I can’t remember a photo I’ve seen of your dad without sunglasses.
What kind of chips and dips were they? Maybe I’ll have to get some.
Hope you can relax now!
Dad has transition lenses, so it’s hard to capture a picture of him that’s bright enough to see him, without his glasses transitioning!! 🙂
He actually said to me, “I should have worn different glasses for the family pics”! I wonder if he has non-transitioning ones? At least we couldn’t see him rolling his eyes. Ha.
Well he lost a pair in the ocean when we went to San Diego, LOL. So I think maybe he got 2 pairs after that? Dad? I know you’re reading this… mwahaha
I wondered if the lost San Diego ones were non-transitioning! But he answered that all are.
I don’t know why I said that because I don’t have any that aren’t. And didn’t I bring 4 vehicles or have I already lost ownership of the big orange one? Lol
Ha! So, Dad needs some regular lenses 😉
LOL, yeah, that’s it… and not my bad math… I will fix the typo!
LOL I knew you were lurking Dad!!!!!
Oohhh, this makes more sense! I thought it was intentional aesthetic (maybe it is)!
It did go smoothly! And we are both so glad it’s over!
Christina commented, but those are his transition lenses. I am not sure if he has any that don’t go dark. He actually commented on that when he was looking at the professional family pics – he just looks way cooler than us.
It was the La Terra Fina Queso Dip from Costco – https://www.instacart.com/costco/products/17637286-la-terra-fina-queso-dip-31-oz. People were raving about it! We served it with Aldi chips.
Now my focus is GARAGE GARAGE GARAGE!!! 😀 I can relax when it’s too dark to work outside. 🙂
Snister, I’m so glad it’s over. HAHA, but it was a joy to plan and commiserate over planning with you!! I think you’re giving me too much credit as you did SOOO much, and I am so grateful to have had you as my partner! <3 Now let's never do that again, k? LOL!
In all seriousness – I think it was a huge success, and feel lucky to have parents that have been married so long to throw this party for! I know it is pretty unique these days!
Ditto. I did a lot, but you did more :-* And yeah, never again 😉
I agree! It’s so cool to hit this milestone and they enjoyed it and all the guests did too. Success!
What a special event! It must feel SO GOOD now that it’s over and it all went off without a hitch! I do not like planning things (nearly planned a 30th birthday party for myself but got overwhelmed just at looking at all the options, haha) so kudos to you and your sister. So special to do this for your mom and dad!
It does feel good, especially that they both told us how much they appreciate it, and so many people said nice things.
I don’t like planning things like this much either. I am decent at it, but don’t enjoy it at all. Would you have liked it if someone else planned your 30th for you?
Thanks! 🙂
This looks like such a wonderful party! The caramel apple bar in particular sounds amazing. I love all the decorations and thought that went into the whole thing! Being in the midst of planning myself, I have a newfound appreciation for anyone who enjoys (or is even willing to take on) event planning. I’ve already declared that my future children’s birthday parties will consist of a text going out to family members that they should show up to my house on [date] to celebrate Junior’s birthday, and that will be the extent of any parties I throw for them (or anyone else), ha. This looks really amazing – you guys did great!
I also think the super old car is really cool – the one that looks like a Model T (but I’m assuming isn’t). I don’t think I’ve ever seen a car like that outside of a museum!
Thank you! I love how it turned out too. Christina is SO GOOD at this stuff. You should have seen her wedding! I wonder if you read my blog then. I wrote an embarrassing amount of posts on it. https://kimhastheruns.com/?s=Christina+wedding. Here is the one with decorations – https://kimhastheruns.com/2014/09/16/christina-and-wills-wedding-the-details/.
Steven planned all of our wedding. I am more like you, and prefer the idea of a text and show up at x time. I mean, I will have my house clean and the right amount of food, etc., but it won’t look cute.
Both my dad and brother have a Model T – one is a 1915 and one is a 1926.
Your party planning committee (™The Office) was so good!!! Seriously, the details that you all did MADE that party. And how cool that so many people brought their vintage cars – I didn’t know you guys were a car family! My dad teaches a Model T driving class at their local antique vehicles museum so the next time I’m in Oregon, I plan on taking a lesson from him. Hopefully it will go better than the first time he taught me to drive, LOL.
OMG! The Party Planning Committee! That was such a funny part of The Office!!!!
And thank you!
OMG, that is so cool your dad teaches that class. The funnest part will be getting the engine going 😉