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Happy Monday to all! Anything exciting to report? We had rain, with a side of rain and large helping of humidity. Summer in St. Louis y'all.

So I blabbed long enough about this anniversary party I thought I should at least share a few pictures with you. My parents celebrated 50 years of marriage and in my book, 50 years of anything deserves a party. And party we did.


Now a (long) side note - I have had lists upon lists over the past few months to keep things organized for this shindig and we were on schedule. The hubs was on board and the weekend before the party he and I sat down and made a list of what we needed to get done each day that week to be ready for the party on Saturday. Teamwork is our middle name.

Then Monday night the hubs got sick. Tuesday morning I had to take him to the ER and by Tuesday night he had an emergency appendectomy. Which was kind of weird because I didn't remember 'surgery' anywhere on our to-do list.

Que increased stress level.

And to add to the fun, surgery was followed by an infection which kept him in the hospital until late Friday. Coupled with a mystery plumbing leak, a surprise tree removal and a daily increased threat of rain, my stress level runneth over.

I will save all of the gory details for cocktail hour, but needless to say by the time Saturday arrived I was just happy to have showered and brushed my hair. I didn't get as many pictures taken as I would have liked, and some are with my iPhone so they aren't the best quality but you'll get the idea. And we were lucky enough to have the talented Jeremy Keltner there during the party and he got some great shots as well.

Lesson learned. As my great-grandfather always said - don't bother worrying because you will always be worrying about the wrong thing.

So with all of that said, a great time was had by all and the party was a success. We did end up with a downpour shortly after the cake was cut but the fun just moved inside and we didn't skip a beat.

Now enough talk, let's look at some pictures.


Almost ready to go.


The welcome wreath that greeted everyone at the gate as they entered.


Would have been awesome if I had gotten a picture of these things filled out with the drink labels filled in but this will have to do.


I made the menu using the same monogram that appeared on the invitation and the cake.



Each table was decked out in ribbons in my mom's colors, blue, green and yellow, and pictures of the happy couple through the years. The frames were a DIY project I'll share at some point.




They were a pain to hang, but the lanterns were great. All the lanterns were battery operated and worked off of one universal remote which was heaven. Thanks Pier 1.



Inside was a table full of wedding pictures and albums.


And the yummy cake.


Which we cut just in time to move inside before the monsoon hit.


It was a late night but a great time.

Happy Anniversary mom and dad!

Have you thrown any parties lately? Any great outdoor celebrations on your calendar? Wanna come over for a drink? The house is clean.

Have you ever been so tired that you have trouble forming a full sentence? That would be me.

I told y'all about the 50th anniversary party we were set to have at our house on Saturday but while I got ready for that last week I also had a surprise 4-day hospital stay (the hubs and he's OK now), an unexpected tree removal, out-of-the-blue plumbing problems and a sudden downpour.

But the Sister Sledge in me held on and I survived. And more importantly, 60 people had a great time. If you follow me on Instagram you got a few sneak peaks, but I'll do a proper party post after I sort thru the tornado that is my house and see if I got any good pictures.


Until then here is the welcome wreath that greeted guests at the front gate.

So what did I miss last week? Anything exciting happen? Share, share!

Last week I mentioned that I was lucky enough to help a great local shop, The Service Bureau, with their table at the annual Table Tops Spring Fundraiser for St. Louis Children's Hospital. It is a great event for an even better cause and I was thrilled to participate.

The Service Bureau wanted to go with a 'Nantucket on the Fourth of July' theme and I was totally on board. You say Nantucket and I say oh yeah baby. (read that in your best deep voice). Prep for the event was such a chore - I had to shop the store for items to include on the table that would best showcase what their store has to offer. Good times people. Good times. It was so much fun to say, 'I'll take two of those, and can we have four of these'? It was all very Pretty Woman, but without the snotty sales girls.

One disclaimer before we get to the pictures - in all the chaos I neglected to bring my 'real' camera, so these are iPhone pictures in a room that isn't well lit to begin with. So when you look at these pictures imagine them looking better in real life. And if you follow me on Instagram (@littleblackdoor) you've already seen some of these. (I guess that's two disclaimers)


Although we certainly used red, white and blue through out, we made a point not to make it too 'themey'. Themey, it could be a word.


We used picture frames from the store to display the menu and put a personalized invitation at each plate. A great way to show off all the wonderful stationary they sell.


I loved the lanterns they had in the store, but since it was a daytime event I thought candles would be a bit boring. So instead I decided to use the lanterns as vases and put a beautiful nosegay of flowers in each one. The striped ribbon coordinates with the stripes on the seats.


The craft paper placemats are so fun and I love that the little crab legs stick out behind the chargers.


The chairs were finished off with alternating red and blue scarves from the store along with sea grass ribbon.


After we finished our table, we walked around to see what everyone else had up their sleeve.

My friends at Indie Mats did a great job on their table.



This was a bakery that made their entire tablecloth out of paper cupcake holder things. Crazy time commitment.



Very similar to one of the inspiration pics I had in my post last week.



It was a very lovely event and a great time for me. A big thank you to Becca for including me, The Service Bureau and Bloomin' Buckets.

Been to any great parties lately? Need help planning for one? Let me know, I can help you out!

There is a party mood happening today because I've got tablescapes on the brain people. I'm styling a table for a local charity event this evening and then I'm hosting a big party at my house in June, so Pinterest and I have been chatting of nothing but linens, flowers, napkins and silverware. (forks on the left...i always forget)

So I thought I would share some pretty inspiration pics with you. Because I don't know about you, but I enjoy a good looking table when I sit down to my catered dinner.

source via pinterest

source via pinterest

source via pinterest

source via pinterest

source via pinterest

source via pinterest

source via pinterest

I'll be sure to share pictures from tonight's event sometime next week.

So what do you think? Does it get you in the mood to have a party? If you do, can I come? I am full of sparkling conversation.

And btw, don't forget to sign up for the great Indie Mats Giveaway! You only have until Monday.

Party people in the house! We had a birthday celebration this weekend to celebrate Eve's very first birthday. We've been getting a little stir crazy from the long winter, so we were in the mood for a party. And who wouldn't want to party with this girl?!

First up, alert the public. I went the lazy green route and used digital invites from Paperless Post. This is one great site. We're talking well designed stuff people, not some crappy evite. Their selection is awesome and they manage your responses to boot. Two thumbs up to Paperless Post.

Now let's raise the roof and get crafty. It was time to pull out all of those things I've pinned and thought "I'll try that someday."  First up, a DIY Yarn Wreath I saw on Effortless Style.

 Instead of several small flowers, I went with one big Carrie Bradshaw flower. Very season 3.

You may remember my Dollar Store obsession paying off with my Peppermint Wreath. Well that place rocked it again by supplying me with lots and lots of gum balls.

I'm not much of a 'theme' person, but I did find myself using polka-dot (surprise surprise) type things over and over again. So for those party people in need of a theme - let's go with polka dots. Colorful gum balls = polka dots.

I found the wooden letters for $.99 and the wooden circle thingys (what would you call those) in the dollar bin at Michael's. They were originally naked wood, so I dressed them in white and attached them with some pink grosgrain ribbon and my trusty glue gun.

The design fairy was on my side as Eve works perfectly with the rule of threes.

The ice cream cone bubbles from Target worked perfectly for favors, trimmed with polka dot ribbon. Hey, those hydrangeas could act as big huge polka-dots too. Oh this is getting fun. Kind of like Where's Waldo.


Martha Stewart provided me with a paper pom kit that was easy enough for a craft challenged person like myself to follow with no problem. Thank you Martha.

More polka-dot ribbon to keep with the non-theme theme.

Eve is a hard core meat lover (we are so proud) so I made meatball sandwiches (polka-dots get it?) along with fruit kabobs and tomato, basil and mozzarella sticks. OK, so maybe I am getting into this polka-dot theme.

There were vegetables on this spread, I promise. Mental note- make sure everything is on the table before taking pictures.

And of course, what is a birthday party without a cake.

Most importantly the birthday girl approved.

A good time was had by all but I have to say I'm glad its over.  I am pooped out! Thanks to everyone who joined in the celebration. My how quickly a year flies!