party like its 1963 - 50th wedding anniversary

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.