One Big Surprise!

Believe it or not this post has been 4 months in the making and I am so excited to be able to finally tell the story. July 8, 2009 marks 40 years of martial bliss for my parents so Daniel and I decided to host a surprise party in honor of their marriage. I have known for a long time that one day I would do this for my parents because of how much their marriage has meant to me.. During our Easter egg hunt I informed Daniel and Melissa of my plan and asked if they would be willing to split the cost. They said "yes" and so began the planning. I reserved the country club and called a DJ. The next thing on the list was the caterer and the invitations. I found these great napkins with black and red flowers and a theme was born in my mind. Melissa used the same flowers on the invitation and her sister Laura was able to duplicate the look again on the cake(I'll post more about the cake later).

I knew I wanted us to do as much as we could ourselves to save the money and also because I enjoy decorating. Fortunately for us Melissa had lots of glassware left over from their wedding so we decided to do floating candle centerpieces and lots of candles. We dressed up the patio of the country club by hanging paper lanterns, ferns, votives along the deck railing and a fountain in the pool.
We set the whole night up by telling them Daniel and Melissa were coming home to celebrate mine and Dad's birthdays and their anniversary. We told them we had reservations at a nice restaurant in Dothan in order to get them properly dressed. The next mission was how on earth we would get them to the Club without having to out right tell them about the party. We tossed a few ideas around but Michael came up with the car running hot on a trip to take his boss some blueprints just two houses up from the club. This worked beautifully and they arrived around 6:15 just as I had planned. They were definitely surprised when they came through those doors

and over 80 of their friends and family
yelled SURPRISE!

While they spent most of the night greeting their guests everyone helped themselves to the food table
and found their seats. I was entirely too nervous to eat because I knew that I was about to give my speech. As Daniel and I moved to the front of the room I saw Mother sit straight up in her chair. The lump immediately moved from my stomach to my throat so I pointed at her and said "don't start". Much to my surprise I made it through without completely falling apart(I contribute this to much rehearsal), but I cannot say the same for Daniel. He was in true form that night, sweet and funny. The funniest thing was him coaching me on how to get through my speech and then he had to follow his own advice. I cannot say how close I feel to him now just sharing this experience and knowing the depth of our feelings towards our parents. We gave the group a short recovery time after the speeches while we set up the picture video for them to watch. This included pictures of Mom and Dad through the years set to the song Then by Brad Paisley. Mother said she thought there were a few too many bathing suit photos but I thought the video should be a true representation of their lives together After that we had the DJ play My Girl for their first dance. and then opened up the dance floor for every one else.

Soon after the cake was served and around 10pm the night began to draw to an end. We were very happy with the night and I thought that everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, the food and the company.

A special thanks to everyone who helped plan, organize, clean , decorate and cook for this party. I had the most fun doing this for my parents and hearing how it made them feel to see all those people and hear what Daniel and I had to say made all the effort worth while.