Forty years ago today, my parents were married at age 18 and 21. Their road together has been full of love, heartache, joy, sorrow, bickering, making up, sickness and good health: the perfect recipe for a sucessful marriage. They have endured a lot and yet they're still together. What a perfect example for the rest of us to follow. Because my parents have done so much for me in my life, I wanted to give something back to them and truly mark such a special occasion. It isn't everyday that you see couples make it this far. I started thinking about a party probably a year ago. I began planning the surprise party late spring, early summer. I set out to find as many of their old friends as I could: softball friends, bowling friends, family, etc. Once I got the list then I started on addresses. Then the ideas really started coming to me: we could have a flashing blue light in honor of them meeting at K-Mart which is where they both worked, I could have a small replica of their cake made, we could have a DJ, etc. Then I started putting everything into action. I nailed down a location and then created the invitations. I used pictures from their actual wedding album. How did I manage that without them knowing? Well there's an app for that. Of course there is. And I'm breaking my rule of not getting my head out of my apps but it allowed me to scan the pictures out of their wedding album and had high enough resolution for me to print them. Got the rest of the addresses, mailed the invitations, secured the DJ and put the deposit down on the location. Keep in mind that I was doing all of this while attending grad school, doing freelance work and working full-time. Oh and once October hit, doing an activity every day and blogging about it. Geesh. Once everything was in motion, I was able to get a great deal on a cake through my cousin Maddie who works for the Bake Shoppe in Windsor Heights (fantastic cakes, highly recommend them!), we decided to provide beefburgers for food, I purchased a couple of Groupons for decorations through Nobbies, and I was all set. The planning really took a lot out of me. I was ready to just have the party and not have to worry about the organization anymore.
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The day of, I decided that in addition to the party, my activity for Octoberfest would be to get my hair and makeup done. Well played by me. It ended up being literally the best I've ever looked in my life. I felt so confident and pretty and just really excited about the party for my parents. Plus, we ended up getting some really fantastic pictures as you can see here. I got to the location of the party to set up around 3:30 pm. Guests were scheduled to arrive by 6:30 pm and my parents were supposed to get there at 7:30 pm. Everyone asked me how we were getting my parents to the place. For one, we told them long before that my cousin Toby's boyfriend David's birthday was also that day and she was having a party for him. About a week before the party I told them that we were taking them out to a steak dinner for their anniversary. They wanted to be surprised by the restaurant which was perfect; they could pick me up from "David's party" and we'd all ride to the restaurant. Oh and I also told them they should wear lavender/purple because it was their wedding color. Yes, I tried to think of everything. We set everything up, got the food cooking, cake was all set, DJ arrived and then guests started trickling in around 6:30. All in all, I bet we had about 70 people come to the party. Which was a really good number. It was time for my parents to arrive. I wondered if maybe they had an inkling of what was going to happen...
No, they sure didn't. The look on their faces was so perfect that it made all the stress of getting to that point worth it. My mom cried for sure and some people said it looked like my dad started to as well. Mission accomplished! Super duper good deed for my parents and they were so thrilled. It was really fantastic to see. They were 100% surprised and didn't have a clue to anything. From that moment on, it was a lot easier for me to relax and have a good time knowing they were there and everything was done. The party really had a natural progression of activity. After my parents greeted everyone, we made them cut their cake and had to remind them of what their cake looked like because they didn't realize it was a replica LOL. Then we made them dance to "You're Still the One" by Shania Twain and my mom cried A-gain. After that, we all hit the dance floor and proceeded to cut a serious rug. Man I wish people still talked like that. I could have said that my dance card was full all night. Of course the night went by too fast and I wish we could have stayed longer, dancing and having fun but all good things must come to an end. It was truly a wonderful party, it was so great to see so many people, I felt absolutely beautiful and the best part of all is how happy my parents were. Made it worth the blood, sweat and tears. Until my mom locked my keys in my car. Hey, I never said they were perfect! LOL. Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad! Here's to another 40 years! :)
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