Anniversaries – So Simply Special

Planning a First Anniversary Paper Party

The wedding may still be a fresh memory, but a first anniversary is a great occasion for a celebration that will provide even more special memories for that special couple. Unlike the wedding itself, the first-anniversary party will be a casual event and will call for inexpensive gifts.

How to Plan a First Anniversary Paper Party

Step 1

Make the invitations. Choose a cute wedding snapshot and make a copy for each invitation. Center the photo on the front of the card, with the words “Has one year already gone by?” Inside, write something like the following: “Please help us celebrate Joe and Joni’s first-year anniversary. Come to a paper party at (place and time).” Provide a phone number or email address for the RSVP.
Step 2

Make the invitation insert, which will read: “Please bring inexpensive paper products for your anniversary gift. Suggestions: paper towels, paper napkins, paper plates, bath tissue, facial tissue, stationery, notepads and other paper items.”
Step 3

Plan the decorations. Save or collect enough full-color Sunday comics pages to tape together and make into a tablecloth. (Tape on one side and then turn over.) Buy or make paper flowers and arrange them in cardboard food containers, such as cracker or cereal boxes. Seize the occasion to use up all of your leftover paper plates, cups and napkins, so that the table is a riot of birthday, Halloween and Valentine items.
Step 4

Plan the refreshments: Make or buy a variety of cupcakes and serve in their paper baking cups. Center one candle atop each frosted cupcake. To accompany the cupcakes, bring out a big bowl of fresh-cut fruit and ice cream in its paper container. Before guests eat their cupcakes, each makes a wish for the couple and blows out the candle.
Step 5

Ask the couple to bring their calendar or day planner from the past year. During the refreshments, you’ll ask the couple to share one highlight from each month of the first year of their marriage.
Step 6

Plan a few pencil-and-paper games. Here are two possibilities:1. Give each pair of guests a sheet of paper on which the first names of the couple are written. Each pair tries to come up with the most common words that can be made from the letters in the couple’s names.2. Give each of the guests each a sheet of paper on which to privately print the month he was born, as well as several activities typical of that month. Then, going through the calendar month by month, ask each guest to silently act out one of the activities she jotted down, and have others guess what she is pantomiming. Note: guests with the same birth month may choose to act as a team.

50th Anniversary Party with a Twist

We have a few “Out of the Box” events that Special Moments helped with in the beginning of July. This is the first one we will be talking about. We were referred this event from our friends over at Orange Blossom Catering. Bruce was the host of this event. His parents were celebrating their 50th Anniversary in August and Bruce had the pleasure of Uniting with his Partner David in the UK on July 1st in a private Commitment Ceremony. So the theme of the party was:

“50 years of Bond(age) and a new Bond”

Bruce came up with the theme due to his experience in planning events in Hong Kong and his love for James Bond…. So the dual party became a James Bond Themed Event. We started with the concept of using the retro glam approach. This is what I call fondly Old School Style…..We decided to use the Black and Gold which is traditional for a 50th Anniversary, but added some caricature style of each of the guests of honor to the event.

The menu/food was designed around our party theme. We choose food stations and the menu was “Food around the World” Bond Style. We different themed stations such as: Pad Thai and Asian Stir fry station that the guests were served in take-out boxes with chopsticks, The Italian station which consisted of a Make your own antipasta bar on bamboo plates with breadsticks and salad,The English Station which consisted of carved turkey and beef with cranberry sauce , yorkshire pudding, brussel sprouts and mini stuffed baked potatoes.

As the guests arrived off the elevator on the 28th floor of the Bayfront Towers they were greeted by James Bond music playing in the background and a banner that told you need secret agent credentials to pass that point. They entered the hallway and were greeted to martini’s( shaken not stirred) and glasses of wine. They signed in the original guest book from Larry and Renee’s wedding 50 years earlier and looked at wedding photos from that day also along with cut-outs of their original wedding photo on display. The room was decorated with Life size banners of the original invitation for photo ops and then the polaroids of the guests were placed in commemorative Keepsake frames that they took home with them at the end of the evening. We designed the room in black linens with Gold table candleabra’s accented with red roses. On the Cocktail tables we used small gold vases with red roses in the top for accent color.

After the guests were finished with the food stations, the program began for tonight’s entertainment. We had the “Shaken not stirred” dancers and there performance along with slideshows of pictures over the years to an ad lib interactive audience participation that resulted in a story about Bruce and David where the guests had filled in the blanks to create a hilarious laugh for everyone. After the cakes were cut. Which we had a traditional anniversary cake for Larry and Renee to a Aston Martin Cake for Bruce and David. The dance floor opened up and the guests danced to we are family and a few select songs before calling it a night.

The white book of vendors:

Caterer: Orange Blossom Catering

Photographer: Britt Mcallister

Dj- Chuck Weirich- Tampabaydj.com

Plasma Tv rental- Rodney- Best Av

Rental items: Coast to Coast Event Rentals

Flowers: Alma Ingram Florist

Cakes: Cakes by Carolynn

Here are the pictures below from this unique event: Thanks Britt for the pics!