After 50 Years... They Still Do! An Anniversary Celebration

My sister and I were asked to help plan a 50th wedding anniversary

party for a couple from my church. The party was at a place called

The Maylon House, in Milton, WV, which is an incredibly beautiful facility!
Since the party was outside, we wanted the decor to play off all the natural
elements that were already in place. We didn't want to take away from how

amazing this place already is! Sometimes... less is more =) 

I already had these beautiful invitations, with dried flower petals on them,
AND matching envelopes. They were PERFECT for this party! The poem says:
Butch & Glenna Hensley
are the perfect pair,
Soon 50 years of life
together they will have shared.
Outdoors is where we will celebrate,
Come help us surprise them,
it's sure to be great!

The drink table was made using two wine barrels and an old door.

We made tags out of scrapbook paper that we attached to the mason jars

using twine, so people could write their names on the tags to keep track

of their drink.  I knew it would look cute, but it was also really helpful to keep
track of your drink - I had to look for my own tag more than once!

The cake "table" was a wooden spool, accented with fake flowers (that our church
already had!) wrapped in burlap.  The cake and cupcakes were adorable, made by

Kate's Wonderland Cakes.  We also put a picture of the bride and groom cutting
their cake 50 years ago on the cake table. So precious! The dessert plates are clear
plates from the Dollar Store that we glued scrapbook paper to the bottom
to make them look more festive.

The food was all so delicious - and looked pretty too! An antipasta bar with all

 the fixings, more pasta/meat selections that you could ever imagine, and breadsticks.
We glued scrapbook paper to the bottom of the food plates as well, and wrapped
the plastic "silver"ware in napkins tied with twine.

umm.... how FUNNY is the knight in shining armor in the background?!?

Instead of a traditional guestbook, we had each guest sign a rock and place it
in a vase that the couple could keep. It added to the "natural" feel of the party,
and is a great way for the couple to remember who joined them on this special day.

The bride and groom actually eloped, so we wrote out their

story and framed it. It was such a cute part of the shower and

for those who didn't know the couple way back then loved reading it!

The favors (an assortment of gold candy to signify their "golden" anniversary)
were displayed in a suitcase, which was part of the wedding story.
I thought it was such a cute touch!

We had adorable pennants hung up that said "after 50 years," "we still do,"

"love sweet love" and "Happy 50th Anniversary" and also got to hang pictures
up of the happy couple, their family and friends throughout the years.

The inside tables had a burlap runner with paper flower bouquets in
wine bottles (these were used for a shower earlier this year, but went so well
with everything else that we had to use them again!).

***those of you from Huntington - the tables
and chairs are from the old Chili Willi's!***

For the outside tables, we used stick placemats under a rock filled vase with a
citronella candle in it (for a tutorial on how to make the vases, click here). The
outside area had this beautiful fireplace, but it wasn't cool enough to have a fire.
It was still pretty to look at though!!!

We strung up white lights, attached to shepherds hooks and citronella torches,
around the outside portion of the party area.  Most of the party was during the
daylight, but we knew it would be continuing after dark so it was necessary to have
extra light. It looked so pretty! There were already lights strung up on the inside
structure, so that was one less thing we had to do ourselves. I'm so sad that I don't
have a good picture of the white lights on the shepherd hooks though =(

We made cute little signs to show the way to the restrooms, which were inside
the main house. Just something that is necessary information for the guests!

It was just a beautiful evening, and the perfect way to honor a couple
who have stayed together through better or worse, richer or
poorer, in sickness and in health. They are still so in love and it really was

a beautiful thing to witness =)