day 2- garden party

Tonight was nothing short of magical. It was like one of those scenes you see in the movies, with the lights hanging all pretty and people dancing to classy music and having a wonderful time, only better. Creating a moment like this is in and of itself quite a feat, but considering all of the obstacles we had to overcome it is a wonder how any of this all happened.

This whole thing started when my mom kept asking me what I wanted to do for my graduation- go to dinner, have a few people over, something... normal. We came up with the idea to have it in the backyard and call it an "outdoor garden party". (I didn't want to call it a graduation party because I knew people would probably be sick of going to them by that time.) The first warning sign that made me realize just how far my mom was going with this was when she mentioned building a deck. Ummmm WHAT?! I told her numerous times that it wasn't that big of a deal and that she was taking things too far and that this was only a silly party, not that big of a deal. Definitely not deck-building-worthy. But, no no, mother gets what mother wants. By the time I finally caught on to the idea of building a deck (when the woods were cleared and it was about 40% built) I found a red piece of paper on my front door. It was a cease and desist letter from the county saying that we had to stop work immediately or else we would be in big trouble until we got a permit.

So this is about a week and a half before the party. Me, my brother, and my dad all told my mom to give up, the was no way we could get a permit in time and get it built. But no, as I said earlier, mom gets what mom wants. Jon made site plans and Mom worked tirelessly to get the permit. She called the Martin County Building Department a million times and stopped by their office a thousand times. To make a long story short we got the permit the day before the party. We had it built about 6 hours before the party started. And now onto the decorating....

My mom got the idea to hang this rope stuff from a display at Anthropologie. That was one of my jobs.

Then we set up some of the tables...

Jon put up the lights early this morning before he went to work, because he is a nice brother :3 (most of the time...)

Everything is starting to come together! 

I taped paper butterflies that I made onto the rope. 

Pretty plants!

 Hey look it's me! My dress is from Anthropologie (of course) and it was originally $120, got it for $50!

The first of my guests to arrive were the lovely Neeka and Adrienne.

And more guests!

 My bess fran <3

Hors d'oeuvres

 I feel like I've known these gals for forever!

One of the beautiful centerpieces. p.s. I made the butterflies! 

My Mom (on the right) and her friend Leann, who pretty much made this whole party happen. 

"Kids" table #1

"Kids" table #2

Alas! It got dark!

CAAAKE

 Dancing time! I made a playlist of a bunch of 50's and 60's songs.

Kali had some good moves!

Such classy people!

We went upstairs to tour my room.

Cutie pies. 

After everybody was gone me, Jon, and my padres sat outside for a bit. 

The aftermath...

Oh! I almost forgot, happy birthday to my Hunter!!! Even though we sang you happy birthday annnd write "16" on one of the cakes, I just wanna way it again :3 I forgot to get a picture of it, so this was the best I could come up with:

Tonight was absolutely wonderful, I am thankful every day for having such amazing people in my life.  

I need to graduate more often...