My Son's Home School Graduation 2015

My goodness.  The last two years have flown by and I can't believe that it has been nearly a year since we have had two major celebrations in our family!  At this time last year, my daughter had just gotten married and I had started planning my son C.J.'s graduation celebration.  Being home schooled, my children didn't have the typical graduation ceremony/open house.  I am thankful that God provided a way for me to teach my children at home and train them up to be amazing adults.  My daughter graduated with her Bachelor's Degree in 2012 Summa Cum Laude with a 4.0 G.P.A. and is currently working on her Master's.  Our son C.J. is currently an honors student and a sophomore in college.  

C.J. has an AMAZING voice.  He is currently a Communications major and is considering all of the opportunities in that field.  It will be interesting to see how he will use his gift!  He has always had a love for cinema/films/filmography.  When it came time to plan his graduation celebration, it was easy to choose a fun theme based on his love for all things "movie".  

This time, I started with a design for the cake as the entire inspiration for the decor and color theme.  I googled images and found an awesome one and had our local go-to cake bakery, Hall's Takes the Cake, duplicate it.  Isn't it FABULOUS!?  C.J. chose a Snickerdoodle flavor which was a huge hit.  The popcorn box and drink cup on top were covered in fondant and the shop used real popcorn.  Toot sweet!  

After choosing the design for the cake, everything else just fell into place.  I was really pleased with the end result. 

C.J.'s senior photo board was fun to do.  As I was laying out the photos on the board, I imagined a film strip running through the middle... I could actually see in my mind the beginning of old films and the filmstrip when the countdown would happen... 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...  I recreated that look by cutting out velum and freehand drawing the "radar" that would spin in a circle for the countdown.  I filled the panes with his graduation year as the "countdown".  I used clear glue dots to adhere the velum to the display board.  

               

No movie experience is complete without popcorn!  I saw these popcorn favor boxes at Party City and thought, "How can I do something 'centerpiece cool' without actually filling them with popcorn?"  Grouping mini carnations in a tight mound gave the effect of popcorn and added a neat floral arrangement to the centerpieces.  I should have had the florist add a few more to the group to make it even tighter, but I loved the way they turned out!

The florist placed the carnations in a plastic bag filled with water, much like you would when you get your goldfish at the store.  

I love doing a dramatic focal point when you walk in the room.  Everyone always enters and goes, "Ooooo!"  Along the back wall, we used the room's pull-down screen as a movie screen.  I bought 10 yards of red fabric and made it into the curtains to look like an old movie theater.  We ordered a graduation banner from BirthdayExpress.com and hung it in the center.  Party City had the neatest film-themed balloons.  I added star balloons to fill out the bunches and anchored each with a popcorn box.  

 
His graduation board was a collage of the huge milestones in his life, from birth to age 18.  It's so fun to do a board that hits all of the fun highlights. 

 

I found this director's chair on BirthdayExpress.com and the megaphone on Amazon.com.  As you can tell, C.J. thought it was really cool.  haha  

Imagine how ecstatic I was when I happened across a post in a Facebook online garage sale page for these canvas prints?!  There were nine 8-inch square ones and one 3-foot oblong one in the set.  I bought them all for $35!!!  I'm assuming that they came from Hobby Lobby, but I don't know that for sure.  I used them all around the room.  

                                  

On the opposite end of the room, I placed a larger-than-life balloon arrangement on the floor and an awesome film strip decoration hanging from the ceiling.  This served as a backdrop for his actual graduation ceremony and an amazing photo opportunity with all of our guests.  I got the balloons and filmstrip at Party City.  

The simple gift table.

I found this film strip at Party City.  I adhered it to the walk with Plasti-Tak and hung a Senior photo and a baby photo next to each other in each slide frame. 

               

We had the most delicious meal catered.  Our main dish was Chicken Cordon Bleu.  The wait staff was wonderful. 

                                                                                                                                               

I used paper film strips I ordered from BirthdayExpress.com as our table runners.  They were so cool!

 

The favor boxes (also from BDE) were filled with C.J.'s favorite fun-sized candy bars.  Just like you visited the concession stand, only smaller and not as expensive. lol 

I placed his cap and gown outside the entrance to the room just like I did for my daughter's celebration.  I decorated a board like a movie theater screen curtain with our favorite Senior photo of C.J. as our star on the big screen.  :)

We are so very proud of you, C.J.!  Now, go... be a giant in your generation!  

My Daughter's Shabby Chic Bridal Shower

Of all of the events that I have been asked to plan, none has been more rewarding than my current project, the wedding of my only daughter, my beautiful Elizabeth Katherine.  

My daughter met her fiance Eric during her first year of college.  After dating for a year, he asked her to marry him.  They decided to wait to get married until they both obtained their Bachelor's Degrees, which they completed this past December.  Last year, they set the date, and my extreme planning began.  

My first event to help plan was her bridal shower December 14, 2014.  Unfortunately, the maid-of-honor had situations that took up the majority of her free time; so, last minute, all of the planning fell to me.  MOH and I had discussed what kind of theme we would like to have.  We knew that we wanted to surprise Elizabeth with as many of the details as possible.  MOH and I had hoped for a shabby chic theme.  The only problem with this was that my daughter hates, and I mean HATES, anything girly, pink, prissy, shabby chic... you get the picture.  She loves very clean lines, modern, black, silver, and even sometimes, a little on the dark side.  It's okay.  She has cookies there.  ;)   So, my challenge was to plan a shabby chic party in such a way that my daughter would see the light, be converted, and adore it.  

My first step was to choose a venue.  Since it was shabby chic and we needed a room for around 50 ladies, I chose to return to the site of her graduation party, The Wigwam Room at the Potawatomi Inn & Resort.  With it's beautiful brick walls and flooring and the wonderful fire place, it set the perfect backdrop for our event.  

Next, my goal was to let the bride know just a few of the plans so that she would not be completely blind-sided by a barrage of pink fluff and lace and wonder if the shower was for MOH and me (who are EXTREME girly girls) or her.  One of my all-time favorite sites to order essential party items from is Etsy.  I looked and looked and looked and finally found an invitation that I thought would impress her.  When I showed her, she said, "Ooo.  That's cool."  I HAD HER!   YESSSSS! 

Before I had the invitations printed, we had to decide what type of food we wanted at the shower.  We knew we wanted something very classy where the ladies that attended felt very spoiled while they were with us.  Elizabeth perused the Inn's menu and decided that she would like the event to be an early afternoon luncheon.  This fit perfectly with the theme.  The bride chose house salad, followed by a chicken salad croissant, Potawatomi Inn's House Chips, pretzels, with pink lemonade and raspberry iced tea for the drinks, and strawberry cheesecake for dessert.  Perfection.

I sent the pertinent information to the Etsy seller, the invitations were designed, and PDF files were sent to me through DropBox.  I also added some other options the seller had to offer as a package so all of the paper items would match; thank you notes, place cards, and a shower game.  Allison was very helpful and also designed a Directions Card insert to match the invitations.  I forwarded the approved proofs to our local print shop which printed them on heavy card stock.   

Allison with DulceGrace is amazing!  Her Etsy shop: DulceGrace

The invitations didn't come with envelopes.  So, I searched the internet and found some ivory linen envelopes for the invitations and smaller, burlap ones for the thank you notes on Amazon that were perfect.  They even had a peel strip so you didn't have to moisten the envelope flaps... a nice added feature.  

Linen envelopes from Amazon   

Burlap envelopes from Amazon

I started Googling images to get ideas for shabby chic/vintage bridal showers.  Would you believe there were only two that even piqued my interest?!  I was shocked.  I don't even know why.  It seemed like everything was tired and done already.  I am really, really, REALLY tired of dessert bars that have all of the assorted apothecary jars.  I'm sorry if that's your thing, but EVERYONE is doing it.  Be bold!  Be daring!  Break out of the mold!  At least take an idea and tweak it; make it YOURS!  

I found this chalk board and easel at Hobby Lobby.  You'll see that I find a lot of wonderful things at Hobby Lobby.  Ha!

To decorate the rest of the room, I knew that I wanted to do some type of a garland to cover an unsightly projector screen.  The Inn said that they could remove it, but when I searched the web, I found the absolute neatest idea and the projector screen could be used as a way to display it.   It's a garland idea found in a February 7, 2014 post, "Put Some Flowers on It" from blogger BecomingWhitney.  You'll have to scroll down about three posts on the page to get to it or search "pom pom garland" to find it here: Pom Pom Burlap Garland.  I was inspired by her idea to create my own.  See below for the finished product. 

I chose 3 1/2 yards of calico fabric with a similar flower motif and coloring as the invitations.  I found the fabric at Hobby Lobby and used it to cover the 10-foot projector screen.  I used that as a base to attach the pom poms and other garlands I made to create one large garland. 

I found the pom poms through Etsy.  I'm sure you can find less expensive pom poms through local craft and party supply stores.  But, since I wanted very specific colors, I chose to order them through this shop:  PartySupplier4U   It takes a super long time to fluff these bad boys.  So give yourself enough time.  Do NOT think you are just going to show up at the venue and fluff them right before you hang them.  It took me hours.  For the pom poms attached to the calico fabric on the large garland, I fluffed all of the layers to one side, making the pom pom flat on the back.    

I hung others by ribbon.  The pom poms from the seller I got them, came with a narrow white ribbon that is also really short.  If you would like your pom poms to hang like in the picture on the seller's site, you will have to purchase matching ribbon through your favorite craft/fabric store.  I bought mine through Hobby Lobby.  You will have to remove the white ribbon and attach the colored ribbon before you fluff them.  Make sure your ribbon is perfectly centered.  Overestimate the length that you will need to hang your pom poms that way you won't have pom poms attached directly to the ceiling. :)  Fluff them so they are rounded, to the back and front.  I staggered mine at varied lengths above the bride's table. There's one pom pom hiding out of site in the picture on the right side.  It hung a little higher than the photographer shot.  My OCD is bothering me.... lol. (Photo credit for all party photos: Mindy Strayer Photography)

Back to the large garland, I drew a template and made mini wedding dresses out of card stock and hot glued them to little, wire clothes hangers that I found at my favorite local scrapbook store.  I then tied them to jute.  For another smaller garland, I cut 4-inch squares of white tulle and knotted them to jute.  They looked like little tulle wedding dresses.  They were so sweet.  

I made the huge mistake of trying to make my own gathered burlap garland out of 3-inch wide burlap ribbon.  The reason I say it was a mistake was because it took about 60 feet of burlap (expensive!) to do what I did and a ton of time, when I saw pre-made burlap garland at Hobby Lobby.  So, I leave that up to you.  If you love a challenge and have no other pressing matters, go for it.  I had so much to do and so little time to do it in that I did not love the challenge. 

There was a banner that I wanted to attach to the main garland to really make a statement.  I had seen this little gem, yes, on Etsy.  Yes, by DulceGrace: Banner  This became the focal point of the room.  It was AMAZING!!!!!  I just printed off the file at home on regular paper, cut it out, and attached it to the chocolate brown card stock and cut trimmed that.  I hole-punched each corner and tied ribbon, attaching the cards together, two-by-two.  

I laid out the calico fabric on my living room floor and attached the pom poms by the knotted ribbon to it by medium-sized safety pins.  This helped me to know the positioning of the pom poms and how long I wanted the other garlands to dip and swag.  I didn't attach the other garlands ahead of time, but I did attach the pom poms.  I rolled the fabric up with the pom poms on it and put it in a large box for transport to the venue.    

I needed a large ladder to get up high enough to hoist the fabric over the projector screen.  I had to have help to hold it in place while I fastened it with safety pins to hold it.  It looked amazing!  After having the calico fabric in place over the screen, I draped 10 yards of stretch lace over the top of the screen, unevenly swagging it on top and letting the sides waterfall down and the excess fabric to pool on the gift table below.  Then, I attached the other handmade garlands one by one with safety pins to the calico fabric.  

I had the open, gold, wooden 16 x 20 frame already.  My Auntie Sue gave me the old barn windows from her farm.  They were perfect!  I attached some of the ivory stretch lace to the back of one for some great detail.  I just stretched it out and tacked them with white thumb tacks.  Easy peasy.  I finished the display with a rose heart wreath on the corner,  two 8 x 10 engagement photos, and a copy of the bridal shower invitation which I just stuck to the front with Scotch double-sided, removeable tape. 

Years ago, our Aunt Joy gave us an antique typewriter that was our Aunt Hazel's.  It was perfect to use for the party.  I typed a message on linen paper and rolled it into the typewriter.  Behind it, we found these neat wood and wrought iron wall hangings at Hobby Lobby.  I added some accent pieces of antique Ball mason jars, two suitcases from Hobby Lobby, a 1912 wedding dress replica, antique books, and one of the shower favor boxes.   Magnifique!  

   

I made a burlap and lace ribbon garland to hang between the two wall hangings.  I cut various ribbons in 8-inch strips and alternated textures, knotting them to a base ribbon that was about 4 feet long.  

On the opposite end of the gift table, I placed items from home.  I turned a lidded box from Michael's into the card box.  I made a banner that said "CARDS" out of cardboard and lace.  I added some of the beautiful pale pink, floral, tulle and lace ribbon and doilies that Aunt Irene crocheted for me 23 years ago.  I love adding heirlooms to event decor.  It's so personal and a beautiful tribute to important people in your life.  I found the shutters at a primitives shop in Marshall, Michigan.  The bird cages are from Hobby Lobby. 

This entire display was on the opposite end of the room from the entrance door.  It was the major focal point of the room.  It also became the backdrop for all of the formal photos of guests from the party.  The ladies loved it. 

In the displays in the front of the room, I incorporated some of my own antiques and a few given to the bride from her grandmother and two great aunts.   

Engagement photos displayed on the old farm cabinet doors. 

I kept the tables simple.  The lanterns I bought on Amazon.  I made the burlap and lace bows from burlap and lace bought at Hobby Lobby.  The MOH made the burlap utensil pockets from an idea she found on a Google search.  The burlap runners were from Hobby Lobby.  They were in rolls and I cut them to 7-foot lengths.  The gold chargers are a simple melamine from The Dollar Tree.  The place cards were an add-on feature available as part of the invitation package from DulceGracePrintables. The black lace damask favor boxes were from kppboutique on Etsy.  I can no longer find that shop on Etsy.  If you do a search for "lace favor boxes", all kinds of beautiful items pop up!       

I arranged for every course of the luncheon to be served so that the guests would be spoiled.  The meal began with house salads followed by:

Chicken Salad Croissants

Homemade Potato Chips and Pretzels

Macadamia White Chocolate Chunk Cookies 

Pink Lemonade or Raspberry Iced Tea

and ended with Strawberry Cheesecake for dessert.

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After lunch, we played two games.  One was "He Said, She Said, or Both" where guests guessed if the statement was made by the groom, the bride, or both.  I found that game on Etsy from this seller: Party Games The other was "How Well Do You Know the Bride-to-Be?" where the ladies guessed the bride's answers to pre-asked questions.  This game was part of the invitation package add-on I spoke of earlier.  These were so much fun and absolutely HILARIOUS!  

After all of the fun.  It was time to open gifts.  We sat the bride in front of the gift table in a queenly chair.  :)  

The Bride was so excited to get the crystal lotus candle holders she had registered for at Macy's.

The day was absolutely beautiful.  Lady after lady told me that it was the most beautiful shower they had ever attended.  I was so thankful that it turned out so well.  

Mother-of-the-Groom and Mother-of-the-Bride

Mother-of-the-Bride with the Bride

Mommy loves her baby girl!