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.
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!
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