Friday, August 3, 2012

{ANNIVERSARY} Celebrating 40 years

This last June my parents celebrated their 40 year wedding anniversary. They celebrated a little bit at home but the real party happened when our whole family was together for our family reunion in July. My parents have always included the family in celebrating their anniversarys. As a kid I remember going out to dinner with the whole family on my parents wedding anniversary. Then after we'd get to pick something out at a book store. They thought of their wedding anniversary as celebrating the family as a whole. So it was fitting this year for their 40th to be all together and celebrate. My mom planned it all (with a little help from me). 
Ruby is the color for a 40th wedding anniversary so we used red a lot in decorating (cloth napkins, table runner). After family pictures in our reunion shirts we met back up at the cabin we'd been renting for the week and had dinner. Kids sat first and ate. My brother gave a toast and then my parents each had a little speech both expressing their love for each other and our family. 
My parents gave each person in the family a box with a tag that says "Time flies when you're having fun" and inside each box was a note with a watch. I had helped my mom pick out the watches for each person (24 watches!) and it was fun to see their reactions. (click link for the watches: mens, womens, little boys, little girls


My parents and I made these triangle napkin rings out of wood. Triangle was a symbol we used throughout our reunion so it was fitting. The galvanized buckets held little goodie bags with noise makers (bad idea!) and candy.
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My sister Jane painted this sign to hang.
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I printed off about 40 pictures of our family over the years, starting with their wedding day and strung them up. 
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Cheers!
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For the adults we set out a piece of paper with some Metcalf family trivia. It was fun to bring up some old family memories and see who remembered what. (ie. name all the family cars, family vacations, neighbors over the years, etc)
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9 comments:

  1. oh my gosh this is so sweet and awesome! and rad you got watches, dannnngggg. i been wanting that green anthro one forever haha lucky!!

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  2. What a fun party!! Congrats to your parents, and such a lovely picture of the two of them. 40 years, my oh my!

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  3. whoa! that is INCREDIBLE! i love every single thing about this party. congrats to your parents!

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  4. Great post and fun party. Best parents ever.

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  5. Hey Kristine, I COULD NOT have done it without you! You made me look like an awesome party planner! Thanks for helping me every step of the way. I love the post too so I can remember this night.

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  6. this post/party is so sweet! What an amazing way to celebrate an anniversary!

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  7. Ok, I want to be adopted into your family, please. This is wonderful! I love the favor boxes, the decor, the guest. I love it all. What a great job! And I totally want a Brave shirt now!

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  8. Seriously. Most amazing family ever! These events are so unbelievably awesome! Such great memories to hold onto forever!

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  9. Can I be invited to your next family reunion??? LOL, no but seriously :-) I love everything about this. You guys are so creative and wonderful! and I LOVE THE watches!!!! I think I want to get that Anthro watch NOW. I love the idea of doing a banner of all those family pictures. What a great thing for your parents to take away and remember all the memories they created. Look at the legacy Holly and Richard produced! So amazing. I just love the Metcalf clan so much!

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