The {G R A D} Party
As you have probably noticed, I have been MIA lately. With senior year wrapping up this past week and all of the senior festivities, I have been a new kind of busy that I am not used to. My best friend Grayce and I decided that the perfect way to celebrate our 11 years of friendship would be to have a combined graduation party. With a dream board, aesthetic, and the help of our tremendous parents, we were able to make it happen. Take a peek into each aspect of our party.
T H E V E N U E
This was the distinguishing factor of our party from the rest. With our busy lives and a desire for a pleasing aesthetic, we quickly eliminated the possibility of having our party at one of our houses. Grayce had heard of a building that a local lady had recently purchased and was transforming into a rentable location for events of all types. Before our party, the warehouse had housed vendor markets and essential oil classes. Grayce contacted the owner all the way back in the fall to secure our date for our party. With it being the first big personal event in the place, we were sure to bring lots of attention to this beauty. White washed brick covered her walls with big white columns to break up the huge room. Even without our decorations, it was beautiful. Luckily, this location provided an escape from the rain for our party guests and we were able to set up all week, leaving only the food for Saturday morning.
T H E T A B L E
Before my last week of high school, I didn't really have that much to fill up my table with, but the several award ceremonies and luncheons I attended in the last week provided with many physical representations of my achievements. I wanted it to be about school and dance since both have been very important in the last 13 years. I also wanted to put pictures that captured highlights from my senior year. I ended up ordering square photos from Walgreens to hang on jute and clothes pins above my table. I also ordered a MixBook to display all of my senior pictures. I would highly recommend their flat lay, card-stock books for all of your senior picture needs. The pictures did not lose any of their beautiful quality when printed with Mixbook. As far as old pictures go, I brought in old frames and photo albums. To my surprise, my guests often stopped to look through the photo books. Originally, I had planned to display my homecoming court sash along with my senior homecoming dress on the mannequin, but after three days of looking, my sash was literally NO WHERE TO BE FOUND. Super annoying, but it worked out. I hung my court parade sign on a wall next to my table to suffice. I also used a ball of flowers to display my beautiful graduation cap that was hand-painted by my aunt Lori. It was so original, classy, and minimal. She is SO talented.
T H E F O O D
Our goal as party hosts was to choose a time that would be best for most of our friends and family to attend. Having been invited to our fair share of parties in the past, we discovered a pattern. Everyone had their parties between 12 and 4 on the Saturday after graduation. We saw how difficult it was for grads to attend their best friends' parties. We didn't want that. That is why we settled on having a brunch. We had breakfast burritos catered in from my uncle's BBQ business, fruit salad, muffins from our local coffee shop, little sandwiches, and a coffee bar. My favorite part of the whole place was our dessert table and donut wall. My dad, being the handyman that he is, made our donut wall with plywood and wooden pegs. I then painted the word "donuts" on top in case you couldn't already tell what was on the wall (completely sarcastic). We also had naked cakes and succulent cupcakes brought in from a bakery called Three Twigs Bakery. Because Grayce is vegan, we had serval dozen vegan baked goods as well. The dessert table was fairly simple. I picked up some greenery from TJ Maxx, and we got cake stands from a craft mall. The display was simple, yet beautiful, and our guests loved being able to fill up before their full day of graduation parties.
T H E G U E S T S
What would a celebration be without the people that you love the most? We had a constant flow of guests throughout our two hour party. With rain outside, we had a big flow of people who stayed in order to stay dry. When guests entered the venue, they were immediately greeted with a guest book table. We got our guest books from Target, and the sign came from Hobby Lobby. They were asked to sign the book and leave room for a polaroid picture which we would print off later. Throughout the party, we took photos with out guests by our "photo wall" which was decorated with Hobby Lobby greenery and a rug we found in the space. In between each of our tables, we had boxes for cards. I got my card box from Michaels and wrote "cards" on it with a chalkboard marker. On the table, you can see the plants inside of the tin jar. Those were our centerpieces in which both pieces came from Hobby Lobby. Seeing our friends and family and having them celebrate with us made all of the hard work pay off. Thank you to everyone who came or sent us well wishes. We love and appreciate each one of you. xoxo
p.s. My mom found my sash the next morning in the sock. basket. Needless to say, I was ticked.