A Lovely Party

I had a lovely party on our deck Friday night for some of the sweetest ladies I know. Nearly every Monday night, for close to a year now, I have been having coffee with a group of ladies who have become some of of my best friends. Anyone can come & hang out with us at Java after Jammies. If you are single, married, younger, older, divorced, or dont have children it doesn't matter. The only requirement is that you be a woman. Unfortunately three of the ladies couldn't attend because of other commitments and they were missed. 

Over the last 6 months I have secretly been planning this party. I had been wanting to do something special for each of these ladies but at first couldn't figure out what to do. I asked myself the question, "What is something I would love for someone to do for me? What would that look like?" I have always wanted to have a beautiful birthday party with all kinds of lovely details & not have to do any of it. So, this is exactly what I decided to do. Throw a party in honor of each of these ladies & not tell them any details about it. They were not even allowed to bring anything to the party.

Thrift shops are one of my favorite places so for the past 6 months I have been collecting sets of thrifted china for next to nothing. I mix-matched the china, used mason jars for drinking glasses & to hold silverware, and re-cycled starbucks iced coffee jars to hold flowers. 

Angela & I. She is so sweet.

Last week I went to a pumpkin patch and grabbed 8 pumpkins for $5. I spray painted two of them white, laid a cream tablecloth with a burlap runner over it on the table, and filled the re-cycled vases with a $4 bouquet of flowers from the grocery store. The main light source was strung lights all over the deck. Year round we have lights secured on the deck but not above the table. I bought a package of $1.50 doilies from the baking section at Michaels to cover two extra strands of lights to go over the table. The doilies definitely added some much needed daintiness to the deck. 

I used washi tape on the envelops of the invitations for the party and really wanted to find a way to incorporate it into the table scape. The party was at night so tea lights were a great little source of light throughout the table. I wrapped the washi tape around the bottom of the tea lights for some extra character to the table scape. 

It was such a fun night. 

We ate an easy dinner of soup, sandwiches, fruit & cookies. 

We talked, laughed, drank too much tea & coffee, enjoyed some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and had a great time. I'm so thankful for these sweet ladies in my life. 

Everyone got a little gift bag filled with fun things. 

I'll share what I put in the gift bags later this week.

Left to Right is Angela, Rene, Meredith, Casey, Alyssa, & Diana. 

Rene & Meredith. They both are so great! 

Casey & I forced everyone to play the Friends game at one point. We only played for 10 minutes because we are the only two that watch the show way too much. We didn't want to bore everyone else.

Most everyone stayed pretty late. By the end of the night my feet were very tired. It was so worth it though. I must say that it really is necessary to throw a lovely party for you & your girl friends. It is so much fun & everyone walks away having had fun and feeling good. Now I really want to throw another party! It was so much fun!

Happy Monday!

Oh, by the way be sure to visit again in the morning

 because Now Rejoice starts tomorrow!

~Brit

Linking up with Sumo's Sweet Stuff