Party Time!

The invitation:

The happy couple:

The sisters:

Stephanie and her girls:

And the boys:

The food:

The butter board:

The beverages:

Ginger tea, water and the pumpkins for well-wishes.

The hot chocolate bar--the coffee bar was on the other side of the kitchen.

The cake and party favors:

Popcorn because Olly "popped" the question. My little sign reads: "thanks for "popping" by!"

The cake was beautiful and delicious! Really, I was glad to see it go--I couldn't have that around!

The party went off without a hitch. And now for the breakdown of the cost:

Decorations, food, flowers, pumpkins, paper products and coffee makers. I bought 2--hard to believe that in all these years of entertaining, I never did a party where coffee was on the menu! All of this for $449.69. So, less than the cost of just the $600 barista! This amount did not include the cake (Morgan's dad got that), the tea punch or the invitations--Stephanie handled that. Still, not bad for a party for 50! That's why it kills me to pay a caterer! 

It was not a difficult party to do. Actually, since the guests were all Morgan and Olly's friends, Butch and I were happy to putter around in the kitchen--replenishing food, cleaning up, etc. The last guests left about 1:30. We sent most of the leftover food home with Stephanie. By 2, we had the dishwasher running and remaining dishes washed.

Mindy and Justin stopped by yesterday to get some of the leftovers. The only thing no one would take is the hot chocolate. It's amazingly good--which means lots of calories. It kills me, but I'm going to have to dump it out. I would love to drink it, but I just can't! I need to let it go.

The un-fun part of any party is putting everything away. Oh, and the un-decorating! I sent Morgan and Olly home with all of their decorations. I guess I'll hold off with the rest until I get the Christmas stuff out. That's just around the corner. I'm already NOT looking forward to that!