Our Reaffirmation Ceremony & 10 Year Wedding Anniversary Party Part 1: Decorations

I am so excited to finally post these pics. We had such an amazing party thanks to all our wonderful family and friends. We want to give our special thanks to those who made it possible: Tina Johnson, Kisha Beckwith-Farrell, Autumn and Hailey Gough, and Taeh Ward, who helped with decorations and planning; Bryan Fix, who provided the cakes; Erick Ballard, Taeh Ward and Lauren Ajamie, who provided photos, and my dad and Taeh for the video of the ceremony; the Diggs family, who helped with the kids while we scrambled to put everything together; Kisha, for her role as our officiant and in planning the ceremony; and Craig Chase and Tina, for participating in the ceremony as our support.

We wanted our party to be bright, whimsical, and cheery, inspired by our favorite band, The Flaming Lips: every Lips show is a glittery journey into happy color, sound and soul-piercing joy. 

Originally, we'd planned the party at a downtown venue. Later, we decided to change our plans and have a three-day bash like the one we had when we were married. But during the last half of my pregnancy, I ended up taking on a double workload when we my lab co-coordinator left the college on extended leave and then later retired, so my planning time was badly crunched. Ultimately, with all the challenges we faced and the unexpected, heartbreaking loss of a family member, we decided to tone it down and at the last minute, moved the party to our backyard. In the 12 years we've owned this house, we've never done anything with our backyard, and we were concerned that we wouldn't be able to pull off a small, sweet ceremony and reception back there with such short notice (and with a one-month-old infant!), but we managed it, and it was perfectly wonderful.

Justin and I created these tissue paper flowers together using a tutorial from Intimate Weddings and all of the bright colored tissue paper from Lucy's rainbow baby shower.

The papel picado is from our annual family vacay to fake Mexico at EPCOT in Walt Disney World, but can be picked up online easily. You can also make it with this tutorial from Journey into Unschooling. We strung it across our clothesline...er...thingys. What do you call those? Anyway, it was pretty.

I tied ribbon on the fence between the paper flowers and we lined up benches and lawn furniture (including little kid chairs). We draped pretty linens (including this Liberty of London print in the foreground) over the benches and placed the chiminea and fire pit in the circle. 

Even before we had kids, we always felt it important that kids have just as good a time as adults as our guests. The horse was a huge hit; other touches included a small art table and a dress-up basket (for kids and adults). The small table in the background includes a basket full of Burt's Bees Herbal Insect Repellent and sunblock to keep our guests safe and comfy.

Around the corner out of sight, providing an outdoor baby changing station, is the awesome bright red Rock Star Baby pack and play given to us by Erick

The beauty of our backyard party is that we had a terrific, breezy shelter from the sun in our carport. Justin was a little skeptical about putting a buffet table under our carport, but it turned out to be the perfect spot. 

We hung brightly colored lanterns from the ceiling with all kinds of ribbon and lace and used vintage linens and lace over pink tablecloths provided by Justin's mom, Betsey. I nailed iridescent lavender and lilac fabric to the open wall and cute floral prints to the side of the house.

I made these pretty hearts using scrap paper with ribbon, rick rack and even bias tape. Some are stamped with "amor" and "love." They got a little tangled in the wind, but thank goodness in Oklahoma for wind in May!

The table was covered with loads of things that make us happy, including photos of me and Justin, pretty vintage candle holders and vases, blue glass stones, lavender hearts, and 1976 quarters Justin has given me as love tokens through the years. That's my garter from the wedding draped across our wedding photo.

We used all kinds of random vintage dishes and baskets for holding food and tableware.

Note the bottle of Franzia chillable red. When we were 21 and the Jamestown Proto-Owens rather than the Yorktown Owens, we drank the heck out of that stuff.

All in all, it was a lovely, whimsical, kitschalicious backyard re-hitching. 

Pics of the ceremony and party coming soon!

Peace.

The Owens