My in-laws recently celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary. My hubby and I decided to host an intimate dinner party for them and some of their close friends. We had so much fun prepping, hosting, and serving. Their actual anniversary was on June 27th but we hosted the party on July 1st. The dinner menu was as follows:
~Pear, walnut, and gorgonzola salad
~Homemade Focaccia Bread
~Grilled Asparagus and Grilled Sweet Potato
~Stuffed Pork Roast or Spinach and Cheese Ravioli
~Dessert: Creme Brulee
I made all of these courses, down to the salad dressing, myself (except for the ravioli). Everything turned out amazing...which was good considering it was my first time making all of these items.
If you are interested in any of the recipes I am more than happy to share. All of the recipes except the creme brulee came out of a cookbook that my mom let me borrow called "The Gathering of Friends."
I also did all of the decorating for the party. We decided to have the party out on our back patio. I hired my good friend Julia to do the flowers for me.
If you like what you see check her out at
http://www.flowersbyj.com/Site/Home.html
We went with 3 cylinder vases filled with water, yellow floating orchids, and a floating candle on top. In the middle is a large cylinder bowl that has pieces of the floating orchids and several floating candles.
One of my favorite things to see at an anniversary party is the bride's dress. My mother-in-law graciously let me display her wedding dress. Beautiful. (P.S. The secret to making it stand up is an ironing board.)
On a table I had displayed their wedding picture, their wedding album, Sonya's bouquet from the wedding, the tie Brad wore when they were leaving the reception, the newspaper clipping announcing their wedding, and an arrangement of yellow roses (also done by flowers by j). The flowers they used in their wedding were yellow roses.
My father in law brought me a bunch of pictures that he had recently found to display. I found 2 trellises in our backyard that I used to display the pictures. One of them had pictures from the wedding and the other one had pictures from Sonya's bridal shower and one from Brad's bachelor party.
Our 8 dinner guests...
Brandon decided to use the blow torch (that we were using for the creme brulee) to light the floating candles in the centerpieces. He was quite the entertainer that evening.
It was a great parry and we had so much fun doing it. Congratulations to my in-laws!! You are a great example of marriage for us.
Wow Sarah! This is amazing! I am so impressed! Everything is beautiful and sounds amazing :) I'm super interested in the grilled asparagus, grilled sweet potato (maybe those are as straightforward as they sound?), and the spinach and cheese ravioli recipes!! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Jordanna!! The only thing I didn't make were the ravioli. :( I bought them from an Italian Market called A.G. Ferrari.
ReplyDeleteThe Asparagus and Sweet Potato were both super easy. The asparagus was tossed in olive oil and lemon pepper. The sweet potato was tossed in olive oil and sea salt. They were both grilled for about 10-15 minutes...and were sooo yummy! Serve immediately! :)