Surprise Party!

I was the Event Planner, Decorator, Caterer, and the Baker for a Surprise party this past Saturday evening. The party was for a woman in our church who just turned 65. Her family hired me and, overall, it was a success! The theme was “Mary, This Is Your Life” and was based on a game show theme, thus the glitzy feel of the black/white and silver. The guest list climbed to between 60-65 people and it was a challenge cooking and setting up seating for that many people. In the end, there were about 50 guests so the family took a lot of food home.

The previous post shows what I did for guest favors. One cookie was put at each place setting. I had them packaged in a little baggie with a thank you note attached. (click on the pictures to view them bigger)
I thought the back wall of the room turned out great! I made the 5-1/2 foot wide sign out of styrofoam and glittered it. That was a lot of fun.
This glittered styrofoam “65” was a part of the table centerpieces. I must say, I never liked using glitter, but it just worked really well for the decor of the room.
This is the cake I made. It is no where near what I had envisioned. Basically it was a disaster. Nothing worked right for it. I did get a lot of compliments on it’s flavor though. Each tier was three layers, neopolitan style – chocolate, white and strawberry.
I was told Mary’s favorite cuisine was Italian, which made it easy on me. I made Baked Ziti, served with Meatballs, Salad with Italian dressing, and Garlic Breadsticks. Yum.
We played a Game that was similar to Jeopardy/Price is Right, etc. Questions were asked about Mary’s likes, her life and her interests. There were three contestants and Mary’s granddaughter won!

I wanted to also sincerely thank all those who helped pull this off! I couldn’t have done it without my friends and family who immediately pitched in to help me when I was so overwhelmed with everything I had to finish. THANKS!

TFL! (thanks for lookin’)