Today I thought I’d share some quick pics from the small graduation party we held for our oldest son this weekend. I’ll start by saying that I understand that many people aren’t comfortable socializing in groups right now. After much deliberation our family decided that our son had lost so many of the perks of finishing high school (prom, traditional graduation, the entire end of school as well as a much anticipated a trip to Europe with his grandparents) that we wanted to be sure to honor his graduation with some sort of celebration. He’d worked very hard in high school, and we’d had to cancel his large celebration originally scheduled for Memorial Day weekend so we went ahead with a smaller event in our backyard, keeping in accordance with our state’s regulations.
As happens with these types of things, I was really busy with party details and seeing our guests that I didn’t take too many pictures. We took all the precautions we could with the event and kept it exclusively outside (thank goodness it didn’t rain!). I really missed hugging people and standing close when we talked but I guess we are all getting used to this new normal now, aren’t we?
We set up a 10×30 tent across our backyard and added (rented) tables and chairs. We borrowed ours from our friend who did the catering but these tents are readily available from Amazon (here) and only take about an hour to set up (you need at least two people though). Again we were lucky with the weather, it was hot but we have quite a bit of shade back here thanks to the tall tree line.
For the menu we kept it really simple with BBQ (my son’s favorite), beans, and mac and cheese that was catered by a good friend (Wild About BBQ for DC locals) and it was delicious. Everyone commented on how good the food was.
I added bags of chips served via my chip rack (and idea I stole from Christy year’s ago) and my mom contributed some salads to round the meal out.
Not only did we put up social distancing signs but we had people mark their cups and wine glasses (using these great wine markers) so nobody would pick up the wrong glass. I ordered all the cute “Class of 2020” paper goods from Natalie Chang Studio on ETSY. I love her cute party goods.
We served lemon cucumber water (this picture was taken before we iced it down) and wine in the copper bowl, which all went in at the last minute due to the heat. Most people just stopped in the party for a few minutes but it was still wonderful to see them, and we appreciated the efforts. My son smiled all night long and that was what matters.
Almost all the supplies we used including the tent came from Amazon, everything is linked in our store HERE. Now we start the packing and leaving (sniff, sniff!) for college phase, I can’t quite believe we’re here!
XO,
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