I don’t think there could be a better day to share my mom’s surprise birthday party celebration, after all, it is Mother’s Day! I hope all of you who are moms are getting spoiled rotten today 🙂
Last weekend we pulled off a major celebration, and a surprise one at that, for one of the most important people in my life- my mom. She’s not a stranger around here, in fact, she’s graciously allowed me to show you all her beautiful bathroom, her screened porch and her living room so sharing her birthday party seems perfectly fitting too.
party invitation available here
Back in January, my dad called me and said he’d booked a surprise birthday party for my mom in early May and that my brother and his family would be flying in for it, and then my parents left for Florida for the remainder of winter. I set about ordering the invitations (from my go-to, Minted) and making the plans. We were overjoyed to find out that many of my mom’s friends and relatives were willing to come into town for the surprise, some she hadn’t seen in many years. Since he’d arranged to have the party at a local country club, there wasn’t much work for me to do outside of invitations, flower arrangements, decorations, and ordering dessert.
The flowers alone were one of the hits of the evening, Instagram is such a great resource, on there I’d seen mentions of a flower wholesaler from South America where you could order bulk hydrangeas. Knowing I’d need several large table arrangments and being a huge hydrangea fan, I crossed my fingers and placed an order for 35 white hydrangea stems to be delivered two days before the party. If you follow our Instagram stories then last week you heard me repeatedly rave about how beautiful the flowers were. In fact, it’s now a week post-delivery and many of the stems are still going strong. They were gorgeous! All I did was trim them and stick them in some inexpensive glass vases from Hobby Lobby and place them in the center of each table.
I decided to skip ordering a traditional cake and instead get cupcakes, that way we’d have something for everyone including those of us who are gluten-free. I picked up several dozen cupcakes from a local bakery and used existing stands, thankfully one of my BFF’s (and former co-blogger) Terry, is an event planner and she loaned me some vases and cupcake stands.
I ordered a printable sign from HERE (and personalized it in photoshop) and a banner from HERE to decorate the dessert table. The kids could not wait till the cupcakes were served, they were definitely a hit.
So now that I have shared the (easy) party details, here is the good stuff. Somehow we pulled off a semi-surprise celebration, which was a bit of a feat with someone as sharp as my mom. While she knew we were having dinner at the same venue to celebrate her birthday, she didn’t expect the crowd that greeted her when she arrived.
My daughter and my beautiful niece were the welcoming committee. They greeted the guests as they arrived and assisted with finding place cards and seating, they were such a huge help. Sidenote: my daughter’s pretty pink silk dress was a pass down from Christy’s daughter Annabelle. I am so happy she had a special occasion to wear it!
Here’s another picture of my mom with her granddaughters, it was taken at our girls’ lunch earlier in the day. I can only hope I inherit my mother’s agelessness! She has four other grandchildren as well, four boys, but we didn’t invite them to join us for lunch ????.
Here is a picture of my immediate family, and this one is fun because now that we have spouses, kids, grandchildren etc. it’s so rare to have a picture taken of our original family 🙂 . That’s my ‘little’ brother, the last time he was on this blog it was during the Hurricane Harvey relief efforts, so here is a chance to show you how nice he looks when not in a horrible natural disaster! My mom and dad celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary last summer, they are just the two best people I know.
Here is my mom with her cousin, Marion, who is a faithful blog reader. She was one of the guests that made a huge effort to attend the party and surprise my mom with her presence. It’s rare that you have the opportunity to celebrate the person that always does the celebrating. My mom has always been the one to make sure everyone is recognized. She hosts wonderful holiday family dinners, is the one who will drop off flowers (often from her beautiful garden) if she knows you are having a bad day and is always the first to raise her hand to help when needed. Everyone that knows her knows her generous spirit, her love for her family and friends and her faith-filled, servant’s heart; she is one of the most giving people you will ever meet.
Since we knew that she’d be more than a little overwhelmed at the party, I scheduled a smaller brunch at my home the next day. That way the guests that had traveled in town could stop by and spend a little more time with her before heading home. I took a few quick shots of the table, it was a very casual event just with store-bought pastries and repurposed party decor.
The pretty paper plates were from HomeGoods and I served a fruit water in a large glass container I borrowed from Terry, along with pots and pots of coffee!
It was a wonderful celebration; one that my family will remember for years to come. I am so grateful I have the mother I have, it’s not lost on me at this stage of my life how fortunate I am she is in my life. Please, on Mother’s Day, also be sure to read Christy’s post about her lovely mother, who was also one of the best people I knew, you can read it HERE.
Party Sources~
XO,
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