Parties

A couple weekends ago we had a party in our back yard for our son and his new wife to celebrate their marriage that took place in May. Because their wedding was so small and only included the immediate family, I promised my large extended family that I'd have something in the back yard for them later in the summer, and this was the date. With all our family and the new couple's friends, our total guest list was about 80 people, including lots of kids.

I wanted to do a nice party but on a shoestring as much as possible. We had to rent a tent because of weather potential, but other than that we did it all ourselves. My niece made the pasta salad and my daughter pitched in alot, but for the most part everything was done in-house, including the decorating and grilling. I used ebay for tablecloths and napkins and paid less then I would have if I'd rented. (Now I need to find a place to store all these linens.)

The key ingredient though was the weather and that we totally lucked out on. It was a comfortable day, with low humidity and clear skies. When the following Saturday turned out to be a record-setting scorcher, I raised a little prayer of thanks skyward for our good fortune.

All of my children are married now and I have to admit to some relief as weddings in these parts are not easy to manage. Restaurants and busy and expensive in season and its difficult to keep guest lists low when your family is as big as ours. I'm thinking I can officially retire now from the party business. I hope I didn't just jinx myself...