Griffins on the Go

August 31, 2011

My Mom's Birthday Celebration

Remember my post a little over a month ago? Well, I have the pictures to show you now! Just for a re-cap: My Dad and I planned and hosted a 50th birthday celebration for my precious mom on July 15th. She turned 50 on that day, and we hosted her a surprise party at my parent's house in Hawkinsville. The dinner was modeled after the final meal served to the first class passengers on the Titanic in 1912 - everything from the 9 course meal to the floral arrangements to the china to the music playing on Mom's new player piano. This is the first of two blog posts coming from yours truly to share the magical evening with you all!

Gatewood Florist designed and made these gorgeous floral centerpieces filled with salmon roses, stock, and white hydrangea in silver compotes.

Each place setting was set with the replica Titanic first-class china. The navy and gold rimmed edge on the china is just beautiful. We used Leon's Francis The First silver with the glassware and white linen napkins. I printed personalized menu cards for each guest so everyone could fun to anticipate the upcoming courses!

With 50+ guests, we had to split the tables between the dining room, living room, and foyer. The new piano took up space, but was lovely playing the exact music from the ship back in 1912.

I used this IKEA shelf to display photos of my mom growing up and photos of the first class cabins on the ship. Leon brought this adorable menu board to display. It really got the guests excited for the evening's menu!

I used simple white IKEA curtains at the back door of my parent's house to designate the entry into the dinner area. The cocktail time was on the back porch and around the pool.

I never thought it would be such a rainy day! Either way, it was such a fun party! Even though they were a little wrinkled from the precipitation, the photo backdrop was so fun. I took a rendering of the Grand Staircase from the Titanic and enlarged it onto 3 poster size prints as the photo area background. It turned out so cute!

To encourage guests to let loose in the photo area, I had a rack at the ready with fur stoles, feather boas, parasols, and hats. It made for some really fun photos!

The talented Andy Hill made my mother the most special slide show. I collected photos of her from birth to present, and he set them to music. It was so heartwarming to see her transition from infant to toddler to child to teenager to adolescent to adult to married woman to mom.

Here's my baby bro with his awesome girlfriend Sydney! They make the cutest couple! Asa is too funny, and Sydney is so much fun!!!!!!

I could not have pulled off such a fun night without my David. He worked so hard in helping me to get everything just right! He's the absolute best!!!!!

And here's my parents. My Dad and I had so much fun planning this party for my mom. I know he had just as much fun as I did in planning it! They are so happy, and I loved having this night to celebrate my mom.

Our Brince-o looked great in his top hat!!!! He was a big help to me too!!!

Our Abbye was still in Madrid - and having a ball, must I say. I thought this silly mask kept her at the party too!

Here's my family. I am a lucky gal to have them all. Happy Birthday Mom!

My mom with her baby!

Here we are honoring Abs! Mom and all of her chickadees!

August 30, 2011

A Pool Party

On Saturday night, my parents helped host a party for William Bembry and his bride-to-be, Morgan Wood. When David and I were engaged, William's parents hosted us the most lovely low country boil at their home. My parents, along with David's parents, the Grady Griffins, my aunt Jill, and a few other couples planned a party around the pool. Our menu included hamburger sliders, layered salad, crab cakes, corn salad, marinated shrimp, and mango sorbet for dessert. It was a great night catching up with hometown friends, and enjoying delicious food! Mom and I worked so hard to get ready for the party, so I took a few photos that I wanted to share!

One of the starters was shot glasses filled with avocado soup made by Mrs. Vicky Griffin. They were delicious!

The bar had beer and wine, and two salsas to munch on.

Asa and Sydney joined us too!

Cutest bartenders on the block!

That's the happy couple on the right - William and Morgan.

The candle light was magical when the sun finally set!

The afternoon was so pleasant - definitely warm, but not so humid. Not a cloud in the sky (Irene definitely missed us in the deep south), and after the sun set, it was wonderful! The fire pit was on for "ambiance", but we didn't need the heat at all!

August 29, 2011

Thursday night football!

Last Thursday afternoon, I left work a little early to drive to Macon to meet my parents before my baby bro Asa's football game. Westfield's varsity team was playing at Tattnall, and I was so glad to be there. Asa plays running back on offense and corner back on defense. Westfield won by a touchdown and Asa played a really good game! Way to go Hornets!

August 24, 2011

A perfect 21st...

We had the absolute best time in Las Vegas, as you can imagine. I wanted to share a few of the photos from the weekend and some of the highlights.

Top Eight Happenings:

1. Jamie has a mystery friend named Moses who has a limo company. Moses sent his brother Noah to be our driver for the weekend. Score! He helped us get to the other hotels at night time, and also picked us up from the airport.

2. The MGM Grand hooked us up with hotel rooms on the same floor - Floor 28. We thought "great! The view is surely going to be spectacular." Abbye, Brince and Stacey's room was at the end of the hallway, but our room was a little closer to the elevator. However, when we slid our key card and the green light flashed, we headed into the room and Colby and I rounded the corner and {surprise!} there was a pretty jovial man in the bed already! He explained that he had been gambling all day and had just come upstairs to take a nap. It was 1am. In shock, back out into the hallway we went! The next room we were assigned had obviously not been cleaned yet, so we moved yet again to another room on the 12th floor. On Friday, we finally moved back to the 28th floor and settled in for the weekend. Fourth hotel room was the charm! Whew!

3. While waiting for dinner on Saturday night at Tao, Abbye and Stacey told us quickly to look behind them - two of the guys from Glee were walking in! And we were seated 2 tables over from them! Mark Salling {Puck} and Cory Monteith {Finn} were there with their entourage...they were so cute! And Abbye and Stacey's weekend had been made!

4. While heading to dinner on Friday night, we spotted Carlos Santana walking into our hotel with his beautiful wife/girlfriend! Cool celeb spotting!

5. Wet Republic is the big hotel pool party at the MGM, but its pretty hard to get in to. Snooki was hosting on Saturday! Wish we could've seen her!

6. Did you know the Bellagio fountain stops at midnight? We were all really hoping to stage our own Ocean's 11 moment, but were sadly disappointed that it was no longer running. Yes, we were there after midnight. :)

7. At dinner on Saturday night, we looked up and Patti and her daughter Holly were walking up to our table! Earlier, I had told them to drop by if they could since they were in town for Holly's work! We were all so so so happy to see them! They are staying at the Palazzo which is attached to the Venetian, and they have some really fun things planned for the week.

Our fun group waiting to board the plane in Atlanta!

8. Later on Saturday night, somewhere between the fountain at the Bellagio and hearing Tim McGraw on the radio, our trip came to a sad end. We hit the bed and got up early for our 9:30am flight out of Vegas! We had an awesome time though, and all cant wait to go back!

Surprise! We have a limo to take us to the hotel!

On the way in, we stopped at the famous sign!

My friend Richard works in Las Vegas, and hooked us up with this cabana for the day on Friday! It was the perfect way to ease into the hustle of Vegas...and it didnt hurt to have our own waiter either!