Let's party! A 25th Wedding celebration (as well as 21st and 18th birthday's)

So Saturday 31st was finally party day-a day I had been loosely planning for a few months.

This party was more than a a 25th Anniversary party for my parents (and partly my brother's 21st and 18th birthday's), I wanted to do something positive for them after a really crap few years, and also as they do so much to help with the boys too.

As much work as it was it was really lovely to do something for them for a change.

I couldn't have done it all without the help of extended family-we all chipped in a bought food with us, we kept it simple with just finger foods.

A finger food I made which I'd not done before went down well was loosely based on this pin, I used olives, feta, and thin slices of chorizo.

party food

Something I had been working on for a long time was a photobook as a present from me and my brothers. Whilst they were away for their actual anniversary I sneaked up into their loft and got all the photo albums from 1988-2013 collecting ones that were still around the house too. I also had albums up to about 1997 from my Nana too. I painstakingly spent days scanning in the photos I wanted, editing any that I needed to, sorting them into year groups etc. Finally I had them all sorted when I had problems with my laptop (typical) so had to get James to set up an old PC on the coffee table- cue a numb bum whilst making the actual photobook.

I used Photobox, I've not made a photobook so don't have anything to compare to but I am pleased with their software as it was very easy to use, I am also pleased with the final project too, there are just a couple of pages I want to query them on as they look like they have been printed a bit orange (oompa lumpas- spelling)?! In my haste to get it finished before they got back from holiday I stupidly made a monumental mistake-I entered the wrong year in the date on the spine and also on their wedding page-DOH! But my parents found it funny-I was in tears the day before the party though when I'd realised!! Everyone commented on how lovely the book was though, many saying it's a lifetime of memories, and how well I'd done getting it done with the boys about! And my parents really loved it which is the main thing. 

The other BIG thing I'd been working on was a huge traditional fruit cake which was 23cm, I'd made it about a month ago and marzipanned and iced it in the last week. A few people thought I'd bought the cake which was a great compliment as it's the first proper fruitcake I have made for a public appearance so to speak rather than my personal Christmas cake! 

Sorry I didn't get around to a really good photo so hoping my family have one I can pinch!

There were about 50 of us over all, family, extended family and family friends, some of which we haven't seen for many, many years. My Dad's best man and the bridesmaids all managed to come which made it extra special! It was lovely to have everyone together for a happy occasion, and actually apart from the stress of getting the cake there in one piece it was quite a stress free time surprisingly! There was me worried about food and we had loads left-typical-but it made good picky food the next few days!

All the immediate family-small as don't want to put a large photo up of everyone :)