Honoring a Dear Friend

Last week was filled with much love and big surprises.  We all had such an incredible time honoring a dear, dear friend on her retirement.  I've been trying to determine the best way to explain the numerous surprises, but still haven't come up with something really clear....so here it goes.....Bestie MHDRL surprised her mom and flew in from Texas on her last day of school.  We had told Dear Friend D that we would bring dinner and champagne to celebrate, but little did she know we were also bringing her daughter, son-in-law, and grandson!  She was stunned for the first surprise. 


A couple days later Hubby's BFF (the honoree's son -- which is actually how Hubby and I met, our BFFs are siblings!) flew in from Nantucket to join in on the fun, too!  Of course we couldn't leave out Dear Friend D's BFF so Bestie MHDRL and I headed up to Northern Indiana to secretly pick her up so she could celebrate at the final surprise....the surprise party!  I don't know how, but we managed to keep everything secret, and she truly was stunned.  It. was. fabulous.

Dear Friends A and A (the third sibling and his wife) were kind enough to host the fabulous get together.  Their backyard setting on the river was perfection, as was the company.  Truly an incredible time. (And I just have to mention Dear Friend A made 21 racks of ribs.  You read that right folks, 21.  Delicious.)

Whew.  All this to say......Dear Friend A and I whipped up some sweet little centerpieces to sprinkle around the party.  We (with the help of her daughter Sweet C) arranged flowers in mason jars, tied them up with a twine bow, and added little chalkboard signs (Michaels).  They added just the right amount of festiveness, and were very much Dear Friend D's style.

I used a similar approach for not just one, but two of my teammates who are also retiring.  (What am I going to do next year????)  Only this time, I used potted flowers.  Tissue paper covered up the dirt, and the chalkboard signs were decorated with their to do list for the upcoming school year. 

Today I'm linking up with Share Your Style. 

Be sure to pop over and check out all the wonderful style ideas! 

Happy Celebrating!