It seems like these celebrations were yesterday...

Looking back at all of these old events that I have planned brings back such good memories. I had such a good experience in high school. Good friends, great teachers, and I have always been a family person. Senior year was filled with so many celebrations. Senior year party, winterball, senior sendoff, my graduation party, and my farewell dinner. This first event shown here was 'Senior Sendoff' also known as baccalaureate. For some reason the school made us change the name so we came up with Senior Sendoff. It was held at Steel House Restaurant in Kingston, N.Y. Our budget was very low; our class was to pay for each student while parents had to pay per head. Because of the low budget, my fellow officers and myself (I was co-secretary), went out into the fields of Rhinebeck and picked our own flowers. Hundreds of daisies, black eyed Susans, grasses, and wild rose bush branches. To supplement these flowers we purchased a few purple flowers. Rhinebeck school colors are gold and purple so with the purple flowers that we bought and the yellow blacked eyed Susans, we were able to incorporate the colors we sported throughout our education. I also made special candle holders. You simply take soda cans, cut of the top, cut down the sides of the can and roll each section out so that the name and display of the can disappears. Even though there were tears of joy about graduating, tears of sadness of the thought of leaving friends and family, the evening was a giant success. Everyone enjoyed themselves.

Invitation, Handmade. The Graduation cap was embossed onto each invite with gold embossing powder



         

Large floral pieces. This was my first time working with floral foam...I now know how to properly use it (hehe)



Overall table look. Each table had different flowers because we didn't have enough vases that were all the same.

Another table, different floral arrangement

This is a close up of the details. The candle holder is the soda can and the graduation cap is a welcome/thank you to parents and faculty.

This next event was only a few weeks after the senior sendoff. It was my graduation party where all my family, friends and a few of my teachers celebrated. My favorite type of food is Italian/Mediterranean so why not through a Mediterranean Evening? The colors were crisp white and cool blue. On the invitations I had simple line fish that were wearing graduation caps. I requested that my grandfather cut some of his grape vine and tie it to the edge of the tent which came out great. However, because of the heat they wilted quickly. Dinner consisted of typical hot dogs and hamburgers but was accompanied by Italian and Greek dishes. I had such a wonderful time, celebrating the end of highschool and the start of the next step in my life.

Cheese, meat and bread bar

This table had my graduation picture, diploma, awards, and this wonderful picture of my classmates and me throwing up our caps! (I also painted this table!)

Welcome sign designed and painted by myself, created by my grandfather

It was hot and windy that day. In this picture you can see the grape leaf detail

Centerpieces

Lettuce cups. They had all the vegetables inside, all the guests had to do was choose which salad dressing they wanted

The bar, however a drink spilled on it almost immediatley

Invitation

The next event was my farewell dinner. I invited my close friends to my house for a last goodbye before everyone left for college. I strategically planned the day so that it was about a week before everyone had to leave. The invitation was extremely special. Over the years I had video taped school events, parties, and just us being silly. So the invitation consisted of bits and pieces of all of these events in order starting from our preschool graduation ending with our Highschool graduation. At the very end it was me inviting everyone to my house for dinner. The table was set of the floor and raised up with bricks. All my guests sat on pillows as we dug into Chinese food from a local Chinese restaurant. The center of the table was also risen and had candles placed all the way down. At the head of the table were photo albums for everyone to enjoy and reminisce.

This was the outside of the invitation, the DVD was wrapped up inside of it

When you opened it this is what you saw

Overall table

Each setting received chop sticks. Also underneath the clear plate I had white pieces of paper with this Chinese word embossed on it. The word says 'love'

A view at night with the lanterns lit up

I added these tall vases with gladiolas in them. One of my favorite flowers

Head of the table with the photo albums