Today’s feature isn’t a wedding, but I think when you see these photos you’ll understand why I’ve made an exception to share them! Jade and Matthew’s 10th anniversary party was held at a friend’s house. It was a completely DIY event. The couple are wedding photographers, so they even shot it themselves!
“When we decided to celebrate our 10th anniversary we knew we had to include some of our favourite things!” said Jade. “When we got married 10 years ago things were a little different, so we wanted to put our own little spin on our anniversary.”
“We decided to celebrate with a small group of friends with a backyard BBQ feel – no stuffiness, just good times. We wanted our friends to eat, drink, and be merry!! There were a lot of laughs. Matthew made sure of that with this two signature cocktails – a homemade strawberry infused gin fizz and smoked pineapple mezcal cocktail. They were delicious!!”
“We also knew we wanted good yummy food. Our first thought was Michael at Starland Cafe. We love him and his restaurant and we knew he had a food truck that would be perfect. It was summer so we wanted something light, so tacos were the perfect fit. He also believes in the importance of using as many local ingredients as possible and that was important to us! We also tried to come up with a clever way to have our guest go to the food truck. We came up with old school cafeteria trays we found online and in junk stores.”
“Our party theme was everything we like, things we collect, and colour!” she continued. “We just collected things from our house that we love and they became the inspiration for our decor. We are junkers and love find weird and fun treasures! Pretty much everything we collect has a story of some kind.”
“The table itself was made from some extra wood our friend Liz had with the addition of some Ikea legs, spray painted in fun colours to match our theme. The tablecloth was made of canvas (painters drop cloth) and painted polka dots to add even more colour!”
“The cake was also made by our friend, Natasha. We told her to surprise us but we loved naked cakes and we had told her our theme. She created a pinata cake – We didn’t know it but when we cut into the pinata layers a bunch of Hersey kisses fell out!! It made for a special moment.”
“Our biggest savings were on the decor because it was all pretty much just from our house. The plants and ferns came from our backyard and we made the table runner. The venue was also free because we held it at a friends house, kept it small, and Matthew made the cocktails.”
“We like to tell stories and our party was just about our story”, she concluded. “Every item we used represents who we are, where we came from, or found interesting along the way. One of my favourite items was a beaded piece with ‘Jade + Matthew’ on it. It was a piece a bride and groom had made for us. She and her family are from South Africa and they had it made and brought to us all the way over here. It makes us feel so special even thinking about it.”
