digzmania

Last night's party went very well. Not as well as I had intended and planned for it to go, but much better than I had feared. Most importantly, Karen enjoyed the evening and had a great time with friends and family, celebrating her upcoming 40th birthday; and that is what all of the hard work and effort was all about.

Thanks to help from my mother-in-law, Jo Ann, our friends Aaron and Brandy Jones, Sherrill Behymer, Judy Hargrove, and some assistance from my sisters-in-law, Crystal and April, the night all came together perfectly.

The food was amazing, and plentiful. The DJ was great and played a really good selection of music all night long, and the couple that set up and ran the photo booth were a big hit with everyone at the party. Karen will get a CD with a copy of every photo taken for the night. The cake was a big hit as well, along with the cupcakes. The soda and tea flowed all night long, along with Bud Light on tap from a half barrel of beer. About mid way through the party, I broke out the shots for Karen to share with her guests. She took to the tequila like a fish to water, and was soon an even happier bubbling mushy Birthday Princess.

One moment that I thought was really neat, was that Karen and I got to kick off the evening's dancing and musical entertainment portion of the evening by dancing to Kelly Clarkson's "A Moment Like This." It was the song we had both wanted to dance to at our wedding reception; and now, for our ten year anniversary, we finally got to dance to it together in front of our friends and family.

On several occasions throughout the evening, I could see happy tears of joy coming from Karen's eyes. As friends, both old and new, moved around the room to wish her a happy birthday, the emotions were high for my sweetie.

I'd like to have pulled off the surprise a bit better, and there were some other guests I wish I could have been able to accommodate better scheduling and contact for, but all in all the night was a big success.

( SURPRISE???Collapse )

With this next paycheck coming up on Friday, I will finally have enough money tucked away to start bringing in co-conspirators to start locking in some serious ideas and concrete plans for Karen's 40th Birthday Bash party.

I've got some initial ideas, and potential locations and menu options already scoped out. Good thing I saved my notes from two years ago, even if they didn't pan out at the time. And with a cash budget of between $1,000 to $1,200 saved up I should be in pretty good shape to be able to pull this whole thing off. (I won't even have to use any tax refund money and will pay for it all out of my own pocket, so hopefully all without Karen being aware of anything in the works.)

I know I can't do it all on my own, so I've created a secret facebook site and brought in some help:

• Jo Ann tegethoff
• Brandy Jones
• Sherrill Behymer
• Judy Hargrove
• Glenna Tolliver
• Crystal Mullen
• April Mullen
• Courtney Dunman

I'm thinking that between the 9 of us, we should be able to pull enough strings, invite enough people, think up some creative and fun ideas, and pull this whole thing off. The question is, can we keep it a surprise?

So far, we've got some initial leads on our basic menu and location. King Edward's Chicken and the entire upstairs of the VFW Post 5077 hall. I'm hoping to have this much confirmed and locked in within the next 48 hours or so.

Next, I need to focus on the guest invitation list, and getting a DJ for the event. I've got a really good lead on that. One of Karen's former co-workers has a Dj and Karaoke service that he uses for parties and a local bar. I'm hoping that I can get him to do it for about $300 for the night. That right there would save me a couple hundred bucks.

More details to come.