ruby!

I went down to Timaru for the weekend to celebrate Mum and Dad's 40th wedding anniversary. We had got them to give us the invite list and contact details and had then organised everything ourselves. We'd got invitations made at an American place online, and also put an ad in the Timaru Herald - Fiona had pilfered a few of Mum and Dad's photos and scanned them in so that we had electronic copies of everything.

Mum and Dad vacated the house before lunchtime on Saturday and went off for a surprise lunch - their friend Belinda and her husband (Mum and Belinda became good friends in Sydney just after the wedding) had flown in from Tasmania for the party and had kept their arrival a secret. In the meantime, us children and spouses set about organising the house for party central. We'd set upon a 'ruby' theme so we rearranged the furniture and decorated with red balloons, confetti etc. We welcomed the guests with ruby cocktails (Kir Royales) and I'd made a big chocolate cake decorated with red hearts. Fiona and Tiana made some fantastic food - casseroles and roast meat, as well as four different types of hummus! John had also put together a fabulous playlist of some of Mum and Dad's favourite music, and we had some of the photos playing on a loop on the new, big plasma screen TV.

The guests started arriving at dead-on 7.30 and had dressed for the occasion in red-themed clothing. We had about 25 people in all, so it was the perfect size for the house - there was the conservatory and the deck for people to spill out on. Having the welcome cocktails and the theme meant people were party-ready as soon as they got there, so it all warmed up very quickly. The food went down really well, although I think Mum and Dad were eating left-overs for a few days! They had a fantastic evening, so it was brilliant to get so involved in all that and make a special day for them. Photos are here