Anniversary Dinner

Jeff and I threw ourselves a little party with our nearest and dearest Seattle pals this weekend. This month is our 10 year wedding anniversary, which also marks 20 years of Jeff and Jill - it seemed worthy of a party. We rented a funky space a block from my office where Edie also took ballet last summer. It's usually a Masonic Lodge, but it had decent enough bones that I had hopes we could transform it.

In some ways I think I enjoyed the party more than our actual wedding - my dress was certainly more comfortable, as were my shoes. I also started drinking the sangria pretty early in the evening, so some of these photos definitely showcase my drunk face.

I made some simple decorations with ribbons:

One banner that you might not be able to read. It says "10 YEARS IS A LONG TIME" in hot pink glitter pen.

We rented some cheap chairs and table cloths for the tables at the venue. Then I used some cute paper placemats with gold polka dots, tied more ribbon around napkins/silverware and used assorted bottles and bud vases from Goodwill to fill the table with flowers from the market.

There's Jeff in the background at the bar, getting the sangria ready.

And Dave, who came early to help us set up a bit with the white wine sangria:

We hired the paella chef who cooked for our rehearsal dinner to come back and he made a giant pan of paella outside. Here are Adam and Linda watching:

Jeff, me, Amy and Dave do a selfie:

Everyone eating paella!

Drunk face with 2 of my girls:

Mags and Dan:

There may or may not have been an electric stair chair at this venue. And I might have rode it with Matt (he didn't invite me to join him, I just hopped on). And yes, this is most definitely my drunk face:

Jake (Jeff's best man!), me and Katherine do what Jake called an "us-sie":

Blurry Jiff shot:

Less blurry Jiff shot:

The paella chef:

Moody Instagram version of the group:

Less moody, iPhone photo of the group:

Me, drinking my water as the guests start to depart and I realize I've had too much sangria:

The party was awesome; our friends are truly the best. Watching them all hang out together and catch up, make new connections, and have weird and funny antics with people they barely know was my favorite. We got so many lovely cards and more than one gift certificate to Mama's Fish House in Maui for when we go (sans Edie) in September - so excited to splurge one night and do it up at this restaurant we've been hearing about for years!

I think others got more and possibly better photos, but until they forward them to me, this is the best of our shots.