Last week my husband and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary!  It’s hard to believe that a year ago I was immersed in mini-wedding planning.  To celebrate, we had dinner at the very same place where my husband proposed.  I,  finally, got one of our wedding pictures properly framed.  And I even bought a beloved cookbook to honor the occasion (because paper is the traditional first anniversary gift, right?).

Anyway, I remembered that I was going to post some post-wedding, “non-reception” celebratory photos.  Looking through them, I don’t have very many with actual people; I think I was too busy having a blast to take many photos which often happens!  So, I’m just going to post some of my more craft-related ones.

These pics are from non-reception #1 which took place at our home last October.  Rather, they were taken during preparations before anyone showed up.

Since it was October I wanted a slightly spooky theme but not in a costume-party kind of way (see our party invitations here).  The colors were black, white, silver, pink and orange.  In the photo, above, you can see our pretty bunting crafted with paper doilies, silver glitter card stock letters and black & white striped twine.  The wee cake is pre-wedding topper (silvery glitter initials much like the ones used in the bunting).  Originally I wanted to make a larger 2-tiered cake but became petrified by the thought as I’ve never made one.  But a sweet little cake plus cupcakes galore did the trick.  (By the way, the frosting was pearly and marshmallow-y, while the cake was yellow with chocolate chips.  So good!)

My lovely friend Kara, who came down for the weekend, was very kind and totally game for any party-decorating ideas I threw her way including decorating our high ceilings with paper streamers.

The mantle was decorated with various pumpkins, candles and a fabric-covered accordion-style scrapbook filled with photos from the wedding, backed with craft paper I printed and designed myself.  The plastic cauldron on the coffee table was later filled with candy for the young and young at heart.  (We did have real food, I swear, like cheese and dip and charcuterie, but those things were set out just before people arrived.)

Kara and I spent the previous night making these fun cupcake toppers with Victorian clip art butterflies in October-ish colors.  We (and by we, I mean Kara) put that scalloped paper punch to good use!

Oh, I can almost taste those cupcakes!

You would think 12 hours of sleep would cut it but I awoke in a deep fog, much like the grey early mornings we’ve been having these past few days.  I had a fabulous weekend – we had our “Non-reception” party!  Really, it was SO much fun; much merriment and mirth to be had.  There was a lot of decorating and preparing  (Hee hee, though not much sleep) and it was all worth it.  (Of course, there’ll be pics to share!)

Now it’s Monday and I’ve had to deal with all sorts of web/technical issues, a backed-up Inbox, etc.   Ah, yes.  Monday.  Right now I’m just trying to work and keep my eyes open!  I attempted to catch up on sleep last night.  Oh, I just can’t function unless I get enough sleep…I remember being in my 20s and studying or staying up late, getting 5 hours of sleep, no big deal.   But now, I need my 8/9 hours if I want to feel good.  It’s hard, though, to make a sleep a priority; a good night’s sleep often seems like quite the luxury in light of all the things we want or think we need to do.

So, anyway, I think a cup of chamomile tea and another long rest awaits me later tonight.