Andrew and Janiece's Arizona Open House

A month after they were married Andrew and Janiece came down for an open house.
We did lots to the house to get it ready for this including redoing the front yard and painting the downstairs. Both really hard. Both worth it. Both something I won't be doing again for a LOOOOOONG time. Hopefully. 

Walking up to the house we had tea light candles and I made the "I Do" hanging sign.

When you walked into the house this is what you saw. We moved the TV table and played their wedding picture video on that. Then we set up the card suitcase (which i made) and sign in book by the front door. 

Next to the TV table was a smaller table where we had pictures of my mom, dad and grandma along with a "wish you were here" sign. Because we do wish they were there! Always do. And we wanted to incorporate them into the celebration somehow. 

 Along the wall across the stairs and computer we hung this wall decoration. I made it from a lot of toilet paper rolls/paper towel rolls and then a lot of spray paint. But I love how it turned out! It helped with the flow of things. I was real sad to throw it out after since it took a long time to make. But I'll make another one someday! 

In the family room we removed all the boys toys- no small task- and Jimmy and Andrew set up the tulle to make the room look a little more elegant. On that tv we had all of their wedding pictures on a slideshow and then more pictures and decorations on the mantle. 

 Working on setting up the food. We had cake balls, oreo truffles, nutella pie pops (didn't turn out so good but were fun to make with Mallory and Janiece!) cherry cheesecake bites, brownie bites, bite sized cookies, and banana pudding bites. Drinks were Hawaiian punch and water. We are still working on drinking the last container of Hawaiian punch around here.... 

John was in charge of the lighting, and he strung Christmas lights around the porch pillars, across the berm and around the cement border. We had to keep the tables and chairs on the porch as long as possible because the sun was boiling them! But that's ok because earlier in the day it was sprinkling and we choose sun over rain.
Also ignore the pile of outside toys on the side of the house.... they may still be there. 

Each of the tables had a different unplanned theme. One seemed country/cabin ish, one was gold accents and one was vintage type stuff. They all looked good! 

The porch all lighted up...
And Lucas trying to ring the doorbell. 

A better picture of the food/drinks all set up. It looked really good! 

It was a big project that took a lot of work but was worth it I think. We had a great turn out and got to see people we don't get to see all that often. There wasn't anything about it that I would have done different if I had to do it all over again. Everyone really pitched in to help the days leading up to it all and it ran very smoothly albeit very late into the night! And now their wedding radius is over.