Wades of 108: Retirement Party

My mother worked in the public school system for over 30 years, first as a teacher (of a variety of grades and subjects, mostly language arts) and then as a middle school librarian. When she announced that she was retiring this June, we knew we wanted to give her a big sendoff.

After months of planning, we had a wonderful evening celebrating her long and wonderful career with her friends, family, coworkers and church members. I'd love to share some of the party details with you.

First, the invitations. I knew I wanted to go with a book theme, so of course I carried that into the invitations. I printed the party details on ivory cardstock and then matted them on actual pages cut from an old history book, and mailed them in brown kraft envelopes. I got a little punny with the invitation wording as well.

For centerpieces, I used stacks of old books, along with magnolia blossoms from my mom's huge magnolia tree.

For each place setting, we wrapped plasticware in a napkin and tied it with twine.

We were lucky that the party lined up perfectly with the blooming of the magnolia tree and mom and I's hydrangea bushes. For the food table, I used burlap table runners and a centerpiece of hydrangea blooms.

My sister commissioned this beautiful cake, decorated with the organizations Mom was involved in throughout her career.

Mom and her daughters:

And with her sisters and brother:

We had a wonderful meal of barbecue chicken (made by my dad) and sides (made by generous family members). Then my uncle, my dad and my mom's first principal said a few words about her (all of them being equal parts funny and touching). We showed a slideshow I had put together of pictures throughout her career, as well as well wishes from her coworkers. If you have a spare 17 minutes, you can take a look here:

Penny's Retirement Slideshow from Megan Wade on Vimeo.