The Hendersons Do Valentine's Day

And we do it well, if I do say so myself : )

Last year my roommates and I hosted the first annual Valentine's Day Celebration of Love and I committed to hosting one every year. Well this year I've got myself a NEW roommate, a much hotter roommate (no offense Randi or Shea) and let's just say the intensity of the party stepped up a notch... or two or three or four : ) We decided to host a dinner party. For 13 people. I don't know if you know this but in food terms, that's a lot of people. Ok not really but it's quite an intimidating number for this newlywed wife who's still learning how to cook. I think both Joel & I way underestimated this task but we went ahead with it and I think for our first attempt at it we pulled it off pretty well. Plus we just had a blast so whether we did it right or not I guess that's not what matters, right?

I've been thinking of details for this party for weeks now and I was so excited to actually have it. Thankfully my sister Kristin was able to snap some shots of the finished results, as I was SADLY too stressed out/rushed to even think about it : (

We set up a big screen and projector and played a black & white movie while some good ole Frank Sinatra and other romantic oldies played in the background.

The great thing about decorating for Valentine's Day is that you can use a lot of found objects you already have lying around the house because red, pink, & white are such common colors a lot of stuff incorporates. Old coke bottles and playing cards... perfect example. Also a big bonus is a lot of red Christmas decorations can serve as Valentine's decorations.

I worked hard on these place cards making the fruit stickers and slicing the name tags into the apples. It was also fun busting out our full place settings for everybody (which we had enough of thanks to our wonderful wedding presents).

Well like I said, WE had a blast and we certainly hope all of our guests did. It was such a nice evening outside under the lights and we loved spending the night chatting and hanging out with a bunch of our friends.