Rustic Anniversary Party

Last night my best friend and her husband celebrated their 5 year wedding anniversary by hosting a party for 75 people. I had the honor of planning the party and baking the desserts for the dessert bar. Dessert bars are so trendy and gorgeous so I was excited to take on this task! I sat down with Kristen almost 2 months ago and went over her vision for the party and afterwards put together an inspiration board which helped bring the party together and her vision to life.  Everything turned out wonderfully. 

We started the day by cutting fresh flowers from Potomac farmers market.
BEAUTIFUL zinnias.

I tied tags to each jar so guests could keep track of their glass throughout the night.

Love these barber shop striped straws.

The sliders were made by Kristen's Mother and they were absolutely delicious. Each time a new tray of sliders was brought outside, they were gone in seconds.

I love serving watermelon on kabob sticks because you don't have sticky juice dripping down your arm!

The banner I made to hang over the dessert table that my sweet friend Candace helped assemble.

I had so much fun making this cake!  The flower I used is the same type of flower Collin gave Kristen (but in white) when he proposed.

I baked for 2 straight days and ended up with a 4 layer cake, 95 mini chocolate cupcakes, 62 mini cherry pies, 2 dozen candy pretzels, 4 dozen chocolate chip cookies DIPPED in more chocolate ;), 52 cake pops, 75 lemon tarts, and 30 sugar cookies.  Wow.

I used mini green, yellow and orange tulip cupcake liners -- in Kristen's wedding the bridesmaids carried orange and yellow tulips, and wore green dresses.  I LOVE how every detail came together.

My favorite word to describe these 2 is "FUN".

I'm so happy with how the evening turned out and had the most wonderful time putting everything together.  Kristen's family was a dream to work with!