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Party Planning: Family Reunion Style

November 5, 2012 By Erin Spain 2 Comments

Family pennant banner

My husband and I hosted a family reunion for his dad’s side of the family over the weekend, and we had so much fun! It was so nice to spend time with family members we rarely get to see, and our boys had a wonderful time playing with their extended cousins. I didn’t get to make as much fun decor as I would have liked – there just wasn’t enough time. But I wanted to share with you the few things that I did do.

Old milk jug + tree branches = pretty Fall centerpiece

My friend Erica gave me the glass milk jug pictured above. She had an extra and of course she knew that I’m your go-to girl if you’re getting rid of junk of any kind. She’s a girl after my own heart in that other people’s “junk” is treasure to us. I used the milk jug as a centerpiece by repurposing it as a vase for a couple of pretty Fall tree branches.

Use old fabric scraps + jute twine to create a rustic-style rag garland.

I used fabric scraps and jute twine to make this Rag Garland. I was inspired when I saw something similar to this at the Country Living Fair last weekend. I tied it from tree to tree.

Fabric scraps + twine = pretty garland

For a centerpiece for the smaller table, I used a small glass vase from the dollar store and stenciled it with my Martha Stewart glass paint. (See below.) I plopped some Fall leaves inside it and a small LED tealight candle.

Personalize a dollar store vase w/ glass paint.

Pretty paper medallions

These little paper medallions (above) were purchased from Party City and came in a variety of pretty colors. I think there were 5 per pack. I hung these from the tree branches.

Pennant Banner for Family Reunion

My banners didn’t turn out nearly as nice as I would have liked. It was down to the wire and I threw these together the night before. I just cut pennants out of burlap, threaded the jute twine directly through the burlap, and printed the words (“Spain Family”) on cardstock, hot gluing them to the pennants. I don’t have a Silhouette or any type of cutting machine, (it’s on my gotta-have-it list!) but I would have loved to have done vinyl lettering or even used it to cut out the letters from the cardstock. I tried cutting out each individual letter but it was going to take me a million years and I was in a hurry, so it didn’t happen.

Fall Family Reunion Table

We kept the food table and all of the snacks, etc., inside the pool house and the tables and chairs were on the patio outside. (No fancy tablescapes here, sorry!) The kids sat at their little chalkboard table. The reunion lasted all day long since everyone traveled from out of town, so we served lunch (burgers and hot dogs) and dinner (soup and salad bar) and had s’mores at night. It was so much fun!

Do you enjoy hosting family get-togethers? What is your favorite family reunion activity?

Filed Under: Decorating, Family, Home & DIY Blog, Party

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Family Room Update {+ Envelope Pillow Covers} »

Comments

  1. Tracie@MiddleClassModern says

    November 5, 2012 at 1:36 pm

    I love the branches in the milk jug. It looks like a great party setup.

    Reply
    • Erin Spain says

      November 5, 2012 at 10:05 pm

      Thank you!

      Reply

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