A Love Grows Themed Anniversary Party - Anders Ruff Custom Designs, LLC

A few weeks ago, my brother, sister and I planned a Surprise 40th Anniversary Party for my parents. My parents are so selfless, loving, generous and are such a big part of our lives, so we wanted to surprise them with a room full of their favorite people. I talk to my mom every day, so it was super hard to keep this surprise party a secret, but it was SO worth it!

Because my parents both are interior designers who both love gardening, it seemed only fitting for their party to be themed a “Love Grows” themed Anniversary Party. I envisioned succulents in the tones of greens mixed with neutral creams, whites and burlap colors.

My lovely sister in law, Diana of Moxie Photography, captured a few photos of the setup and I’m excited to share them with you today! (Note, some of these are NOT Diana’s photos so I don’t want to take credit where credit is not due)

Keep an eye out for these eye catching details:
– Simple Shadow Box table focal pieces with enlarged vintage wedding photos of the couple from 40 years ago, embellished with DIY Burlap and Lace Rosettes
– Gorgeous potted succulents (in our favorite Guy Wolff Pots) as party favors with a “love grows” hangtag tied with twine for each guest
– Stunning Custom Sugar Cookies by Flourish Bake Shop to match the Anders Ruff printables
– Chalkboard style printables including a banner which was hung with layers of burlap and lace ribbon.

Our Love Grows Anniversary Party Invitation was a simple chalkboard style invitation with gorgeous line drawn accents, perfect for an anniversary party for any year.

The “Love Grows” Printable Banner (available in our shop) was attached to burlap ribbon first and then a white lace ribbon was hot glued on top – I loved adding the layers.

I designed a printable poster for the chalkboard so that I didn’t have to hand draw the elements in such a short time as we were setting up. (We traveled from WI to Michigan with a car full of props and I knew chalkboard writing would smear)

Lisa of Flourish Bake Shop created the most GORGEOUS custom sugar cookies that matched our printable Love Grows Collection.

The 20×30 welcome sign poster looked perfect in a rustic frame with the handmade burlap and lace flowers. (tutorial coming soon!)

Adria and I ate at Acme in NYC for her Foxy 40th Birthday weekend and we spotted the coolest bathroom with these line drawn characters all over the walls. Adria decided she wanted to take a stab at drawing my parents. I LOVE how they turned out! They looked so funny and cute on just a few scattered cupcakes.

I potted some dried hydrangeas from my own yard and traveled with them all the way from Wisconsin to Michigan. I LOVED the green tones. I potted them in my favorite farmhouse style Guy Wolff Pots (remember me raving about these pots?)

I found the most crazy beautiful succulents at a nursery nearby where my parents live (they had no clue I was even in town, so I was a little nervous shopping around the area!) I potted these in smaller Guy Wolff Pots and they were the favors. The printable “Love Grows” favor tag looked so gorgeous added onto the rim of the pot with twine.

Didn’t Flourish Bake Shop do an amazing job on the cookies!?

I bought these gorgeous white shadow boxes to display old photos of my parents on their wedding day 40 years ago. I placed the photo in the shadow box and then added a beautiful cluster of handmade rosettes. I’ll do a video very soon about how to make those easily!

Each of the guests received one of my favorite Guy Wolff pots with a gorgeous and unique succulent. They all loved them!

We only had 45 minutes to set up all of the tables, so a simple kraft paper wrapping paper runner was a great way to tie in our color scheme onto the simple white linens. We had one of our shadow box photo display at the end of each table and then lined the table with the potted succulents. It was perfect for the time we had to set up.

The place settings each had a printable place card from our collection as well as a cute flag and straw out of the glass. I loved how the succulents in the Guy Wolff Pots looked with the cream, ivory, white and kraft paper tones.