Low Key Celebrations for Major Milestones

My in laws recently celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary. Unfortunately, my father in law is not up to leaving the house, but we still wanted to celebrate this milestone in their lives.

Here are some quick tips that we used to create a low key celebration for a big life event.

We kept the guest list small – just their kids, grandkids and a few of my in law’s siblings.

We made the food simple – ordering platters from a deli so guests could eat seated or standing. We brought folding tables so we could set everything up without my mother in law having to worry about clearing off counters or tables. We also set up tables in the room where my father in law has his favorite recliner – we brought the party to him.

We wanted to make it special so I picked up a wrist corsage for her and a boutonniere for him. Because of the medication he is on we didn’t want to use a pin, so we used some washi tape to stick it to his shirt and eventually just tucked it in his pocket. I also got a beautiful white centerpiece. Since the 60th anniversary is a diamond anniversary, we needed to find a solution for the flowers – after all, there are no diamond flowers! After a quick google search with the florist we found a nice idea to have a different white flower for each decade they were married.

Then we all had a great time viewing their wedding photos. Their photos were on slides that had to be looked at through a device much like the ViewMaster I loved as a kid. They were beautiful, vibrant, 3D images. There were some tears shed over who was no longer here but also delight in seeing these pictures, some of us for the first time.

Then my millennials had fun using their iPhones to capture the pictures inside the view finder. The old pictures were brought to life and shared on everyone’s iPhones and printed out to be scrapbooked.

Reaching 60 years is a huge accomplishment and we were so happy to share a special day with them!