The Invite. A little bit of grunge with lots of Valentine love. Which kind of set the theme for decorations.
I had a vision of Newspaper as our tablecloth with frilly decorations and I'll have to admit, I wasn't sure that it was going to work. We finally just bit the bullet and did it and loved the way it looked. It was a perfect mix of the grunge and frills.
We taped about 100 balloons to the ceiling and realized shortly thereafter that we needed more. I think we ended up with close to 175 and it still didn't fill the room but we were up till 12:30 the night before hanging balloons and I had had enough (not to mention it was a total pain in the butt taking all the tape off the ceiling yesterday). But the effect was awesome!
We had everyone bring an appetizer which we served at the island and then after all the games, we had a chocolate fountain (seen in the background). The guys weren't too hip on the chocolate after the game we made them compete in, so there were lots of treats for the ladies.
I gathered wedding pictures from each of the couples that came and hung them in the family room for all to enjoy (I think I spray painted every frame in my house to hang on this wall and bought a few more as well). I added some fun digital art that I made and voila a great decoration! It was so fun to see everyones pictures and see the changes in everyone.
Chocolat Fountain table.
Erin and I had made official {LOVE FACTOR}shirts for us to wear since we would not be competing (as the hosts) and would be the "judges" for the evening.
Our t-shirt contest winners. Mixed tape love songs.
Some other great shirts.
More
More
and still more.
Games
We had a love thermometer (which I forgot to take a picture of) that we used to keep track of points and as the couple scored points they would more up on the love factor scale. We all started at icy cold and moved up through chilly, mild, lukewarm, hot, smokin', and finally our winners were hot and spicy.
We started the games with Valentine trivia questions which everyone answered as we ate appetizers. Then we had them divide into 4 teams of 3 couples each to compete in a variety of minute to win it games. We had one or two people compete from each team in the different games and then the winning team would get a point for each of the couples. We even made buffs for them to wear depending on their team color.
First game, "Hanky Panky" Each contestant had to pull out every tissue in the box of tissues using only one hand. First one to get them all out was the winner.
Second, "Dragon Tails". We gave each contestant 2 rolls of streamers which they had to unwind starting in the middle.
Third, didn't work so well, but it was fun to watch. One teammate had 2 lint rollers and the other teammate had to throw ping pong balls and try to get one to stick on the lint rollers. It quickly became whoever could catch it first between the rollers would win.
Forth, each team was given 20 m&m's and had to toss them into the mouth of their other teammate. Whichever team caught the most scored the points.
We then moved into the girls against girls and guys against guys part of the game.
Girls: We bought a jar of cherries with stems and each girl picked one and had to put the stem in her mouth and tie it into a knot. Once the knot was tied and we all saw it, they moved to the floor where there was a pile of puzzle pieces. I had glued each wedding picture onto mat board and cut it into 9 pieces. The girls had to find their pieces and put the puzzle together. First one done moved up on the love factor scale.
Guys: The guys game was probably the highlight of the evening, at least for those of us who were not competing in it. This was where the fear came into play. We had covered food items in chocolate and just like fear factor, they had to eat everything on their plate to move onto the next round where we had another plate full of chocolate covered goodies. Some of the things we covered included a giant marshmallow, gummy worms, ritz crackers, black licorice, meatballs, pork rinds, string cheese, pickles, and sauerkraut. We also included a cupcake stuffed with ketchup. Needless to say, only 4 of the guys finished their plates and many backed away as soon as they found out that it wan't all yummy treats.
The second plate
The guys gearing up for the second round.
This was hilarious!!!
Choking it down.
Our winner, Jared (although we gave points to whoever finished the plate).
We then finished off the contest with body part twister. We would spin it twice and one person would have to place the first body part onto the other body part on their spouse. (Make sense?) So for example if the two spins were palm and knee, then the guy would put his palm to her knee. Couples got out as they couldn't keep their positions any longer. The winner again moved up on the love factor scale and coincidentally the winners of twister were actually the winners of the entire night.
The Moore's...Our Hot and Spicy Love Factor winners!
And of course what is a game without prizes. Everyone went home with something. Last places...box of chocolate from the 1spot at target. 5 middle couples...love games (bought at the grocery store, nothing naughty). Our second place winners got a gift card to red mango and our first place winner got a gift card to zuppa's. The "be mine" heart was the prize for the t-shirts.
We had such a great time planning and having the party. It was so worth all the work and effort because all who attended had a blast. Can't wait to plan the next big event.
