Wizard of Oz
My brother John and his wife decided to have a 'Wizard of Oz 'theme party for their 10th wedding anniversary. It was an amazing and memorable day and the Wizard of Oz theme was truly inspired.
Mum and I helped out by making and sending out 25 invitations. We drew a winding yellow brick road on the front of blank, white cards and sprinkled gold glitter on the road. At the top was written "follow the yellow brick road'. Inside were details of time and date and the location was John's Mum's house. Below was written, "There's no place like home."
On the day of the party John and his wife helped move all of the living room and dining room furniture into the den. Mum had rented five tables putting them together to make one big table. We rented chairs as well. She found cute Wizard of Oz print fabric at the fabric shop and made a tablecloth. She had also rented some beautiful iridescent glazed china and ruby red glasses from the party rental shop.
John and dad went to a prop rental house to pick up some scenery and backdrops from a stage production of The Wizard of Oz. They were great!. These were painted to look like Munchkin Land with the Emerald City in the far distance. Mum took some pictures of them for me to put in my scrapbook. There was even Glinda the good witch's floating bubble looking like it was coming toward the village. It was incredible! I felt like I was on the set of the movie. Some of our family decided to surprise John and Debbie by dressing up as characters from the Wizard of Oz. Uncle Tom dressed like the tin man. Dad was the cowardly lion, Mum was Auntie Em and I dressed as Dorothy. I even managed to find a pair of ruby slippers.
We finished the decorating just as the guests began arriving. No one could believe what we had done. The Wizard of Oz soundtrack was playing on the stereo and John and Debbie sat in the seats of honour at the head of the table.
Mum had ordered all the food from a local caterer. She transferred the food into serving dishes and brought them to the table. The wine was opened and everyone made a toast to John and Debbie with our ruby red glasses. The meal was very good. Mum ordered an amazing cake from the bakery. It was decorated to look like the Emerald City and in white icing was written, "Happy 10th Anniversary John & Debbie".
After the meal, we found out the real reason Mum said John and Debbie did not have the room at their house to have the party. John's Mum lives in the rural side of town and a hot air balloon was descending onto the dirt road between the orchard and the mustard field. Everyone (including the neighbours) was amazed. John and Debbie got to go up first. When they came down Debbie was crying. Everyone asked her what was wrong, but she couldn't speak so she just held out her hand and showed everyone the diamond bracelet John had surprised her with when they were high above the ground. After that, everyone got a chance to take a ride in the hot air balloon. The view was fabulous! I had never been in a balloon before and I was glad I remembered to bring my video camera. I never get tired of watching the tape.
When the balloon rides were done, we all went inside and watched The Wizard of Oz. Everyone, especially John and Debbie had a great time, but they left before the film was over so they could get to the bed and breakfast in time to check in and start their own celebration.
