A red and blue farewell party

A very dear friend of mine is moving next week. I think the general consensus among our friends is that we are heartbroken that she is leaving, but we wanted to give her family a good-bye party to let them know how much we love and will miss them. We decided to have the party on Memorial Day in the evening at our neighborhood park. We chose a nautical "Bon Voyage" theme which ended up being more just red and blue, which was perfect for the holiday! And because we just weren't up to feeding 100 people ourselves, we decided on a dessert potluck. My contribution was a platter of summery Strawberry Rhubarb Bars.

I hauled two 6-ft. tables and a stack of vintage tablecloths, vintage blue glass canning jars, and a bundle of handmade pinwheels all to the park with the help of my kids' wagon!

 This adorable banner, a gift from my mom, was the perfect addition to the tables.

And of course there had to be stripey straws! The blue straws were from Amazon, and I was a bit disappointed when the arrived because the blue is really more turquoise than the royal blue I'd been hoping for. They still looked cute in my vintage Hull pottery and I'm sure nobody but me noticed the color mismatch.

The cute checkered tin is a recent purchase from Cost Plus World Market. I can't find it listed on their website anymore, but they are made to look like a vintage-style printed metal picnic tin with a lid. Since I've had zero luck finding any real specimens out in the wild, I was happy to plunk down $15 for this one.

I think I might put some Styrofoam down in the bottom and poke those pinwheels into the foam for a cute patriotic decoration that will work all summer long!

It was fun to create a pretty, vintage-style party setting even in the middle of a park, even if it meant half a dozen trips with a wagon back to my car to haul everything!