30 Years Cancer Free

2013 was quite a year in my family. Not only did my husband turn 30, but my mom celebrated her 30th anniversary being cancer free on May 26th. Just to provide a little background:

When my mom was 28, she went into her GYN after feeling a lump in her groin area. Both her and my dad are in the medical profession (she is an RN, he is an MD) so they knew it was something they should have checked out. Initially her GYN said it was nothing, and sent her home. Feeling uneasy with the response, she went for a second opinion. The second doctor did a biopsy and found it was Ovarian Cancer. My parents had only been married a year or so at this point, so this shook them to the core. After going to see a gynecological oncologist, it was determined she would need heavy chemo, radiation and a complete hysterectomy. Now, if you know my mom, you know that her dream in life was always to be a mom so this news also meant she could never bear her own children. Completely devastated, she held my dad close as they prepared for the worst. Apparently the waiting room she visited while undergoing chemo was also home to a OB/GYN office, so as she sat waiting to consume a drug that would never allow her to bare children, she was next to women who were pregnant and elated to be growing families of their own.  Talk about adding insult to injury. Those who know and love my mom give her tremendous credit because she defeated this monster, and crawled out of the "depths of hell" as she put it. Have I mentioned she is my hero? So, here we are, 30 years later and she adopted 3 incredible children without a single recurrence of cancer. It was no question that we needed to honor this milestone in her life, so my brother, sister and I set out to organize this incredible celebration.

In my usual fashion, I searched pages upon pages of ideas for "survivor parties" and to my disappointment, was met with tons of information on parties surrounding the TV show. When I switched my search to "cancer party" I found about a bazillion ideas for Breast Cancer. Simply changing the colors from Pink to Teal wasn't going to be good enough for this party so most of the ideas are my own. Coming from a large family, about 30 in all (my mom is the oldest of 6, who each had 2-3 kids of their own), there was no shortage of help. I cannot thank everyone enough for coming together to make this happen! Below are pictures from the event. Browse, enjoy and if you know someone who is celebrating defeating cancer, whether it be a year or 30, please feel free to use my ideas. I also have the templates and fonts for everything so just let me know how I can help!

I designed everything, including the above logo in my go-to design program, Photoshop. Ovarian cancer color is Teal so I just googled teal backgrounds for the invitation/menu, then put a white square on top. Designing the logo was also relatively simple. I found a butterfly (if you cant tell I'm obsessed with them since to me, they symbolize rebirth and renewal) and recolored it in photoshop. I grabbed the darkest teal color from the background image, with the dropper tool, and then used it for the butterfly. To give it an ombre look, I simply adjusted the lightness by using the slider in the color selection window. Then found a teal ribbon online and used that as well, and put it behind everything else. 

Clearly, she had no idea...Since the party was the weekend after mother's day, we told her we wanted to take her out to a fancy dinner at a new restaurant near my house. The party was formal, so we needed to make sure she came dressed for the occasion. HUGE props to my sister Marissa for getting her to my house and helping her pick out the most perfect dress. We asked everyone to wear teal to show their support, and gave everyone teal bracelets to wear during dinner. They were also part of the favor for each guest to take home with them at the end of the evening. 

Friends and family greeting her as she opened the door to the backyard. 

This picture cracks me up for a few reasons, but several people commented that it's a "Pope pose" 

Now, this is a Pinterest inspired idea that can be found here. It was built by my sister's boyfriend's step-dad after a lot of time, effort, energy and hard work. It was such a perfect compliment to the party. The idea was to set up my camera to my tripod with a remote shutter so the guests could pose behind it and take pictures themselves, however it was a rainy, dreary day (I think my grandma was watching from heaven and it was just her tears of happiness celebrating with the family!)

My incredibly creative and super talented Aunt and Godmother helped us with these centerpieces. We took cheap frames, put in pictures of mom throughout the past 30+ years, hot glued teal ribbons, took a whole bunch of candles/glitter/glass confetti then scattered them around each table. When the sunset, we lit the candles and everything illuminated beautifully. 

Here are the favors we had at the party. On the left are little pink and teal boxes with a teal ribbon hot glued on the top, filled with life savors made by my mom's good friend Kathy. On the right are chocolate covered oreos made by Triciallicious who can be found on Facebook. My Aunt Pat made these favors (if you browse her site, you can find TONS of damn good chocolate and sweet treats, all hand made) which were a big hit at the party. She has chocolate molds made for oreo cookies, so these favors are oreos, covered in white chocolate with teal ribbons on top. Delicious! 

These are just the thank you notes I made to match the party theme. Wicked is her new favorite Broadway play, so the quote is from there and was her mantra for the evening:

"Because I knew you, I have been changed for good" 

All in all the party was a HUGE success and, despite the weather, a perfect evening. If you have any questions or need help, please let me know: JenniferLCarelli@gmail.com. 

Always remember to Live Zen.

xo

Jen