I agree with Party Music that the buffet line should be on both sides of table & have soup, corn, then stew,(do they make it with flatbread or will they be already put together? I haven't had that so don't know how it's done.. Drinks I always prefer to be in 1 area ,not main food table as a spill can really slow things down. Cake table- cake,forks, napkins & maybe couple of small containers of flowers, any canoes available?? How about a couple of child sized moccasins. Make them out of felt & bead on the front of them(glue or sew on) put a plastic container in where foot should go with low arrangement of fall flowers. Your idea of memories or quotes is good, make that a game where you pass out rough paper in rawhide or beige color & ask them to write something for bride & groom would need pens or pencils to write with but advice, favorite memory about couple or "how to get through the net 25 yrs" would be fun & interesting memory of the party. Only thought is be sure things are pretty secure in case of wind, would heat be a problem, might consider a tarp or 2 to shade some areas if you have trees or house you can anchor them on. Home Depot has brown ones that are nice & last quite well. Also have beige colored 6 ft wide shade cloth that can be anchored with long high wires to higher trees or close to roof so have some shade. It's sold in rolls 100 ft long or shorter 6 ft by 20 ft long. smaller rolls are $29. I think, I shade parts of my yard & makes a big difference. Sounds like a fun party!

These are all great ideas! Thank you all. Yayagal, I love the symbolism of releasing balloons and I did look into environmentally friendly/biodegradable balloons (they do make them) but to lessen the visual impact until they do (about 3 months) we could use earthy colors, but a brown balloon just seems wrong! And in order to fly up and away, they have to be helium, which is not available or green...Hhireno, I like the idea of bubbles, just because they are so fun! And I never would have thought of the leaves, Annie, but I kind of like that image. Plus, it would leave no footprint. And the clothing one is intriguing, I'll give it some thought, too. Thank you, Pattycakes, for the music idea, too. I think we would want women's voices, or instrumental, but I'll explore that as an option. I do love the music you linked. Ellendi, those are all great ideas and could easily be integrated, either at the close, or some other time during the retreat. Roobear, I'd never heard of EFT. Even if we don't try it as a group, I'm going to pass on info about the technique to our members. I think they will really appreciate and maybe benefit from that info.

Were they sold out of samples? I ordered three samples back in June and they were all fairly aqua-colored, tempered with a tinge of neutral. I didn't see any celadon in the tiles I got.

Dedtired, I rarely visited my fathers grave site either. DH has always taken on the responsibility of keeping things clean, trimmed, free of moss up there. He has a BIG family, many residing at the cemetery. At Christmas, one of his sisters makes wreathes and swags and the two of them distribute at the cemetery. This year she made 27, but a couple are friends he lost in Viet Nam. He would take care of my dads grave site even though I'd lost him years before meeting DH. (in fact. the couple right next to him doesn't seem to have had family visit in many years, and even though we know nothing about them, DH has taken over keeping theirs free of moss and debris too ;)) I knew it wasn't especially important to my father. Old family story of him driving cross country with my mother to their class reunion one year, and going many miles/hours out of their way to visit a tiny country cemetery. When they finally got there, he didn't even get out of the car. He didn't want to visit, he only wanted to see that it was still fenced and reasonably maintained overall. My mother was furious - so we heard about it. More than once. Now that the two of them are together again, I do go. With DH, he has his little cemetery supplies with whisk broom, sometimes edger, weed in lawn spray, moss treatment. It all looks lovely. Somehow having them there brings me comfort and peace. We may only stay a few minutes, but I can tell them Hi together, know things are clean and bright. It's the first time in my adult life I've had my mom within a few minutes of my home and less than a couple of hours freeway drive.