Dinner Party Reunion.

I love a good excuse to wrap up some napkins in ribbon and make the table look inviting. I also love my college friends. A lot. Over the past years, we've all lived all over... but now most of us are in a 3 hour radius, from Philly to DC. This weekend, we decided to have a mini potluck reunion. So I laid out some pretty platters and spruced up the house with some (cheap) flowers from the grocery store.

The blue serving platter that the utensils are on and the blue bowl with the candles were both wedding gifts. I spent a total of $6 on flowers for the house. And those cute little plates with martini glasses? On major sale from Crate + Barrel.

a view from the top!

So... in the midst of dinner party prep... Came a major snafu. While I was cutting the bread for my "bread salad", I was not paying attention and managed to slice halfway through my finger with a huge serrated bread knife. Yep, it was 5:35. Guests were arriving at 6:00. I had to go to the ER. Pronto. Jamie wasn't home and I knew it was actually an emergency, so I drove myself to the ER with two towels wrapped around my hand to save my car from the blood. I'll save any further bloody details, but when I got to the ER it was packed. I decided to take a chance, left the ER, and went to the Urgent Care down the road. Best decision ever. Walked in at 6:11 and out at 6:45. Four stitches, local anesthetic, and pain killer later.... The dinner party was back on!

And here I am, with the hospital bracelet on one hand and bandage on the other hand. Ouch.

But, even though I decided to massacre my finger, I was feeling so thankful my friends would be waiting at my house when I got home.  One of the most fortuitous happenings in my life is that I've been blessed with so many amazing friends. Here's the gang toasting to our reunion, minus Sarah who refused to be in pictures last night.

We all made food. So much food. We love to eat. Sarah even brought two trays of Chick-Fil-A chicken nuggets. Here are some photos of the spread. It included bread salad (thank you Alli for taking over bread cutting for me!), mini mac and cheese bites, italian wedding soup, spinach and cheese dip, olive + tomato tapenade, pepperoni and cheese cracker bites, two kinds of stromboli, bruscetta with ricotta on toast, and cream cheese wasabi dip. The food was delicious, and we stuffed ourselves.

yum. just waiting for the olive and tomato tapenade...

such amazing food.... this picture accurately represents our friendships-- all we do is talk, talk, talk.

Before our dinner party night, I had the idea of a clothing exchange. We all have some great clothes, but let's face it, we get sick of them. We don't want them anymore. We leave them lonely in our closet, longing to have someone wear them. So, everyone brought a bunch of things they were willing to give up. And we had an exchange. The rule was that  you took nothing you brought back home. So, if someone didn't want the item, it went in the good will pile. I'll drop our (very nice) donation bag off this week. See how nice? We got to spend time with friends, eat amazing food, get new clothes, AND give back to those in need. We are class acts.

See the clothes draped allll over the place? Those were all given up! This is my friend Lauren in a "singlet" as we came  to call it.

At one point, Jen got caught inside a dress. I jumped in to give her a hand!

me with my newly acquired jcrew sweater!

We all took home some good items, but I think Cauffiel won with the singlet in the end. We had a great big sleep over, and then some delish breakfast and coffee in the morning. So glad to see these girls, and so glad we all live close enough to do this more often!

Cheers! xo