Hey party people! You may or may not have spotted me here and there on LMP's Instastories and Snapchat. I'm Natalie, LMP's best and brightest intern, (ha!).

Throughout my four years of college I've been juggling school, working a part time job at a local restaurant, and doing floral design on the side. Then in January I threw interning into the mix and needless to say, my brain has been fried. So after all of my hard work, my parents decided to throw me party at our home in the suburbs to celebrate my 18 years of schooling being DONE.

Of course after a few months of interning with LMP, I've picked up a tip or two on party must haves, set up, decor, etc. My inspiration for my graduation party actually came from The Little Miss Shower Party in a Box. I loved the simplicity of the colors... metallic and white with small touches of color. So I set my color pallet: white, silver, lavender, and iridescent touches here and there.

The first thing I did after I set my date and theme, was make a checklist of all the things I had and all the things I still needed to order or buy. Various members of my family generously donated things like tables, candy jars, chalkboard signs, linens, and more! This cut my costs down a ton! And since my parents had already paid for my 4 years of college tuition, I wanted to be very mindful of the budget.

I decided to set up a tent where all the food and beverages would be stationed (and to keep it out of the sun!)

A dessert table with a fabulous backdrop for photos and sweet treats

A table for gifts, cards, & the favors for my guests to take home

And finally a welcome sign to show my guests where to enter the backyard (this is also a good way to keep the foot traffic out of your home!)

I spent months researching decor inspiration on Pinterest and all my favorite stores like Target (where I found all my paper products) and HomeGoods (where I found all my cake stands and random decor pieces). By giving my self enough time to do the research I was able to not overspend on last minute purchases.

The week of I bought the beer, made a fruit infused Lemonade (which I actually stole from Seri's How To Host: The Perfect Picnic)....

And helped my mom prep all the food for our 7 course meal that fed 50 people (yep, she cooked it all.... she's insane).

With all that I had to do, I didn't have the time to make a playlist. So, I just set my speakers to the LMP Party Playlist on Spotify. My guests LOVED it because there was something on there for everyone to enjoy.

The day before, I bought and styled all of my own flowers.

And had my amazing boyfriend, Liam, lug around all the party rentals, hang stringed lights from the trees, and clean up the backyard

Since I prepped so much in the days leading up to my party, the day of all I had to do was put out the food and take lots of pictures.

At the end of the night, it was a fast clean up since I used all disposable paper products and let guests take home any extra food, desserts, and flowers.

The party was such a success, I'm already on to planning the next family affair.... Maybe I'll share that one too :)

Until next time!