Couple's Valentines Party

For the past several years my husband and I have been hosting a Couple's Valentines Party!
Here is what we did last year:

Invitations:
(made via scrapblog.com)

The theme of the party was "High School Reunion" 

The invitations tell guests to dress in the era that they graduated from, or wear something they have been hanging onto that they have had since high school. A Letterman's Jacket, a Jersey or an old shirt your spouse has been begging you to part with etc. A lot of the guests found some pretty great "costumes" from the thrift store. They were also asked to bring 2 white elephant gifts, a side dish of their choice and to be ready to share a "little-known fact" about their spouse from their high school days!

The Set Up

We kept it really simple and just decorated the tables with easy centerpieces: Yearbooks from some of the guests, a high school novel, a small vase of flowers and some valentine candy sprinkled around it. We also had a vase of markers for the game we were playing in the center of each table.

(The above picture was taken after a lot of the candy had been eaten!)

Guests came decked out in their High School garb!

Dinner was "Served"

Guests were treated to a casual dinner- cafeteria style! It was a buffet line with rectangular Styrofoam plates (from the dollar store) and everyone's favorite school lunch- Pizza! We had a variety of side dishes from  what everyone brought and the drinks were cartons of milk and juice (we did have some soda too). For dessert- ice cream cups with wooden spoons!

The Entertainment:

The entertainment for the night was our White Elephant Gift Exchange.We did this 2 years ago and people have been asking us to do another one since that crazy night! Here is how we did it:

- Everyone wrote down their spouses "little known secret" and all papers went into the bowl. (Remember, since these are secrets coming from their spouses mouths, people got really creative and dug deep since it wasn't revealing anything about themselves!)

- One at a time, I pulled out a secret from the bowl and gave everyone a chance to laugh at guess who's secret it was.

- Whoevers secret it was got to pick a gift from the white elephant pile. Each gift could be stolen 3x's before it became "frozen". We literally laughed all night long- first at the secrets, then at the funny gifts people brought for the exchange!

Class Favorites:

The last thing we did for the night was chose our "class favorites." I had ballots on the table for all guests to write down who at the party should get the titles for "Best Smile, Best Dressed, Most Athletic" etc. We tallied up the votes and gave some awards to the winners.

(my parents got best smile, which was more of a joke because my dad rarely smiles!)

(the cutest couple wasn't even a couple, they just both happened to wear their prom clothes so it fit! they were shocked when their names were read!)

I LOVED this costume from the friend who won best hair and best dressed. I wish I would have gotten a better picture of her and her Esprit sweatshirt- she is darling! (Her real husband is the one holding the baby who wore his high school grundge attire, just in case anyone was wondering!)

...and that is it!

Pizza and ice cream and a white elephant party- this really can't get any easier to plan!

Here are the ballots and papers I printed for the "little known secrets" and class favorites prizes. Feel free to use them for your own party!