The disaster that became my anniversary

A few posts back I shared with folks that my 2-year anniversary was quickly approaching.  We don't have a large budget right now, in fact, the wallet is pretty tight these days and so I was trying to brainstorm ways to celebrate without breaking the bank.  While I was on alert one day, I came up with the idea to create a dinner themed like a tropical honeymoon.  Kaitlyn from Wifessionals created a Club Sexy and I thought it was a fun idea so it was kind of starting board.  Ryan and I never had the opportunity (or really funds) to go on a honeymoon so I thought this would be a really cute idea.  I would also love to see if other bloggers have done something similar.

Yep, I made that logo

I first wrote out a plan that included a name: Maganda Resort (which means beautiful in Tagalog).  I knew that I wanted to do a dinner and maybe even some type of fun activity like a goofy game.  I had seen a really fun one on Pinterest that involved Nerf guns and balloons.  That sounded right up our alley.  After limiting myself to a budget that included what we had in our fridge from our last shopping trip and $20 for decorations and other aspects, I nixed the Nerf gun idea but decided to decorate our living room/kitchen/dining room area to represent my make-believe tropical resort. 

You can watch the commercial here :)

It's cheesy, I know 

My friends Allie and Emily headed with me to Party America to pick up really cheap and affordable party supplies.  I picked up a scene setter (plastic sheets with a print on them to create a scene in your living room, kitchen, etc).  I've used these before for a Halloween party and it's a cheap way to really fill up a space without buying a ton of stuff.  Usually they cost anywhere from $7-$20, depending on the size and how elaborate they are.  Mine featured two palm trees and parrots.  I also picked up a cardboard decoration of a hula girl.  It fell out of the bag and didn't get featured at the party and spent the night in the car #gohomehulagirlurwasted

Screen shots from some of the elements that I made for the dinner.

I also picked up leis, tropical resort cups (which I love and drank beergeritas from all night), plastic bottle invitations, and a cardboard banner that said "luau." The plastic bottle invitations were pretty fun because it came with everything already inside the plastic bottle and cost a little over a dollar.  There was a drink umbrella, sand, a plastic sunglasses figurine, and a rolled up invitation.  There was also a sticker for you to pop onto the side.

 

I picked up a few packages of break apart chocolate chip cookies and popped those into the oven as I cleaned.  One of the easiest desserts and I highly recommend it because you can keeping munching on those even while movie watching.  We had steak and potatoes that were cooked in foil on the grill with butter and spices (super delicious).  Ryan finished cooking the steaks while I got ready upstairs.

My husband isn't a romantic man, this isn't anything new.  He really really really isn't romantic to the point where I expect him to forget a card and flowers because he just doesn't know better.  To counteract this, he asked people to text him reminders to pick up a card and flowers that day.  So of course he felt awful when he realized that despite all of these tactics he forgot but I wasn't surprised.  Honestly it wasn't that big of a deal but the bad part comes soon.

I'm upstairs straightening my hair and doing my make-up.  I put on a tropical print maxi dress because I want to look nice and head downstairs.  I turn into the kitchen and from the living room, Ryan yells out, "hey babe I already my steak, I was starving."  I slowly turn towards the plate that was holding the steaks post-grilling and there was only one. This is all in slow motion as a panic/intense anger sets in.  I turn one more time towards the kitchen and see a plate that has steak juice remnants left on it.  I can feel myself starting to get really upset.  I turn one last time and just walk up the stairs.  I change out of the dress into a grey tee and athletic shorts and by this point in time I'm visibly upset.  The whole point of the dinner was to be THE special event for our anniversary.  I was pissed.  I put in a lot of time and effort into planning it because I wanted it to be a special evening and even scaled it down to be budget friendly.

HE ATE DINNER WITHOUT ME. 

He can tell that I'm upset so he leaves the house and that makes the situation worse because you can't just leave on our anniversary.  I make myself a plate for dinner and sit down on the couch to eat it.  He calls and says that he didn't even realize what was wrong with eating dinner.  I explain it to him with the assistance of colorful words why it was wrong to eat our anniversary dinner without me, especially when I planned it. When Ryan returns he has a card and bouquet of flowers in hand.  Apparently the card was purchased a week ago and it was a really cute and funny card.  The flowers were lovely and actually the first bouquet Ryan has ever purchased for me.

I had decorations, music, and even a tropical scent in our Scentsy knock off that we didn't even enjoy.  Well technically the pineapple scent was going strong through all of this.  Ryan felt terrible the rest of the night but it was really difficult to salvage the dinner from there.  The leis, tropical drink holders, and other things just didn't really make sense.  But you bet your britches I was drinking my beergarita out of my pineapple cup.  He hadn't even seen my resort commercial yet until after he came back from picking up "I'm sorry" flowers.  In all of its cheesy glory I still wanted him to see it. I was pretty disappointed but nevertheless I still think the dinner idea is pretty cute.

Somebody do this with their s/o and have it succeed! It's too cute to be wasted :)

My cousin who is like a sister to me, Dwana, suggested that we use today to make up for it but I was just kind of all out of cute, unique ideas and out of funds.  I just really was enjoying the comfort of athletic shorts too much today ;)

Can you tell which ones we picked out ;)

Regardless of the epic fail that was the 24th, I still really appreciated having him here and definitely not deployed (woot woot for getting out) or in an entirely different city.

Have you had any dating disasters with you, your significant other or spouse? I must admit that today it all sounds pretty funny and one of those stories that I wanted to share because despite pretty pictures up on my blog, stuff sometimes just goes completely wrong :P