Mad Love...

James and I decided to host a little Valentines dinner party for some of our friends.

If you ask me the holiday of romance is the perfect excuse to get together with other couples.

Why not share it with others?

We love having people over to our humble abode

but have longed to throw something a little more swanky for a while.

Let's be honest, dressing up and eating on your lap in our family room is fun - 

but not exactly glamorous or romantic.

Thanks to Hotel Hanford and my blog at OC Family,

 we were able to host a little bit of a fancier party.

You can read a little more about the party planning aspect here.

Usually James and I invite over "circles of friends" that already know each other.

But this time we opted to invite several random couples from different Southern California cities.

Although we all graduated from BYU at the same time we had never all connected.

We loved it and I think every one thoroughly enjoyed getting to know each other better.

The Mad Love theme and shimmery look was inspired by this photo that I saw on Pinterest.

We don't really watch Mad Men (ha) but I just really like the style.

So, I went for it.

It seemed like the perfect fit for the hotel and for a glamourous party.

Why not?

The Hotel is a boutique and was wonderful to work with.

I adored the catering manager and loved chatting about the monkey party she just planned.

I basically want to move in to the retro lobby.

We felt a a little silly and almost like superstars dining in their fancy room.

It was beautiful.

But above all else the food was to die for.

They served 7 different dishes 

and every.single.thing. was incredible.

All of the ingredients are grown locally or organic.

James loved the scallop but I downed the homemade pasta.

As crazy as it sounds, we can't wait to go back to the hotel restaurant (Savoy) to eat.

{Eric and Candace}

{Dave and Karly}

{Aaron and Mercedes}

My favorite part of the evening was the newlywed game that James planned.

When I met James I had no idea he was Mr. Social

but boy does he love a good gathering.

Our good friend Drew Ludlow once told us

 that in the olden days couples were separated at parties to encourage conversation.

So, half way through the dinner we decided to split couples up to play the game.

I thought it was a crazy idea but James insisted.

I must admit that up until that point the conversation was broken between the two sides of the table.

As soon as we all moved and started playing the entire table was engaged and chatting.

We were all laughing so hard we could barely contain ourselves.

I am even trying to convince my parents to host a dinner party and play.

Even though it is the "newlywed" game I think it is even funnier the longer you've been married.

If you are interested in his questions, leave me a comment and I will email them to you.

Truly so grateful for this man for putting up with my crazy holiday obsessions.

Thankfully he even kissed me goodnight with what he calls "that nasty stuff" on aka lipstick.

Now that my friends, is Mad Love.

Hope you all had a wonderful Valentines week.

XOXO

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