A Visit to the Dentist - Graduation Party!

In my last post I mentioned that my husband just graduated from dental school! To celebrate the occasion, I hosted a party in his honor at our house for friends and family. I seized the opportunity to 'go all out' and gave it a strong dental theme. It isn't every day that you add Dr. to your name, so I wanted Keith to feel extra special. I also come from a family of dentists and knew that many would be in attendance, so the theme was sure to be a hit with guests. Here are the pictures from the party!

The invitations! 

My sweet friend from work, Michelle, designed the invites for me and it really set the stage for the color scheme and personality of the party. She is really talented, so you'll see several things she designed to help me pull it all together!

I ordered this sign from Amazon and put in the front yard to greet every one. Now, it's hanging in the garage! I love party decor that serves a purpose afterwards.

 

The dessert display!

Michelle created a background image for me to blow up as a poster. I mounted it to a thick poster board from Hobby Lobby.

I made streamers using a 2 inch and a 1/2 inch paper punch and hot glued the circles to ribbon. So easy and fast!

Sweet desserts for your sweet tooth!

I called these 'Nerve Center Cupcakes with Crest Frosting' and piped some red frosting in the center!

Two things that are very bad for your teeth: rock candy and 'plaque' taffy as I called it.

Tooth-shaped cavity cookies!

Candy Molars made using vanilla candy melts and this mold from Amazon. They were really easy to make! I put them in glass jars with blue gumballs.

After lots of food, you gotta have some mints! I filled Wilton favor tins with Tic Tacs and Michelle also printed stickers for me.

I created a station for guests to wish Keith well or jot notes of wisdom. My precious sister-in-law cut out the tooth-shaped pieces of paper one night earlier in the week. Thanks, Meagan!

Being that dental samples and goodies are in abundance in this family, I made treat sacks as a thank-you gift to attendees.

The dining room was decked out and loaded with food!

I hung paper tissue pom poms (some store bought and some home made) from the chandelier, along with some tissue paper fans. I made extra garland with the paper punches and draped those around, too.

Using straight pins, we pinned the paper tissue fans to the front of the table. These are all from Party City.

The food table was called the filling station!

Silverware was packaged in stick-and-seal sterilization packages. Gotta love being from a dental family - these supplies came easy!

The molar picks came from Oriental Trading and were super cheap! The surgery masks were intended to be for decor, but you'll see later that we put them to use!

This recipe from Southern Living served as 'Sea Extractions' on mini plates - they were tasty!

I used this delicious recipe to make the corn salsa, and served in mini plastic bowls. This was a new recipe to try and it was one of my favorite things I tried all night! I skipped the instructions to cook the corn first. 

My Dad helped me name this dish. Deciduous is defined as 'falling off at maturity' and is used to describe baby teeth. I think corn off the cob ties pretty well to that!

This was one of the first dish/name combos I came up with. The recipe is from the back of the Knorr Vegetable mix packet. If you've never made it, give it a try! It's delicious!

This is the slaw recipe we used, and it received rave reviews all night.

A variety of cheeses were coined as 'Assorted Decay.'

I'm not even sure what Pulp Polyps mean, but the dentists in my life said it was a great name for stuffed mushrooms - I used my recipe from this post. The tooth picks came from Amazon.

A few other food items that were also on display:

-Catfish & Tartar Sauce

-Bite Wings (chicken wings)

-Smokies (this recipe for smoked sausages)

-Cotton Rolls (bread)

-Root Vegetables with Herb-Goat Cheese Dip

By the sinks in the house, I encouraged every one to scrub in appropriately!

In the kitchen was the bar area...

This is one of my favorite signs that Michelle designed! Too cute.

For fun, I used this ice cube tray to make frozen sets of teeth, and referred to them as Prosthetics. For the lay person, prosthetic means fake, or dentures, in this case.

For those feeling brave, I had syringe party shots available! These came from Party City.

I forgot to snap of picture of this at the actual party, but Mom and I made a toothbrush vase using inexpensive brushes, hot glue and a can. It looked great with fresh hydrangeas from the yard in it!

Now, all of that decor is fun, but it's no party without the people! And, we had a really great time...

Keith with my Grandma

Bridget and I

My mom chats with Dr Mathaney - one of Keiths' instructors that is also our neighbor

Keith with Dr. Todd Higginbotham - the life of the party, and always wearing a smile!

Keith's Aunt Peggy and grandmother

Brandon and Jessica

Love this pic of my grandparents!

The Burrises - so glad they came from Jonesboro!

Cheers with Ashley - another future Dr. Jones!

Keith with his cute mom!

My parents, grandparents and Keith and I

 

Jessica, Ashley and I get silly with the surgical masks

One of my favorite pictures of the night - the mask pic! I'm pretty sure we were all still smiling behind our masks! I only wish we had done it sooner and put everyone in it!

Congrats again, Keith! Thanks to all that helped me put this party together. I could not have done it without my mom, dad, mother-in-law, sister-in-law, sister, and lots of helpers in the kitchen the day of the party. It definitely takes a crew to pull that off, so thanks again!