Did you know that there is such a thing???
Yep, the party planning hangover does in fact exist. I know because I am suffering from one right now. I am exhausted. Run down. In a zombie-like state. So tired that I just had a difficult time coming up with synonyms for "tired". And I love me some synonyms, so when they don't just roll right out of my brain or off of my tongue I know there's a problem.
Addyson's 4th birthday party was Saturday, less than 48 hours ago, and I think that it may have been my best one to date. I'm not bragging, just sayin'. I did so much stuff (even more than usual) in the way of crafting and decorating and
I did it all myself. There were even some decorations outside, which is a new touch that I added this time. Can you sense my pride? Like I'm the only person that ever thought to put party decor outside.
Groundbreaking.
I have been planning this party in my head and on paper and Pinterest (of course) for several months, and I started gathering supplies and working on some of the crafty projects at least 6 weeks ago. I started decorating the house on Monday and tried to do a little each day so that I would be done with that part of the process by Friday. During the day on Friday I cleaned the house - scrubbed toilets, cleaned mirrors, sinks and countertops, swept and mopped floors and dusted. Then Friday night I baked the cupcakes and made the petit fours so that Saturday I wouldn't have much left on my to-do list.
Or so I thought.
Even with all of this prep work I found myself rushing around on Saturday at 4 p.m. with just 1 hour before the party started. I was up at 7:30 and kept a good pace going throughout the day but somehow I was still stressed and kept thinking of more things that I needed to do before the guests arrived. I also had 3 children to dress and promised the Birthday Girl that I would give her a special birthday hairstyle. Oh, and then there was ME - I needed to shower, apply makeup, comb hair and get dressed too!
On top of the normal party prepping routine of finishing off the decor, transferring food items from the fridge to their designated areas, cleaning up the kitchen, etc. - my mom and I had the task of shortening Addyson's party dress which was a few inches too long. Although a simple process, it involved me cutting the fabric off myself and then
burning the edges of the fabric to melt the ends together and prevent fraying. A quick back story on the dress - I ordered it in early May but when it arrived it didn't fit (as in the bodice was so tight that Addyson was stuck in the dress for awhile as I tugged and pulled and pulled and tugged to get her out of it, and when I finally freed her we were both sweating and she had red marks all over her) so I sent it back to the woman that made it and she offered to make a new one and assured me that I would have it long before the party. A few weeks later I received an e-mail saying that the dress was on it's way and would arrive in plenty of time, about 8 days before her party, but as of 3 days before
there was no dress. Turns out, it was shipped to the wrong address and sent back to the woman that made it, but she was out of town and didn't know that it was on her doorstep. Somehow a neighbor got involved and managed to get the correct address and ship our new dress via FedEx so we received it
the day before the party. Whew! This time it fit much better but was still too long so I was told that the "heat setting" process was an easy way for me to adjust the length myself. Soooo, my mom and I took the dress and a lighter out into the garage and while I held the dress she
ever so carefully lit the lighter and burnt the ends of the birthday dress. The entire time I was waiting for the whole dress to go up in flames but it didn't:) Problem solved. Sort of (see below).
Conveniently
(for him anyway), my dear husband wasn't present during that last frantic hour of pre-party prepping. He was out picking up the nugget tray from Chick-fil-a and grabbing a few things at Target (because he just couldn't wait to get his deodorant AFTER the party). While he was gone both of our families came onto the scene early followed by the 1st party guest who was also a bit early. At that point Addyson was finally dressed and her hair was styled complete with a new tiara that we brought back for her from the Disney store in Chicago, but her dress was still too long so she was standing in the living room with my mom holding the overlay up in the air while I crazily cut away at the tulle underneath with a giant pair of scissors. That's how she greeted her 1st party guest.
With her dress up over her head. And I greeted the mother who was dropping her child off to be in my care for the next 1.5 hours wielding scissors and rambling about how the dress was too long and we were almost done fixing it, blah, blah, blah. And I was sweating. I don't sweat.
But finally the party was underway and everything went as planned, including a surprise visit from Cinderella. I continued to sweat and barely spoke to most of the adult attendees because I was busy managing the party activities and trying to keep the little guests entertained, but my stress level was almost down to a normal range at that point and the Birthday Girl had an absolute blast.
After the party was over and most of the guests had left I looked down and realized that I was wearing black flip-flops. I have no idea why or when I put them on. That's how blurry those last few hours leading up to the party were/are for me. Apparently I got drunk on stress and party planning adrenaline. Thus,
the hangover.
