I love parties and I love the 80s.

So it should come as no shock that I loved helping my co-workers put together a huge surprise bash to celebrate another co-worker’s 30-year service anniversary with an 80s themed prom (She started working for my company in 1981). For several months we held secret meetings, schemed behind her back, tossed around ideas, put together a guest list, designed the invites and divided and conquered. Every sneaky step of the way I smiled. It’s such a good feeling knowing that I’m doing something nice for someone else; something that, hopefully, made her day and showed just how much we appreciate her and enjoy working with her!!

Let’s get into the details of this shindig, shall we? First up, the invites – designed by yours truly:

Then came other graphic posters put up around the room to set the tone – also designed by yours truly:

Lucky for us, our co-worker was on vacation for the 2 weeks leading up to the party. This allowed 2 of us to rummage through her unlocked desk drawers -she’ll never trust us again – and find pictures over her 30 years of service. We then took the pictures and cut basic geometric shapes out of fluorescent poster board to act as mats and placed them on tables around the room.

Every party needs a guest book, so here’s what we came up with for ours:

4 of us also took a trip to the local Salvation Army in hopes of finding a prom dress fit for a queen – and did we ever! Here’s the honored guest in her gown and sash.

And here’s a close-up of the sash, because nothing says “the 80s” like polka dots!

Here’s a shot of the dance floor decor, in all it’s 80s glory. Heck yes we boogied down to classic 80s “Pop Musik”!

What’s a party without cake? The co-worker in charge of getting the cake did a phenomenal job! [from Patticakes]

Finally, I’ll leave you with a few pictures of the 80s fashion that appeared.

I just love a good power suit, with shoulder pads. But I skipped the nude hose :).