I threw a 60th birthday party for my mother in law and retirement party for her and my father in law all at once. I had about 120 guests all seated at round tables in rented facility (outdoor garden area). The theme was black and white and it was surprise. The invitations were black card stock with white on top and a black bow connecting the two at the top. I included Response cards that looked the same (due to the amount per person, these were needed). At the entrance of the facility I had a arch lattice with black tulle and white lights (basically a light and black tulle arch) with a huge white and black tulle bow in the center. On the entrance doors I had black and white photos of the retirees blown up and attached so the guests could see what they looked like when they graduated high school! (they were high school sweethearts). I had several photos all over blown up. I also got different size frames and spray painted them black and hung them all over the facility with thick white ribbon. There was a lot of white lattice and these really looked nice against them. We had a few balloon arches and several balloon clusters. All of the poles were wrapped with white tulle and tulle bows as well as white lights all over. When the guests arrived they retrived thier seating arrangements by receiving a pencil that read ____ and ______ retirement. (1 was a teacher and the other one in accounting, so the penicls were a hit). We made a memory box and memory cards for guests to fill out. We glued 4 10x13 picture frames together to create a box, made a bottom and top out of cardboard and covered it with black felt and put pictures in the frames. We cut a hole at the top of the box for guests to include cards. We put this on a lazy susan so guests could turn it and look at all of the pictures. The tables were white table cloths with black napkins. The center pieces doubled as dessert too. on 1/2 of the tables there were round cakes white with black flowers on the top. the other 1/2 had chocolate dipped strawberry cones. the guests LOVED these. This way the guests could have dessert whenever they wanted. The cake tables had their own cake cutters decorated with ribbons. Each guest received a champagne glass with a tag and bow attched to the bottom filled with chocolate dipped cherries topped off with a cream puff on the edge of the glass (like drinks have oranges or lemons). Each guest also received a Morning after mug" the plastic mug had a single pack of coffee chocolate dipped spoon aspirin 3 homebaked muffins wrapped w/ cellophane and a tag w/ a poem attached. At the tables each guest had a tag that had their name on it so they knew where to sit. The girls had black card stock (like a small tent) with a white daisy attached and a white label with their name on it. The men had black card stock (the same) with a white bow with a white label that had their name on it in black. I also created a slide show for both of them that all got to see at the party after the big surprise and dinner we danced the night away!! All in all it was a lot of work but they were surprised and we had a great time!!!"