Over the summer we got a call from Arizona from an awesome granddaughter Kristin who wanted us to help out with the Indiana celebration of her grandfather's 100th Birthday Party! The party wasn't finalized, but she was hoping that there would be a celebration of her grandpa George's life on this momentous occasion! When things were finally set for the party, they had it set as a family reunion + birthday party and she decided to gift her grandpa and everyone some event photos of the birthday party!
The time finally arrived in October for the momentous 100th birthday of Mr. Hoover and it was quite a week! George had originally lived in South Bend, then moved about 15 minutes away from the South Bend airport to the city of New Carlisle, Indiana, so he wasn't too far from us. Finally the weekend hit and Kristin and her family flew in from Arizona and far more family filtered in from throughout Indiana for the family reunion 100th birthday bash! We spent the morning at a booth that we had set up for our photography business at the local Humane Society of St. Joe County and then headed right to George's 100th Birthday Party to capture some event portraits!
Upon arrival George was greeting people with a birthday cake hat on and there were banners and pizza throughout the room! George was laughing with his guests as they entered and "oldies" music was being played during slideshows of old photos. Tons of people filtered in (far more than any of us expected) and the room was filled to the brim with family who hadn't seen each other in a lifetime! George did so much talking that he almost forgot to eat as some people were already enjoying the birthday cupcakes!
After a lot of chatting during the birthday reunion, we got a large portion of the family to head outside for some group photos with George's old Ford Model T car! Kristin organized the groups for photos and everyone braved the wind for some awesome photos with their 100 year old grandpa/ father/ great grandpa! George seemed to especially enjoy holding the babies and joking around with the kids, so he didn't mind having to sit still for some photos with family.
When we were finished with photos outside, one of George's sons (Kristin's dad from Illinois) went to help George into his surprise outfit: A tuxedo t-shirt! George was given a bowl full of hershey's kisses and as the music started for him he rolled into the room and started handing out (and throwing out!) chocolates to every single person he could find. Everyone had a blast with it especially George who loved giving all of his family some hugs and candy kisses.
All-in-all it was a great celebration 100th Birthday Party combined with family reunion and George got some well-deserved family time for his birthday! The next day on a Sunday Jason even happened to open the local newspaper to a headline featuring George and his 100th birthday in the newspaper, so if you want to read up on George, feel free to click this article to check it out online! www.southbendtribune.com/news/community/new-carlisle-man-shares-a-century-of-stories/article_64cc421c-a8a5-57f3-8a71-5762a70dec1a.amp.html Thanks so much again Kristin for reaching out to us from Arizona and coordinating everything!! We had a blast photographing and editing these great photos of George on his 100th birthday and your extended family during your mini reunion!
In the midst of designing some physical wedding albums, beautiful photo boxes, etc and volunteer coaching 6th grade volleyball while we edit two last weddings of the season, we'll be sharing so many more recent momentous Portrait Sessions this coming month! We still have the Hooley family portraits to share along with another momentous birthday: Irene's 98th birthday here in South Bend... as well as some Senior Photos of local high schoolers-! Then it's back to sharing more weddings we've photographed along with our annual Christmas and New Year's photos-! So many fantastic things coming up throughout the next two months and we can't wait to share them! AND travel notice: We'll be in California in January and then on to Mexico the week after, so if you want to hire us to capture some portraits and you're anywhere between Lancaster/ Los Angeles and Santa Barbara/ Solvang, California, reach out to us before it's too late!! <3 Catch ya next Weekly Wednesday and have a beautiful November weekend!