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Divorce Parties Helping Some Embrace Journey Into Singledom

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — Throwing an extravagant party to celebrate marriage with family and friends is pretty common. But what if the couples don't make it to "'till death do us part?"

While some may find it a little odd, many like recent divorcee Angie Hill of Los Angeles, are embracing the growing trend.

"You love each other but you can't live together. That's my take on it," Hill said.

She threw a big bash to mark the end of her marriage.

"I think divorce parties are awesome. It's my first one I've been to. Pretty rad she's like having a ball." said Julia Herald, a guest at Hill's party.

Christine Gallagher is the one who divorcees call when they want to go out with a big bang. Gallagher is the owner of LA-based The Divorce Party Planner.

"I think human beings need rituals. We need ceremonies to mark things. Big events in our lives. Your marriage is the beginning of it and it's a huge event and why not have an event at the end to mark the closure of the marriage," Gallagher said. "Just a way to move on in such a positive way. And not to hold onto anger bitterness, but to come to terms of what happened."

So Gallagher with her team of experts come together to create a party that is distinctive to divorcees.

"What we do is we try to tie the theme into what happened with the marriage breakup," she said. "The common party we do... a popular one is called a Survivor Party. And the Survivor Party is like a desert island theme. We have desert island food, coconut shrimp, pineapples."

While some say divorce parties are cynical, Gallagher thinks the opposite.

"Divorce is tough. It really is a hard time and the idea of a divorce party is to have an event to have your family and friends come around and help you through this really difficult time," Gallagher added.

And for the now single Ms. Hill, it's just the sign of times to move on.

Gallagher says divorce parties can run anywhere between a few hundred to a few thousand dollars depending on how much divorcees want to spend.

For more information on divorce parties, visit DivorcePartyPlanner.com.

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