Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Happy 30th to Me!

On February 28th I celebrated a pretty significant milestone in my life (at least I think so). I turned 30… the Big Three-Oh… the Dirty Thirty! FINALLY!

I’ve been struggling with the idea of turning thirty for a while now, but now that it’s happened, really what difference does it make? Truthfully I feel like people think you’re more of an adult when you aren’t in your 20’s anymore. That somehow those extra 365 days from 29 and 30 actually makes a difference between who you were and who you now are.

Brian and I (along with S, B & C) already have a vacation planned for the middle of March that was meant to be my birthday gift from Brian, but because he spoils me so, he knew I’d also want a party! For the weeks leading up to my birthday he’d been working with my mum, sister and a little input from me to put together a pretty spectacular party. When he asked me what type of party I wanted, I waffled – at first I wanted an 80’s themed roller-skating party, but then we found out you can drink and skate so that was out; then I thought maybe bowling would be fun because you can definitely drink and bowl but then we saw the price and that was out too; we finally settled on a fancy-schmancy cocktail party hosted by Brian at my parents’ house.

With the help of a family friend (who just so happens to be a caterer) we put together a menu of delicious “pickies” – scallops wrapped in bacon, chicken & beef skewers, wonton wrapped shrimp, stuffed mushrooms, a cheese platter and a crudité. All my favorite things. THEN, just a week before the party, Sarah asked me what we were thinking about for dessert. Have you honestly ever been to a party (weddings included) where people actually eat the cake? Probably not, so we knew that wasn’t the route we wanted to go. We thought maybe we’d ask Hannah to make cupcakes, but being on such short notice I didn’t think it was fair to ask. Sarah mentioned the idea of a chocolate fountain, reminiscent of the one we had at our wedding. I couldn’t have come up with a better option. We were able to locate a company called Dolce Indulgence, near my parents’ house that rents them (including the chocolate and skewers for up to 50 people) that happened to have one available for the day of the party – problem solved! Although it was pointed out to us after the fact that because we didn’t have a cake we also didn’t sing Happy Birthday! Oops!

Then came the issue of what I was going to wear. Now, I know for some people that probably sounds so materialistic, but honestly the biggest reason I wanted a fancy party was so I could get dressed up! Everyone else could have come in jeans for all I cared as long as I was dressed it didn’t matter to me. I immediately went to my Facebook friends to ask opinions of where to go and someone suggested Rent The Runway. I’d heard of the company before but never had a reason to use them so hadn’t looked into it. But as soon as I did I knew I would be renting a dress. Why bother going out, spending $50-100 on a dress you’re going to wear once and then hang in your closet and never see again? I was able to browse thousands of designer dresses from Badgley Mischka to Kate Spade before I settled on a TIBI navy-blue long-sleeved backless sequined number. I fell in love with it the moment I saw it. The dress retails for $385 but I rented it for under $50! It arrived the day before the party and it was PERFECT! It was exactly what I was hoping for! I paired it with a gorgeous pair of earrings from Francesca’s Collection and a pair of hot pink pumps from my mother’s massive shoe collection. I’d had my hair done that afternoon at Dellaria in Danvers and felt like a princess.  And of course I had the best looking date there!

We chose to go with a black and white theme for the party décor. From the flower arrangements created by my in-laws to the balloons (all 42 of them) to the linens and straws everything was black and white. It was perfectly elegant. But knowing the crowd we also wanted something “fun” so we decided (or I should say I decided) that we needed to have a photo booth. Brian built a frame out of PVC pipe from Home Depot for about $10 and I purchased a piece of white fabric for less than that. I downloaded a party pack from Esty and had them printed on heavy cardstock at Staples. We secured them to black and white dowels and displayed them in the den. We set up my camera to take photos on a 10 second time delay and away we went. It was a “house rule” that no one could leave the party without taking at least one photo booth picture! It was such a blast the next morning to look back at the photos and watch the night progress from the very tame (sober) beginnings to the “Last of the Mohicans”!


All in all, the party was exactly what I was hoping it would be. I can’t think of a better way to ring in my new decade than to be surrounded by our closest friends and family!!

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