I just celebrated my 30 + 1 birthday. My birthday was last Wednesday and I turned the big 31. I didn’t get to celebrate my 30th last year because we were closing on our house. I really wanted to celebrate this year so I decided to throw a little party in my house. My sister helped me decorate a photo booth area and the dessert table.
My husband worked really hard on our backyard. We trimmed trees, put up lights, and got sitting set. We were expecting about 20 people. We wanted to make sure we had plenty of sitting. My mom made arroz con gandules and pernil (typical Puerto Rican party food!). I made baked zitis and my husband made sausage and peppers. My good friend made some jerk chicken, which was a huge hit. I also ordered some pastries from Vicky’s.
We tried to DIY many of the party decorations. I wanted teal and gold for the party decorations. I found teal and gold wrapping paper in HomeGoods which we used as a background for the dessert area. I ordered my name in wood from one of the deal a day sites and used metallic gold spray paint. I found a gold table runner on Amazon to layer on top of a white tablecloth. I used items I already owned to place the cupcakes and cake pops.
We wanted an inexpensive backdrop for out photobooth area so we found crepe paper for $1 and bought a variety of colors. We used a tension rod (less than $4 at Walmart!) and command hooks to hold it up on the wall. We strung each piece of crepe paper on the tension rod. We did long pieces to give it dimensions. We picked up some inexpensive wood chalkboard frames so party guests can write cute sayings. We also picked up some props in Dollar Tree and used costume pieces we had. I used my Fujifilm Instax Mini 70 capture all the fun. We had it set on a tripod so we can take group shots on a timer.
My husband bought the cake from Publix. It had cannoli filling (yum!). The cupcakes were vanilla and chocolate with basic white frosting. We added gold sprinkles to them. We used a simple recipe for the cake pops – yellow box cake and half container of vanilla frosting. I used almond bark candy coating in white chocolate and added gold sprinkles.
Overall, it was a great birthday party! Everyone had such a good time. It was adults only so we had alcohol infused gummy bears. I also made a spiked punch with orange juice, cranberry juice, pineapple juice, ginger ale, and coconut rum. It was so refreshing!
I did create some printables in PicMonkey and placed them in frames. PicMonkey is awesome for creating last minute printables. I actually printed them at Staples because my ink was out. I used Staples to print the big “Party, Party, Party” print. I printed it as an Engineering print to cut cost.
If there is any more details you would like to know, please let me know. I’d be happy to share.
