An Affair to Remember

To my avid readers,

I apologize, I feel that I may have lost sight a little bit about what this blog is about. It's not a format for me to "blag" (brag/blog) about my wonderful parties, but it's a place where I can give people pointers on how to throw parties as excellent as mine and my friends!

So with that, I give you a case study.

A couple of weeks ago we threw our friend Jaime a belated 30th birthday party (long story). We wanted to make it memorable and grand. And we did.

What did we do?

We threw her a concert where all of her friends played a role or performed.

Here are some tips on how to throw an amazing party yourself...

Tip #1
Use your Friends' talents!

• Get someone to make the invitation who is artistic or a designer as their profession (we got Raven & Crow Studio to do ours!)
  
• Get someone to take the photos!
• Get your friends to sing or play a show!

Tip #2
Incorporte Live Music! Whether that be karaoke, booking an actual band, or having your friends play, it's all good! In the case of Jaime's party, I am lucky enough to have know some amazing musicians, one of whom, Rubyrae, organized the venue through her contacts and "booked" all the acts.

Tip #3
Personalize, personalize, personalize. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, there ain't nothin' better than centering an event and all its accoutrements around the honoree.

At this even, we personalized the sh*t out of it in the following ways:

• The cake. We put Jaime's face in place of "Bella" from the Twilight series, one of J's favorite book series. I used Cakes n Shapes but there are a few places in any given area that will do "picture cakes"
  
• The lyrics in the songs (You Tube video of Billy Motion and his guest rapper to come soon!)
  
• Trivia about the person with prizes that relate to the party
  
• The invitation (see above)
  

Tip #4
Use a ruse. People love surprises and people who love to throw surprise parties love to see people cry. Tears of joy of course.

Our ruse? Well we did tell Jaime something was happening on Sunday but we didn't tell her what. So a small group took her out for drinks beforehand and then said they had to pick some people up at a bar, and that bar was where we were!



(All photos courtesy of Dennis McKinley)

A Voyage into your Thirties

I don't know about you guys, but "30" is a pretty big birthday amongst my friends and I. Not that too much changes between 29 and 30, but it's still a milestone. In my mind, it's the last birthday that you can get away with doing something completely juvenile without the presence of any children. It's also a great excuse to get absolutely wasted (but what birthday isn't?).

I dedicate this Post to my Top 3 favorite 30th Birthday Parties--2 of which I planned most of and 1 of which was completely out of my hands.

Here they are, in no order of preference:

1) Nautical Themed Karaoke Birthday Party (NYC) This party occurred at the end of August, when the weather was still nice out. As with all of these parties, it was a surprise for the birthday boy, who never would've agreed to come if he had known. However, as with all of these parties, he had the best time of his life. From the invite, to the card, to the attire, everything was centered around the theme of Nautical. We met up at a bar and the moved to South Street Seaport to catch our big boat and sing our hearts out.
http://www.circlelinedowntown.com/se-karaoke.asp

Some pictures below.


A wonderful Birthday card thought up by me, but designed and executed by my wonderful, Photoshop wiz of a friend Greg. (Those are my friends' faces in place of the characters).

And this is the "Captain" or birthday boy, signing his heart out on the boat:


The rest of us had sailor hits, which were a big hit amongst the Midwest tourists boarding some of the other boats!


And my favorite decoration/prop/goodie? Pigs in sailor suits:
http://www.orientaltrading.com/ui/browse/processRequest.do?demandPrefix=12&sku=16/963&mode=Searching&erec=6&Ipp=16&No=16&D=nautical&Ntt=nautical&Ntk=all&Dx=mode%2bmatchallpartial&Ntx=mode%2bmatchallpartial&y=0&N=0&requestURI=processProductsCatalog&x=0&sd=Sailor+Pigs

2) Field Day Birthday Party (NYC)
This party was held in April, and while the weatherman called for rain, it ended up being a gorgeous day out. The birthday boy loves playing outdoor games like wiffle ball and frisbee, so we decided, what better than a bbq and a day in the park? Well, how about a bbq, day in the park, and customized "team" T-shirts with the birthday boy's name on them! Pictures below:

Again, I get by with a little help from my friends, so I asked my friend Mike to design the shirts and I had them made at a local T-shirt shop. http://www.tshirtexpress.com



This is us enjoying ourselves at Prospect Park, which despite the rules to the contrary, it is easy to sneak in libations of the alcoholic kind and other goodies. http://www.prospectpark.org/
We had a jolly good time!

3) Rock Legend Birthday Party (NYC)
What kind of party do you throw for the ultimate cool rock girl? Well a party at Chelsea Hotel of course! http://www.hotelchelsea.com/
My friends rented a sweet suite, complete with two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a kitchen. We got there early and decorated the whole place with the b-day gals fave colors (red and black) and pictures of her and her friends all over the walls. The surprise was highly orchestrated, complete with blindfold!
Check it out:















That's all I got for now Party People, but stay tuned for the next post...(10) simple ways to make any celebration memorable.

xoxo Party Girl