THIRTY, FLIRTY & THRIVING — SURPRISE PARTY

You already know I LOVE planning parties and I’m lucky to have a family who gets into festivities just as much as I do! My sister-in-law turned 30 this year and I had the privilege of planning a surprise party to celebrate.

There’s no exact formula to a perfect event, but I like to follow the below steps to make every small party a huge success.

The first step is to come up with a concept

Alyssa was born in the era of smash hit rom-coms and secretly dreamed of getting to be the real life Jenna Rink from the movie 13 Going on 30 for the last decade or so. That made our job easy! (If you haven't seen the movie, I highly recommend it – so cute!). Because the movie is set both in the 80s and early 2000s, we encouraged guests to pick a decade and dress the part for an evening of dancing, toasts, and celebration!

Next, find the perfect venue and line up any necessary vendors

For this event, the venue came together perfectly! I wanted to capture the 2000s New York City nightclub vibe, with a nod to the campy 80s basement, and we wanted to keep it a surprise from the guest of honor. Usually, we’d work our magic on a private residence, but we happened to have access to a downtown office space which was the exact look and feel!

No vendors were necessary, as we pulled it all together ourselves!

Hammer out the details and make it come to life

We brought in all the decorations and jazzed up the space. A tip here is to focus on a few key elements. We spent our efforts on good lighting, a focal point balloon arch, and a NYC backdrop!

Our family signature move is a charcuterie board and my mother-in-law knocked it out of the park with a whole charcuterie table. Covering the table with Kraft paper, we laid the cheeses and meats out directly, peppering fresh florals in the gaps.

The back room was the perfect basement setting and we decked it out with all the campy 80s teen birthday vibes!

Alyssa had SO much fun being showered with love and support from her closest friends and family and in my book, that’s the only thing that really matters at the end of the night.

I had so much fun putting this together and I’d love to help you do the same! If you’d like help planning an event like this for yourself, feel free to contact me here.