Oh What a Relief It Is

For the past 6 months I've been planning a surprise 40th birthday party for one of my closest friends. Her husband asked me to plan it and I was really excited to do this for her. This was a big affair and it has been sooooo hard not to talk about it!!! I got so much help from some other good friends - couldn't have done it without them (Peggy, Julie and Misty - I love you girls!). Well, it went off without a hitch. My friend, Karen, was flabbergasted. She had tons of friends and relatives fly and drive in from other states just for her which is very telling of her warm and wonderful nature. Anyway, I wanted to share with you the details of the party. It was so much fun!

Her favorite colors are blue, green and brown and she loves stripes and polka dots. Here is the style of the invitations that we got from http://www.partycat.com/:

My friend Misty made tablecloths out of this fabric:

and made a swag for the entryway out of this fabric:

We hung paper lanterns throughout the party:

We made centerpieces out of something called blumeboxes (you can find them at http://blumebox.com/ ): We used Martha Stewart ribbon around lime green candles and around the blumeboxes:

There was a custom made banner and crown from a fabulous artist over at http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5031136 :

And for any of you in or around the Charlotte, NC area, we used the most fabulous caterer called Triple Crown. The food was unbelievable. Everyone was commenting on how fantastic the food was. Their website: http://www.triplecrowncaterers.com/about_us.htm We had filet mignon and roast turkey. Mashed potatoes with chipotle and montchego cheese. Roasted asparagus, penne pasta with a gorgonzola cream and walnut sauce, crabcakes, shrimp cocktail, baked brie and fresh fruit. And just too much more to list. But the best part...our birthday girl is a small town girl at heart. She loves comfort food and adores cream pies so rather than a birthday cake or traditional desserts, the caterer made banana cream, coconut cream, chocolate cream and boston cream pies for dessert. Yum!!!

We also used the greatest party service for the kids who attended. We had them separated from the adults. They had their own dinosaur hunt party that was provided by a company called Oogles and Googles (http://www.ooglesngoogles.com/birthday-parties.aspx) and they did such a fantastic job. If there's one in your area, I would highly recommend using them for your kids birthday parties.