The Big Birthday Post

As I have mentioned recently, this past weekend was a pretty big day. It still does not feel real, and I am having some trouble wrapping my head around the new number.  I had a really big birthday.  Being a party planner, I had been thinking about what I wanted to do for the last several months. I knew it was not going to be a big fancy party.  It is not my style or in my budget. One thing I knew for sure is I wanted it to be with  my friends, and I wanted to dress up as my favorite princess since it was Halloween weekend   At the end of September, Oriental Trading asked if I would like to review some of their party supplies. The timing was perfect! The sent me the items for my honest review. I will be sharing what they sent me in this post as well as how we celebrated.  

The party was held at the house of one of my friends.  We knew we wanted to bring some Halloween elements in, but not have it be too scary or gory.   We decided to do some Cinderella themed decor, considering I was a princess and all.  We set up a few tables for people to sit at while eating,  The one her family room was in the middle of the action.   On this table I used black table covering cut to size, and candelabra centerpieces from Oriental Trading. The white table runners I found on clearance at Target a few years ago.  I made the Cinderella pumpkins and glitter 50.  The crown was from the dollar section of Michaels. The Cinderella dresses I found at the Target dollar spot last year.  I loved how it turned out. 

Here is a close up of the Candelabra Centerpiece made from foam with glow in the dark wicks.  It was not dark enough at our party to see if they glowed, but they held up very well and can be used more than once.  They come apart and can be stored flat.  

I painted a few dollar store pumpkins Cinderella blue and added a ton of glitter.   

I knew we would be taking a lot of pictures, so I wanted to set up a photo booth.  I used painted picture frames that we used at my daughter's art themed birthday party.  I had a few hats, and photo props that  people used for pictures. 

Continuing with the Cinderella theme, the photo booth was two castle towers made with boxes and the stone wall backdrop. I will be showing how I made them in another post.  The countdown clock fan is currently on clearance, and made the perfect touch since Cinderella only had until midnight before she had to leave the ball. 

Above the tower, we hung a Cinderella add an age birthday banner, which had enough space for a double digit birthday.  

The girls are posing with the stick costume photo props which had mostly lips and glasses. There are many, many different themes and styles to choose from though if you are having a specific theme. 

In this picture I was getting ready to blow the candles out on my cake.  In the background you can see some of the balloons from Oriental trading.  Since I was the birthday girl at this party, I was not able to take a ton of pictures like I normally do.  You may notice that I do not have pictures of the food. My friends told me they were taking over a lot of the planning, and surprised me with a lot of things, including the food.  We ate macaroni and cheese, bbq meatballs, shrimp, cheese and crackers and salad. It was all very good, but I did not get a picture. 

I was also surprised with this big, yummy birthday cake.  I believe it was from Costco. It fed a lot of people and there was plenty of cake leftover.  

We were able to do a multi frame group shoot with several of my closest friends. They really helped make my big day extra special.