A Charcuterie Inspired Adult Birthday Party | Outdoor Birthday
Want to know something fun about me, I throw my own birthday parties for myself. Yup, no shame in my mom game. You guys know how busy we are, and how easy it is to pass over ourselves in favor of our kids, jobs, partners, houses and the millions of other directions we're pulled as moms. For my 30th birthday, I wanted to have a night for my friends where everyone could have the night off and just enjoy themselves. I had Landon on July 11th, and my birthday was July 19th. I still made it work and had so much freaking fun, a new tradition was born. (and I have to add a disclaimer here, no way in the WORLD could that have happened after the birth of my daughter. Momhood was definitely a different game the second time around).
Let's Celebrate
One of my favorite things in life is a good charcuterie board. I love how they are different every time you make one and every season brings a new, flavorful bounty. I used this love to create the theme for my 32nd birthday party. On the invite, I asked guests to bring their favorite dip, spread or small bite to help complete the table and all the meats and cheeses were provided by my husband and myself. Who needs a table runner, when you can have 14 feet of food! My friends really helped this beautiful party come to life.
This "Pairings" Menu was so fun to try the different combos, and I also liked that it was an activity of sorts as people carried their cards around the table trying different combos. I loved it so much, that I want to gift it to you too. Download the free menu pairing printable here 👇
The focal point of this party, was the massive table, and as you continue to get to know me, you'll find that we make or salvage everything. And I say "we" because my poor husband gets dragged into all my "awesome ideas" every time. Most of the time he's a pretty good sport, but when I told him my vision of a 14 foot table that all my guests could sit around he laughed in my face. The other thing you'll learn about me, is I have champagne taste on a beer budget, it's why I learned to be crafty. I know what I like, but am terribly cheap when it comes to shelling out money for party decor. Queue this beautiful table. I knew the only way this party was going to come to life is if we could somehow create this table without buying wood and I pondered over it for months. Then my Dad announced he was demolishing his old house and that was music to my ears. Hello table. We cut a section of decking from the old house and my husband and Dad constructed legs to turn it into my glorious table. So beautiful. I collected chairs from Facebook marketplace and garage sales, and quickly refinished a few with some spray paint and stain to give them the eclectic vibe and the scene was set.
Cheers!
A signature cocktail is a must at a party, and I usually serve something with 2-3 ingredients and a fancy garnish to keep things easy and fun. The sparkling rosemary vodka lemonade was dangerously good.
Tip:
Check out the dollar store for drink glasses! I have used these mason jar mugs with handles for tons of parties, and you can dress them up differently for each party with different drink tags, cocktail stir sticks, etc.
Dessert Time!
I love the beautiful simplicity of this dessert table. With such a massive amount of food I kept the dessert choices minimal. The gorgeous naked cake was my absolute favorite thing about this entire party. My girlfriend Aleks, the insanely talented one who captured these pictures for me, also baked this naked cake and she let me indulge my creativity styling it. I used the same farmers market flowers that were sprinkled throughout the table in jars, and seasonal fruits from our local farmers market to decorate the cake, then I carried the seasonal fruits onto the sugar cookies. We picked up the cranberry almond cake from Costco (win) and the mini carrot cake sandwiches were a local bakery treat.
My daughter Reese helped me make (and eat) the sugar cookies. I absolutely love how they turned out, and they tasted even better. I used premade sugar cookie dough, which actually tasted great, but the homemade buttercream frosting was a must!
We set up corn hole in the yard to give everyone something to do besides just eat and drink (not that I'm not okay with that :). Since this was a couples party and not all the husbands know each other as well, I wanted to have something out as an ice breaker. It didn't take long for an intense tournament to begin and it was so fun to see the competitive sides of my friends.
I don't know what we were thinking when we didn't make the husbands all get together and pose for a picture. What a missed opportunity. I really loved that this party was a couples celebration. It is too far and few that we get to spend the evening kid free with our spouses truly relaxing and enjoying ourselves. I wanted to give my friends a special night to be thankful for our wonderful lives and reflect on our many blessings. Each couple took turns snapping pictures under the “collect beautiful moments” sign that I made as a simple reminder to enjoy these moments, because the days are long, but the years are short.
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Vendor Credits:
Paper Goods: Palm to Pine Design
