1920's Birthday Bash

This year I turned 29 years old…holy cow! I'm 1 year away from being 30!! In order to celebrate in accordance to what I believe were some of the best years in my life, my 20’s, I thought it would be appropriate to have a farewell to my 20’s birthday bash! I asked for all my dear family and friends to help by coming dressed in their ritziest 1920’s rags. It was overall a great theme! It made it a extra great time with good friends, family and some booze!!

To set the mood I made the invitations from a compilation of other invitations I saw online. I just goggled searched: 1920’s birthday invitations, roaring 20’s invitations and got some ideas, especially for the wording.

The invitations read:

The Roaring twenties are back

INSERT YOUR NAME HERE

Requests the honor of your presence at a

“Goodbye to the 20's” Birthday bash

Guys suit up & Gals show off the glam!
Wear your finest 1920's rags to the ritziest joint in town
On INSERT DATE AND TIME
INSERT LAST NAME Speakeasy
YOUR SHINDIG'S ADDRESS
Prohibition is in the air. Your discretion is paramount.
Please Assume Alias. Admittance By Password Only!
RSVP YOUR STUFF
Hors D'oeuvres, Dancing, & Drinks

…

To make the invitation I bought an 8.5 x 11 cardstock in ivory and a 12x12 black scrapbook pack.

A pack of back feathers, ribbon in 3 colors (I choose teal, purple and green)

I already had the wax stamp and was from my wedding invitations.

I printed 2, 5x7 invites on each ivory cardstock.

In order to figure out how to fit the black paper to fold just a little over I had a little trial and error.

I cut a small strip off the side, then in cut the remaining square in half and then a little of the bottom. Not sure if that makes sense so I made a little diagram, unfortunately I don’t remember the dimensions.

I just placed the ivory invitation on top of the black strip and folded the black strip to give it a black border and to cover most of the wording. I then tied the ribbon around and made a knot. I placed the feather on the knot and with the wax seal glued it in place, and voila!!

Invitations done!

Food?

What to feed my guest was the hardest part. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to stick with 1920’s food since every time I goggled 1920’s food or meals always got some sort of deviled egg, cucumbers and black olive stuff. I’m not a fan of eggs, so I choose to just do a pasta since I’m sure my guest wouldn’t care as long as they ate something yummy, and it is way easier to make pasta, so Fettuccine Alfredo it was.

Now, the cake and desserts that was a lot of more fun!!

First, I want to say that my favorite piece from this table was the cupcake stand that I bought at Ross! It is so dang cute and it was only about $4.00 so I had to have it. My other favorite things are the little chalkboards mini tags that I used to label the food. I got them from Michael’s in their dollar bin section. It was a pack of about 12 so I only needed 1 pack, but bought 2 just in case. I also purchased a white pen from Michael’s that I used to write on the chalkboards (for fear of not being able to find mini chalks). You can find similar tags on Ebay but I’m not sure if they are the same thing, but they look very similar. I also bought a mini easel chalkboard from the same dollar bin, and my sister wrote a happy birthday message for me.

The Rosette Tablecloth was my ultimate favorite, when I found that fabric at the Fabric District in Los Angeles (that should be a whole other blog). I had to buy it and that was how I ended up deviating from my original color scheme, but it didn’t matter I love this fabric. I also purchased the chair covers and peacock feathers while visiting the alleys and it was a great bargain!!


I bought silver trays from Dollar Tree and I placed a round paper doilie on top (bought the doilies a while back also from Dollar Tree from their wedding section).

I made confetti flavored pink with white sprinkles cake pops (see here for about my a helpful cake pop maker) and I placed some on a bowl (also from Dollar Tree) and added some white river stones/rocks (another from Dollar Tree). The rocks allowed for the pops to stay standing. Since I made about 30 pops, I also placed some upside down on mini cupcake liners, and arranged those on a white dinner plate.

Cupcakes, Chocolate dipped strawberries, and chocolate mustaches completed the dessert table. To make the chocolate mustaches I purchased a Wilton Mustache Chocolate Mold and some Wilton Dark Chocolate candy melts, I followed the directions on the mold and presto!!

I used the same Wilton chocolate melts for the Chocolate dipped Strawberries.

I also had a Candy Buffet. I already owned clear vases, bought those awhile ago for another candy buffet for a baby shower for my brother and sister-in-law (that was shown in the blog about the Rosette Ball). To stick to the theme this time I went in search for 20's candies. I found a list of the candy to purchase through Old Time Candy. I ended up purchasing Mary Janes (those came in a cute box so I used the box as decoration on the table) Red Vines, Sugar Daddies, Dum Dums and Strawberry filled hard candy, all from the Dollar Tree (yes, I know I love this store). On that table we also added some pre-made pastries that I bought for the dessert table, but I ran out of room. The mini cinnamon roll bites were so good ($6.99 at Costco) and some cheese cake and raspberry filled tarts, I just couldn't not add them somewhere.

I did purchase Candy Cigarettes from The Old Time Candy, and they were a hit!! Wish I would had also bought the Charleston Chew candy!! Those were not as easy to track down in a store.

I also made some No Bake cheesecake and yogurt parfaits with fresh fruit and pre-served them on plastic shooters. The best part was the little appetizer spoons and forks that I bought for those (4in forks and spoons from Party City @ $5ea. pack of 40).

For the No Bake Cheesecake I used JELL-O® No-Bake Mini Cheesecakes.

Instead of cracker crust I crumbled a chocolate cupcake and added it to the bottom of the shot glass before adding the cheesecake. Added a slice of a strawberry, an dollop of cake frosting and chocolate syrup.

The yogurt parfait was just granola, vanilla yogurt, strawberries and blueberries. Alternating in layers, although due to limited space I think it was just one layer of each.

My cake was Chocolate with fresh strawberry filling!! I followed a rosette cake tutorial: here.

Unfortunately, we had to keep my cake inside the house, since we didn’t make enough space for the cake on the dessert table. Though, it was probably for the best so outdoor issues didn't ruin it. The Cake and the DIY stand looked pretty nice if I say so myself. My inspiration, had a price tag of $40 for the smallest one in a store, so I went DIY. I followed the instructions from this pin. The only slight different was, instead it was sprayed white and had added trim. The spray and trim were purchased at Michael's. I couldn't find the info on the their website, but it was in the same aisle as all the ribbon. I only needed 1 spool and it all came out to like $7.00 including spray paint, plate and wine glass (instead of candle holder).

For the table, since I wanted a dinner style party, I got 3 rectangular tables and placed them in a long line. I bought fabric to match the rosette fabric from the dessert table and used that as a table cloth. Since I host thanksgiving at my house I have charger plates galore, so I took those bad boys out, mixed an matched them and added my collection of wine and margarita glasses to add a glamorous touch. My mom made the floral centerpieces for me using fresh roses, star gazer lilies, baby’s breath, Irish bells, Hydrangeas, Blue Delphiniums and a peacock feather. I had 1 candelabrum from a while ago, and I found another at my local Swap meet for $2 and I borrowed the other from my sister-in-law.

I dangled fake pearl beads from the candelabras and placed candles (even citronella ones for the uninvited guest) and mirrors for decorations. I also bought mini wine bottles, and placed them in little wood crates I bought from Michael’s for a dollar. I added some gift basket shred and it looked cute.

For additional décor I bought 18ct black music notes form Party City to add to a canopy and the front wood gate.

If you noticed we had a few spots with great fabric hanging around, it worked out for a little photo spot. There's plenty of make your own photo booth props you can find online, just Google photo booth props, print them on card stock glue the prop into the foam paper, with the skewer in between and presto, they were done. I'm sure you can find some on Pinterest as well. We were also very lucky to have a friend show up later in the night and set up a full on real photo booth, he also had his own props and everyone had a blast. 

I also pulled out some of my vintage feel items from around the house and added a extra little sitting/photo spot. Always eye items you already have! (The trunk you see there is a family heirloom that my mother-in-law gave me when we purchased our home...after I had been asking for it for a year, hehe!!) You'll be surprised how well the items you find laying around work and way cheaper then buying more just to use for one party!

What I believe made the party, besides the booze, photo booth, family and great friends was a Rockola (aka jukebox) I rented. Unfortunately, it did not have much English Karaoke music, but since it is very versatile and it played music videos and plain ol’ music, and although a little out of era, we played Frank Sinatra (it’s still Jazz right?!) for a few hours until everyone was brave enough to make their own music request.

This was a very stress free event...other than trying to decided what to wear. Though figuring that out was a fun excuse to look at vintage pictures, watch "Great Gatsby" with my sister. Research is very helpful.