lucky to be...33

When my husband asked what I wanted for my 33rd birthday, I replied that I wanted a party for some friends - with him cooking, serving, cleaning. He quickly (surprisingly!) obliged, and I have to say it was one of the best birthday gifts ever.

The plan...

I have long wanted to host a 'lucky' party- one that celebrated all the friends in my life that I felt lucky to have. The reality of throwing an all-out bash was overwhelming, however, so we decided to have a small-scale dinner for some close friends. We decided that 6 was a manageable size- which turned out to be the perfect number (even though one had to cancel at the last minute).  I figured with my husband taking care of the big stuff, I could finally take time to focus on all the small detail stuff that I enjoy doing. However, this was...

The reality...

I realized not much more then a week before the party that I had not sent out invitations. It was too late to send out an HPG creation, so I threw something together quickly. I printed the invitations and Super 77'ed some remnant wrapping paper to the back to give it some pattern. Once the invitations were out, I thought I would focus on the fun small stuff. However, with a weekend trip, a mis-scheduled house cleaning, and the usual mom brain- I neglected to focus on any of the fun stuff until the day of. And I was too busy cleaning and taking care of my son to really go to the lengths I had planned on. I was still pleased with the results, though. 

I used a 'lucky'/horseshoe theme- chocolate horseshoe favors were given to the guests, with a blurb telling them what I was lucky to have them for (kindness, humor, spirit, friendship, creativity, etc). Horseshoes I purchased on etsy were loosely placed on the cocktail table and dinner table. I wanted everything to be cohesive, but not too thematic. I used the wrapping paper as the jumping point for the color palette- red and pink and lots of white. My husband (who I promise dressed himself), even showed up in a pink striped shirt and tie- perfect! 

The evening couldn't have been better, and I really couldn't be any luckier to have such good friends and an amazing husband. I'm already trying to talk him into doing it again next year. I highly recommend a similar evening as a fabulous way to ring in a 'boring' birthday.