Celebrating 50! Secret Party Planning

My Mom just celebrated turning 50. I decided to throw her a surprise birthday party.

I wanted to share with you the theme, decorations I made and the do's and don'ts I learned from party planning. 

The theme was A Formal Night in Paris. Thou this theme was not as strong as I would of liked it to be but more on that later. 

The dress code was black and white formal and I was hoping birthday girl would show up in red. Unfortunately she did not own anything fancy in red, little pink accents on her shirt worked too.

For the Eiffel Tower and Roses I used the Silhouette SD. 

Cardstock Used:

Real Red Stampin Up! Card Stock

Glimmer Paper- Silver Stampin Up!

Soft Gray? Stampin Up!

Shapes Used:

Rolled Rose

3D Samantha Walker Eiffel Tower

Scalloped Circle and Circle Punch - Stampin' Up!

I used this youtube video to create the roses because I was so confused on how to make it!

Below are some photos of the decorations of my Aunts home who was kind enough to host. 

I purchased decorations at Party City. 

The Do's and Don'ts of Secret Party Planning:

Do's:
  - Have a partner to help DO NOT TRY TO DO IT ON YOUR OWN
(it also helps if this partner is in a different household than your birthday girl/guy)
- Give yourself LOTS of time (4+ weeks) to invite guests, plan details, order food/plan meals
- Know your birthday person very well and choose a theme or favourite colour that they will love (my moms favourite colour was Red and her dream is to go to Paris)
- Ensure all guests get the dress code memo and verify with them what they have to wear

Don'ts: 
- Do not leave event tasks to just anyone.
Ensure they are in the country, have time to help, and are willing!
- Change the theme or original ideas, everyone will have opinions and its very easy to loose time and money switching plans around
- Of course, do not tell the birthday girl :)

I brought my Hue Light System to my aunts house so that I could make the living room into a dance party in the evening. During the dinner portion of the event I kept the lights to a red to complement the colour scheme.


Hope you enjoyed, 

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