Surprise 30th Birthday Beer Tasting Party

Justin turned 30 this June, so to celebrate, I coordinated with Justin’s parents and my family to plan him a 30th birthday beer tasting SURPRISE party!!  Justin and I started dating right after his 21st birthday, so this is his first big milestone birthday, and I really wanted to do something special for 30.  I have been planning his party since January, and it has been so difficult not mentioning it to him.  We held the party at my parents’ home, so for weeks I have been sneaking bags of party goodies to their dining room, and Justin’s parents have been storing tons of party goods at their home.

Justin loves beer, so I wanted to do a beer tasting theme.  Justin’s parents and I bought lots of beers and wine, plus small cups for tasting.  I made scorecards so people could keep track of their favorites.

(Oh, and his favorite color is blue; can you tell? haha).

For tables, I sewed blue gingham fabric tablecloths; for the centerpieces, I washed out wine bottles and arranged them with blue Ball jars, white lanterns from Target, and square blue placemats.  My sister filled the jars with hydrangea branches and greenery from the garden.

The postcard invitations I designed for the party (of course, ours had the correct address and phone number!):

200+ bottles of a wide variety of beers (some were listed on our chalkboard sign) and 40+ wines were kept in coolers at the drink table.  Wine stoppers and beer stoppers worked to allow guests to taste different beers before selecting their favorite bottles.  Guests kept track of beers they enjoyed (and beers they would rather forget) on a scorecard.

Water, lemonade, and (of course!) manly mustaches were provided for guests.

We put out a few varieties of popcorn (as well as old fashioned bubblegum) for guests to enjoy in paper cones.  We had many more apothecary jars and popcorns, but we ran out of time to get everything out! I made the popcorn jar labels, decorated the scoops, and created the cones from a variety of scrapbook papers.  We also had soft pretzels for guests to enjoy while waiting for Justin to arrive for what he thought was dinner with my parents.

We served some of Justin’s favorite foods, including baked macaroni and cheese, potato salad, barbecue chicken (and veggie burgers for us vegetarians!), cucumber and tomato salad, creamed cucumbers, fresh fruit, grilled veggies, and baked beans.  Justin’s mom was our incredible chef!

My dad hung strands of Christmas lights from the porch to the trees to give a warm, glowy ambiance.  It was so beautiful as the sun went down!

CD favors of Justin’s favorite music; I burned them secretly using his top 25 most played on iTunes!

We had two pinatas filled with shot bottles.  We used 35 bottles between 2 pinatas, plus lots of candy!

 Cupcake Bar!

I was so excited about the cupcake bar because Justin loves cupcakes.  Justin’s mother and I made Strawberry, Carrot Cake, Buttercream, and Cinnamon Coffee cupcakes, and set up the bar with lots of sprinkles, chocolates, and goodies for cupcake topping.  I used Martha Stewart gingham wrappers for the cupcakes.

The night was lots of fun, with tons of drinking, eating, and celebrating, as well as a fire, some games, and glow sticks.  Thank you to everyone for celebrating with us!  We had a great time.