Melissa's Birthday Party

My best friend Melissa is turning 30 this week.  I knew I wanted to throw her a party and last year, the week before her 29th birthday, I came up with the perfect theme.  Since she has an October birthday, I wanted to do something autumn-ish, but I didn't want to do a Halloween party and I really didn't want to do a pumpkin party; WAY too much orange (and in this house, we don't do anything orange).  So last year I was scrolling through some blogs and I found my party inspiration here.  Colleen from Fig and Ruby does some amazing parties and this one was for her daughter's 10th birthday.  I took her decoration ideas and made it the entire theme for Melissa's party.  Melissa knew she was having a party, but she didn't know the theme.  I did a pink and gold glitter pumpkin theme and I was so happy with how it turned out!
I was also very proud of myself that I was able to keep the theme a secret from her for over a year!

There were pink and gold glittered pumpkins everywhere.  I blinged up some of them with pearls, put some on candlesticks, and put Melissa's favorite chevron stripes on one.  I was really happy with how they all turned out.  I got a bunch of the pumpkins last year on clearance after Halloween, and picked up some others throughout the year whenever I came across one. 

I really wanted to do a dynamic and pretty food table and I found inspiration in this picture:

I loved all of the white elements on this table as well as the varying heights of things.  I was pretty happy with how my food table turned out, too.  Here it is!

I love those tall vases with the gold spirals in them, it really added the height I was going for and I got to re-use the vases, which were from my wedding. 

I even added some bling to the forks and the candles (the candle idea is also from Fig and Ruby), I firmly believe the details make all the difference in a party.

(you can totally see in that bottom picture how one of the jewels fell off the "0" and on to the cake.  I was so bummed, but it was still cute)

Melissa's mom brought some pictures from Melissa's childhood and the guests had a lot of fun looking at those. 

The kids had fun coloring and running around together.  I printed off some pumpkin coloring sheets and had a bunch of crayons.  I was so glad I had those to keep the kiddos entertained!

Melissa was taking a bunch of pictures and Chris kept showing up in the background of her pics, dancing and goofing off!  She got some great shots of him, but this is my favorite!

Melissa was really happy with the party, which made it perfect.  We got to spend the afternoon with her family and our friends, who all came to celebrate with us.

And finally, a picture of the birthday girl blowing out the candles on her cake.

(She was a little bit embarrassed while we were singing to her...hee hee!)

Happy Birthday, Melissa!  Thanks for turning the big 3-0 so I could plan this fun party!