My 40th Vintage Elegance Themed Birthday Bash

BEWARE .... Image overload to commence, too many nice photos not to show them!

The time had come.  I had planned it for months, no years maybe (LOL)!   I knew I had always wanted a party to celebrate, being a party type of gal that I am.   But now that I am 40 I wanted something that was grown up and elegant - something to look forward to.  Lets face it, I am faced with kids parties quite often throughout the year and now it came time to celebrate my day, and in my way!   And my way, includes a lot of little details!

Then came the ideas ..... and they kept coming!

When it comes down to it, I am a vintage loving gal.   Nothing modern for this chick, so a vintage theme was born.   What comes to mind with vintage ..... paper doilies!   I found some great doilies at my local supplies store and used this as a centrepiece for everything .... the invitations, the decorations, the centrepieces, the bomboniere.

For the invitations, I used this beautiful Christina Re feather paper and designed an elegant invitation design.  I then wrapped the doily around like an envelope and secured with a little black ribbon.  Black and white was the other part of the theme.

I only had a small, intimate gathering.  I wanted to take the time to make every detail a little bit special.   I am lucky enough to call Leanne from Sweet Style a friend as well as a business associate.   Leanne became the touch stone of all my creative ideas and became my partner in crime for organising this little shindig.   We worked together to create and the decorations and more so, I was very excited that she also agreed to take the happy snaps for the evening!  Lucky me!   All photos you see here are courtesy of Sweet Style.

When choosing my venue I wanted something with great food and ambience. Banjo Paterson is such a beautiful location, the sandstone cottage is as gorgeous in as it is out and it is located right on the waterside in Gladesville!

My room had beautiful sandstone walls, so I wanted to showcase these as part of my dessert buffet.

As part of the whole vintage theme I did not want a plain restaurant table for the dessert table, I wanted something that also fit the theme.   This console table is from my own house and I knew it would work.   The lanterns under the table were originally going to be hanging above, however this was not possible on the day, so at the last minute I decided to cluster them under the table as a feature - I prefer it this way!

More on the desserts soon .....

Onto the decorations.  There was NEVER going to be any balloons at this birthday!   I see them everyday!   I wanted flowers, candles (at 40, candle light is our best friend) and mirrors.  So on the morning of the big day, I was up and at the flower markets at 5am!   Such a nerve wracking experience, almost surreal!  Those forklift drivers are a law onto themselves!   However, once a parking space was found, ahhhh the joy!   I found exactly what I was after, peonies, peonies and more peonies!   I teamed the peonies with these beautiful looking little blooms and these pink honeycomb looking flowers.   All the vases were covered in paper doilies.  I wanted table arrangements that were effortless and not forced, something that looked just like they had been picked out of the garden.

Each table had mirrored placemat centrepieces (Ikea) and I then I scattered tea lights and black plinth candles about among the flowered vases.   Each table had a table number that lit up with the candles.

The chairs were simply draped in black and white strands of this marshmallow wool string.   Simple and effective.   I also made, with the help of 2 delightfully wonderful girlfriends, some string chandeliers that were hung above the tables.    We did make around 20 of these, but due to time constraints, could only manage to hang a small few.

It then came time to put the table together.

The table in all its finery.   All the beautiful cake stands and cloches are courtesy of Leanne at Sweet Style(again lucky me!).   I also placed the mirrors over the cake table and when the candles were lit at night .... it was truly magical!


Being a HUGE Maggie Austin fan, I have always wanted to do a ruffle cake.   Now, my party was for 30 people.   I knew I would not need that much cake, but I wanted to display the cakes I wanted to make, so these 3 cakes are display cakes.  I loved the look of 3 cakes displayed together.  Each design was carefully thought of and chosen so that they each complimented the other.

The quilling cake.   Black fondant is so hard to work with and it marks very easily!   I decided to use the quilling technique to make these white bows around the cake.   I then draped black around the top to come together in a brooch type of fashion.   I LOVE this cake!

I thought about the 3rd cake for a while and  I remembered seeing an image a while ago of these cascading petals.   I thought that it would look so dramatic in black and when I started I loved it.   I now call this cake the petals cake.

Black and white theme, calls for black and white cake pops.   Dark chocolate devils food cake coated in white callebaut chocolate and topped with a black fondant blooms.   They all stood together under their cloche.

When it came time for cupcakes, this was what people were going to be eating, so I decided they should eat MY favourite flavour .... lemon poppyseed cake.   Topped with lemon scented buttercream swirls and topped with a black fondant bloom.   These stood on little mini cake stands and were also scattered over the mirrors.

I wanted macarons as a part of the treats.  So some simple vanilla macarons with dark chocolate ganache were piled high on these crystal hobnail compotes.

Looking great from every angle.

It was time to go home then and get ready.   The time had come.   Here I am, all bedecked and ready to celebrate.

Here I am with my hubby .... isn't he gorgeous!  Awwww, LOVE him!

Gorgeous night, gorgeous venue..... the ambience was set.

As the sun was setting, doily covered luminaries were set on the grass and beckoned everyone into our room, the scene was set!

Candle lights, camera, action!   LOVE it!

Handmade placecards and menus designed in theme using the paper doilies.    The menu was magnificent and food mouthwatering.

Being a good hostess and checking everything was going well!

Everyone enjoyed the atmosphere and spent the night chatting away.

Lots of fun and laughs were had too!

Enjoying the night!

 The dessert table was then opened and people got to take some treats home in these little black paper bags (from Sweet Style) which were simple adorned in paper doilies and a mini wooden peg.

As bomboniere, the guests got to take home their own cake to eat.  The cake in the jars were devils food cake layered in vanilla bean buttercream.  I topped these with paper doilies, and a black and white striped ribbon held a stamped THANK YOU wooden spoon in place.   Jars and wooden spoons available at Sweet Style.

Time to open a few presents, no brand dropping at all but Tiffany, Swarovski and Antico Murano were involved!   However, this personalised card holds a special place in my heart!  Thoughtfulness is next to godliness in my book and this is a perfect example of that!

and to close I leave you with this.  This is a photo of Leanne (Sweet Style) and I.   Leanne and I came together through our love of parties and all things styling.  I am very lucky to call her a friend and indeed she is.   I cannot thank Leanne enough for her generous giving of time and advice for my party as well as providing me with all those fabulous stands and platters.   However, these photos are how I will always remember this night and I have Leanne to thank for this.   She is such a beautiful and thoughtful photographer and person and this shows through in her photos.

Thank you for taking this (long) journey into my 40th party.   I hope you enjoyed it as much as I.

xx

Today, my party was featured on the Amy Atlas blog.   See the feature here.   A great night, great party, great photos and now a feature - yeah for me!