For my sister’s 30th, I threw her a party with the theme Thankfully 30 (Thanksgiving Themed 30th Birthday Party) despite it being in February. Honestly, everything from the fun decorations to the oddly timed Thanksgiving dinner was such a hit and I would highly recommend it!
Here, I’ve compiled everything I did to plan, prep and throw this party for my sister.
Watch the party come to life in video form by clicking the links below:
Thankfully 30 Party Decor & Essentials
Anything not linked is likely thrifted, second hand, something I’ve had for awhile or from Homegoods/TJ Maxx!
The Theme
As mentioned, this party was thrown to celebrate my sister’s 30th birthday! For the last handful of months, she has “jokingly” asked if I would make her Thanksgiving dinner for her birthday despite it falling in February. I was, of course, going to make her Thanksgiving foods per her request, but then I thought… what if we take this one step further?
What if I threw her a classic, colorful, nostalgic birthday party with close family and close friends that felt like the birthdays we had growing up? But then of course, what if alongside everything classicly “birthday” themed, the menu was a Thanksgiving spread? I asked her what she thought, she was thrilled and I dove headfirst into brainstorming.
For Thankfully 30 to be brought to life, I wanted to incorporate:
- A handmade banner with photos of my sister through the years
- A custom frame TV “art” to serve as a backdrop
- A living room transformation to fit a super long table for everyone to sit at
- Balloon arches
- Streamers of various colors, shapes and textures covering the ceiling
- Color, everywhere!
- Again, a Thanksgiving menu, but complete with the recipes from our family (all of which could be vegetarian and gluten free to meet my sister’s dietary needs)
- A cake made to look like mashed potatoes with vanilla buttercream, Starburst candy “butter” and caramel “gravy”
- A cookie cake (which feels so nostalgic to us)
- A ceramic plate for every guest to sign for her to take home as a keepsake
- A Diet Coke tower (her drink of choice)
- Party hats, silly straws, mix and match patterns, fun birthday candles, paper plates, etc.!
For more details on my thought process, watch my party planning video here!
THE TIMELINE
Hosting and parties of all kinds can seem intimidating or stressful, but I make sure to plan for them in a way that creates the most low stress hosting experience possible so I can actually enjoy the event alongside my guests.
Transparently for this party, I wanted to get started on decorations at the beginning of party week, however, life happens and plans don’t always work out! It was a race to the finish from Thursday-Saturday when the guests arrived, but we made it happen! I’ve learned over time to let go of every last detail I want to include and focus on the most important ones first, then anything extra that doesn’t happen will be unnoticed by anyone but me!
Anyway, here is a rough outline of how I would recommend preparing for this specific party!
Month Prior:
- Secure the theme and start to map out decor/set up
- Invite your guests (of course!) as early as possible
- Draft a menu and grocery list, inclusive of dietary needs and taste preferences of your guests
- Take inventory of plates, linens & serve ware to ensure you’re covered based on the amount of guests and types of dishes/drinks
- Gather and/or order decor needs
- Order any supplies or ingredients that need to be purchased online
- Test out your recipes
Week Of:
- Main grocery shop of everything that can be purchased in advance
- Complete any DIYs or crafts, in this case, the baby photo banner, Frame TV art and the birthday plate
- Decorate your space in all the ways that can be done in advance, starting as early in the week as possible depending on the extent of your decor
- Gather, organize and label all serve ware so it’s ready to be set out
Day Before:
- If needed, secondary grocery shop as soon as the store opens to get any final needs and so you have as much time as possible
- Prep any recipes and ingredients that can be made in advance (I made every recipe in full, aside from the dinner biscuits, but left the bake time for the day of. If you are caught up on decorating ahead of the party, you can easily make all of these recipes day of!)
- Any final decor touchups
- Clean!
Morning Of:
- Finish any day of recipes, such as the dinner biscuits, in this case
- Finalize setting up your space and of course, get yourself ready!
- Get the food in the oven to bake or on the stove to reheat ahead of your guests arriving
Bonus Tips:
- Have food made in advance throughout the week that you can eat while prepping because you probably won’t want to be cooking when prepping multiple dishes for your party, plus it saves time!
- Run and empty your dishwasher before the party so you can load everything instead of hand washing and taking up counter space. The easier the cleanup the better!
- Clean your spaces the night before hosting then do last minute touch ups prior to guests arriving
THE MENU
Below is everything that I included on the menu. There are only a few recipes to make and overall is super customizable and in turn dietary inclusive. I always aim to make everything super easy to prepare when hosting so you won’t be stressed putting these together!
The Drinks:
Honestly, we just had water and Diet Coke as we aren’t big drinkers and Diet Coke is my sister’s favorite!
The Dinner:
Everything here is gluten free and everything aside from the chicken is vegetarian (duh). Here is the recommended timeline (it was honestly so doable!):
Make the day before:
- “Mashed Potato” Vanilla Birthday Cake
Make the day before and reheat on the stove:
- Brown Butter Sage Mashed Potatoes, Caramel (for the “mashed potato” cake)
Make/prep the day before and bake the day of:
- Roasted Maple Carrots, Roasted Green Beans, Classic Stuffing, Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake
Make the day of:
- Dinner Biscuits, Harvest Salad, Rotisserie Chicken (which just needs heated/no prep needed)
Dinner Biscuits – click here for the recipe!
Harvest Salad – click here for the recipe!
Roasted Maple Carrots – this recipe is a part of my Thanksgiving eBook, which can be found here!
Roasted Green Beans – click here for the recipe!
Classic Stuffing – click here for the recipe!
- Note: I used this bread (click here) for the stuffing this time and it was AMAZING!
Rotisserie Chicken – heated in the oven and served on top of a bed of kale… who needs turkey?!
PLUS, my mom brought corn and gravy and my brother in law brought homemade mac and cheese. It’s okay to ask for a little help were needed!
The Dessert:
Vanilla Birthday Cake – click here for the recipe!
- Notes: I originally added sprinkles to this recipe to make it funfetti… DO NOT do that! The sprinkles absorbed into the batter and it was a disaster. To make the cake look like mashed potatoes, I baked the batter into 3 layers, one of which being smaller, and messily covered them in vanilla buttercream with a dip in the top to place Starburst yellow candies as the “butter” and to drizzle homemade caramel for the “gravy.”
Cookie Cake – click here for the recipe I used!
- Notes: I used my chocolate chip cookie recipe (above) and saved some of the buttercream from the cake to pipe onto the outside! To bake the cookie, I put all of the dough into a springform pan and baked until ready!
Hungry for more?
Click here to browse more of my Thanksgiving recipes! And no, you don’t have to wait until the fall to enjoy them. 🙂
A NOTE ON CALORIE COUNT, NUTRITIONAL INFO AND SERVING SIZES
Due to my past experiences, I do not include most of the above information within my recipes as it is unsafe for me to do so personally. While I try to share a rough estimate when it comes to the serving size, please note that it is very subjective as we all have different hunger levels both from person to person and even from meal to meal.
If any of the above information is important to you, I understand! We are all different and have various goals and needs. If you’d like, you are welcome to calculate the information needed based on the ingredients you use when making one of my recipes.
I hope you understand! This comes from a place of love and protection both for myself and others like me. If you ever have any questions, send me an Instagram message for the quickest response time! Thank you for being here!
FOLLOW ALONG
Be sure to follow me on Instagram and TikTok to see all of the behind the scenes of recipe creation as well as how to videos to watch them come to life! You can also head over to my Pinterest to save all of my recipes in one spot that you plan whip up in the future.
PS – If you make any of my recipes, I would be so grateful if you left a review so I can hear what you think! I also am happy to answer any questions you may have on here, but if you want a quicker response, be sure to shoot me a message on Instagram. Thank you so much and talk soon!
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