Country Fair Birthday Party

July 7, 2012

Last week I updated about how I spent my birthday and now I want to share some pictures from my birthday party! Am I too old to throw myself a birthday party? Maybe. But I do it anyways, year after year. Truthfully, it’s not the celebrating-my-birthday part that I like, it’s really the preparations and party planning that I love. I started thinking about my party about a month in advance and while doing some research, I narrowed down a few different themes. I finally decided on “Country Fair” and then got to work planning the invitations, food, decor, games, etc. I think it turned out great! And I’m so, so happy to have had such great friends and family come! Our best friends Daniel & Natalie drove up that day from Houston just to come to the party (and they had just made a road trip to Utah a few days before). Others came from all over the area: Denton, Dallas, and Keller. They made the party awesome!

Now let’s get into the details!

Here’s the invitation I sent out in the mail:

Then on the day of the party Grant and I spent the day at Hurricane Harbor and our friends Jonathan and Audrey accompanied us. We were deciding between the water park and Six Flags and it turns out the water park was a great decision–the water kept us nice and cool and the rides were really fun!

Then around 7ish everyone came over the party. To go along with the theme, I set up games around the yard that people could play. We had badminton, bocce ball, darts, and ring toss. In addition to the games, we also had everyone bring their swimsuits so we could all swim. I made up the game signs in InDesign and used burlap to give it more of the Country Fair look.

I wanted to keep the theme going with the food as well so I planned foods I thought you’d be able to find at a real Country Fair. We had popcorn, cotton candy, peanuts, cookies, and different kinds of fruit. I also made a cake that looked like a Ferris Wheel, cupcakes that looked like popcorn, and other cupcakes that looked like cotton candy. Here’s how the food table looked:

And some close-ups of all the food and their name cards, which I made in InDesign:

For the drinks we made three different kinds of lemonade and set them atop this old wooden barrel that I found for a great deal at Lowe’s. We served the lemonade in mason jars and also had water bottles available for everyone.

Here’s some shots of decorations we had set up for the party. Grant and I went around our area the night before the party and picked a bunch of flowers. I then used two vases that I bought for a buck at the dollar store and mason jars for all the flowers. I finished off the look with scraps of burlap and twine. Much cheaper than buying bouquets! Everything else we pretty much had around the house so I just gathered everything up that might look Country Fair-ish and then created little vignettes for displays.

And lastly, here’s the picnic table that we used to eat around. I got the tablecloth from a dollar store and made the table runner out of burlap.

I was really happy with how everything turned out and loved seeing everyone who was able to come. Now to just start planning next year’s party! Just kidding…I have to focus all my efforts on Halloween now, of course.

UPDATE: I’ve now opened an Etsy shop! If you are interested in the design I did for the invitations to my Country Fair Birthday Party, please check out my shop and message me about any questions! I will completely customize it for you! And if you’re looking for a particular design that you don’t see, I’m always happy to do custom work as well—just shoot me an email!

3 thoughts on “Country Fair Birthday Party

  1. Wonderful creative and such fun! I’m throwing a company party in June and would LOVE to send these invitations. Would you share this information? Thanks so much for the inspiration.
    Carol Wine

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