Bubbly, Bourbon, & BBQ Birthday Party
Did you know that both National Rosé Day and National Bourbon Day fall in June? National Rosé Day is June 8th and National Bourbon Day is June 14th!
When I started brainstorming this year's birthday dinner party theme, I really wanted to go with BBQ for the food because I love it so much...you can't be from North Carolina and not have a strong opinion on BBQ! Honestly, I also wanted to do something simple and effortless with the meal so that I could focus on the rest of the design and styling for the party. It's tough to set up food for an outdoor party that is covered to avoid bugs, but uncovered long enough for photos, and also set up well enough that the presentation is photo-worthy. A girl can only do so much by herself! So this year I decided to do some sort of a glammed up cook out. (We don't "BBQ" in the South...BBQ is something you eat, not something you do.)
There is a Beer, Bourbon, and BBQ festival that comes to the Triangle (and other cities) every summer, and I always thought it would be cool to do my own version of that. Since we were going "glam cookout" it only made sense to substitute some bubbly for the beer!
Anyone that follows my Instagram stories knows I love navy blue and I pulled in the pink gingham to carry through with the BBQ theme, but with a feminine touch. While I don't use rose gold often, it accented the navy and pink so well, and I recently fell in love with these rose gold orbz balloons, so that is how the color palette came about. I threw in some pig accents throughout the design to pull together the pink and keep things fun and lighthearted.
The gingham napkins came from Etsy and I made personalized Old Fashioned glasses for each placesetting using my Cricut machine. I ordered the rose gold disposable cutlery from Amazon and was obsessed with how gorgeous it was! It also helped make clean up super simple. The rose gold mercury glass votives also came from Amazon.
It's so fun that my birthday falls during peony season! Our stores usually get them in within a week or two before so of course I try to incorporate them into my birthday decor. I went with pink peonies and white hydrangeas for the centerpieces, but I absolutely love the pink gingham watering can I found at Michael's that held white peonies and tulips on the bar!
Originally I planned to have a variety of rosé for guests to try, but when I realized the Cupcake rosé had rose gold foil on top, it was a done deal. I love bottle labeling that doubles as décor! The signature cocktail was Peach Bourbon Lemonade (Peach Evan Williams, Trader Joe's Lemonade, Triple Sec and lemon slices) and we had various types of bourbon for sampling. I used a shelf from our kitchen as the bar with cocktail tables on either side and I loved how well the shelf matched the fruitwood chairs I rented.
Catering was from Backyard BBQ in Durham and we had pulled pork BBQ, mac and cheese, collards, baked beans, potato salad, coleslaw, and salad. BBQ and all the fixin's are one of my favorite meals and it was a relief to simply put the trays over sternos on a table and be done. There was no stress about presentation, serving platters, keeping bugs out, etc. In fact, I didn't even take pictures of the food table for this party. I only focused on the dinner table and bar set up!
Dessert was a delicious strawberry cake and banana pudding cheesecakes that my friend Dawn made. She used rose gold foil cupcake liners for the mini cheesecakes. The cake topper was a wooden pig cutout from Etsy that I glued skewers to and spray painted rose gold.
I really enjoyed planning this party because the theme was casual and fun, but the color palette was so pretty! Despite the pink gingham and rosé, I knew the guys would appreciate the BBQ and bourbon. While it's fun to use more specific themes (like my Golden Girls party last year), doing something vague made planning a bit easier and the possibilities endless.
The theme could easily be duplicated with a different color scheme for any grown up birthday celebration! You could also opt for the beer over bubbly for a more masculine party.
We had a great evening and I appreciate all my friends that came out. Spending time on our patio is one of my favorite summer activities and I absolutely love hosting parties out there that can carry on through the night under the bistro lights.
It was a wonderful 29th (holy cow!) birthday!
