Birthday Beer Tour Bonanza Celebration

After making the invites/card, place cards, and hanging lantern puff ball thingies we were ready to rock for the Birthday Beer Tour Bonanza Celebration!  The tours and tastings were amazing and we walked away with a couple of growlers of beer.  It was so fun to see how the beer was made and talk to the actual owners and operators of the brewery.  But anyways….onto the good stuff, the parttaay!

I put out planters full of peanuts on the table because my favorite thing about going to the bars is the awesome free peanuts you get to snack on….and throw on the floor!  Yum!  But I anal-retentively let everyone know there would be no peanut shell floor throwing at this party.  I also used scrabble tiles to spell out the word “Beer” and flanked each side with a unique bottle cap.  The invitation was framed to add to the ambiance. 

The Jones Soda Pop bottles with all the guests names were displayed on the bar. 

After we cracked open those colorful bad boys we all dug in and enjoyed some food, beer, peanuts, and fun!  The menu consisted of sweet pea and swiss chard manicotti and amazing bruschetta.  Ya, I know it didn't really go with the beer/brewery/bar theme but I am Italian to the core and can never resist pasta at a special occasion!  Check back in for the delicious and simple bruschetta recipe!

Birthday Beer Tour Bonanza: Hanging Lanterns and Puff Balls

In the next phase of plannig my mother's Birthday Beer Tour Bonanza party (after the invitation/card and place cards were done) I wanted to create some hanging décor to go over the table.  I have creatively named this arrangement “Hanging Lanterns and Puff Balls”.  What I used to make the chandelier-esque arrangement was 4 Chinese lanterns, 1 package of red tissue and 1 package of yellow tissue.  Yes, I know there are yellow balloons in this picture but after some fidgeting around they looked terrible and I decided to go with the Martha Stewart type puff balls like the ones I made in this post. 

I anchored my arrangement with the biggest piece of décor: the Chinese lanterns.  I started out with five, but after several times arranging (and hitting my head on the fan) I decided on four.  This allowed me to create a more symmetrical look.    

Since I only had four colors to work with I decided to put two red and two yellow puff balls in the center, alternating colors.  Had there been more colors to work with the arrangement may have been larger.  It all depends on what it looks like when you start playing with it.  An FYI, an arrangement like this will significantly dim the light of your light fixture.  This can create great mood lighting paired with candles!    

Birthday Beer Tour Bonanza: Place Cards

I really didn’t need place cards for the party….there were only 8 of us....but they are sooo fun I couldn’t resist.  I started out by printing out cards with everyone’s name on them in colors that coordinated to the birthday cards with a orange-red boarder.  Then, just cut around the boarder and the names are good to go. 

Besides cardstock to print the name cards you need raffia ribbon, a hole punch, and some……

……awesome colored pop! I choose Jones Soda Pop because they just happened to have the colors I needed.  And besides, they have awesome pictures on the front, taken by real consumers!  Now, since this was a beer themed birthday I should have used beer instead, but some of the party goers were underage so this is a great alternative, and ohhh so colorful!

Punch a hole in the top or bottom of your name card, dependent on how you want your display to look.  I choose top.

Tie with raffia (or any other ribbon of your choice)……

And snip the edges for a completely customized place card/favor that won’t break the bank.  If you notice my names are upside-down.  Well I didn’t notice until they were all done.  Next time the bottom right corner will do the trick.  You live and learn right?   

Here is the budget breakdown:

·        Cardstock – free from my collection

·        Raffia – free from my collection

·        Jones Soda’s – $9.38

Total: $9.38 for 8!

Birthday Beer Tour Bonanza: Invitations

This year for my mother’s birthday I decided to do something a little different.  Finding a gift for my mother can be difficult as she is not a material person and would rather enjoy life traveling and experiencing new things.  So I thought the perfect gift would be a tour of three local breweries ending with a home cooked meal, family, and friends…..and of course some beer.  For the beer tour I choose three local brew companies that we would visit and enjoy a tour and tastings.  This concept of a “tour” party can be applied to anything like going to different spas or with food.  An idea that I love is picking a different restaurant for drinks, appetizers, dinner, and dessert!

I designed the card using blues, greens, yellows, and an orangeish red accent.  I went with a map theme mapping out our route to each of our stops.  For the maps I used the same techniques I used here for my wedding maps. 

The three local breweries were the Lift Bridge Brewery, Stillwater Brewing Company (renamed Staples Mill Brewing Company), and Flat Earth Brewing Company. 

Our tour started in Stillwater (where we honeymooned)…..

…….and ended in St. Paul.

Check back in for more décor, favors, and food from the party!  P.S. If you recreate a beer tour themed party make sure you have a sober cab - in our case it was me!