Apparently, according to my mom, I'm the "party planning diva" of the family. And according to my cousin, I'm the "cool cousin." So I'm in charge of planning the first birthday party my cousin has ever had in her life. She turns 17 this year. And you know it has to be EPIC! So no pressure... That being said, I've got about a month to whip up a beachy themed party for her that any 17 year old would be excited about. So I've gotta make it fun and sophisticated enough for high schoolers. Since I'm in the beginning stages, I don't really have any photos - but I'll be sure to post them once I start making stuff and definitely once we have the party! Therefore, for this post, I'll just lay out my thought processes as far as what I'm thinking of planning, so let me know if some of this stuff just doesn't sound cool for a teenager.
Everyone knows the first impression of a party comes well in advance, with the invitations. So I've been running through some ideas. Obviously my first stop in the planning process was Pinterest (was there a doubt?). So when I came upon this post, I said to myself, "Self, how cute would it be to do an invitation as a message in a bottle with a sugar scrub for the 'sand' so the invitations are fun and functional!?!?" But after talking it out with a few people, I realized that that's just not feasable...I mean, it would cost about $5 per invitation just to mail them! (But I'm still doing a message in a bottle type thing....probably as part of the party favors for all her friends to take home. I mean, I am the "cool cousin," after all, so I've gotta do some over-the-top EPIC stuff, right?) So now I'm back at square one as far as invitations go.... I'm sure I'll figure it out, so I'm just gonna set that on the back burner for now. Not to mention I'm hanging out with my most artsy of friends and family this weekend, so I'll just have to recruit them to help me design the most awesome party invitations of all time! Again, no pressure...
So moving on from invitations, I was thinking of doing a tiki hut or a tiki bar. I mean, what kind of beach party would it be without a tiki hut/bar, am I right? So thinking of my parents' house (where we're having the party), I think we're doing it on the back deck. Well, there's a screened in porch on the back deck and, I mean, what better place for a tiki hut? I don't have to build anything because it's already there! Now I just have to turn a screened in porch into a tiki hut. I'm thinking that would be the optimal place for a photo booth as well. Yes, I'm jumping on that bandwagon, but I mean, she's a teenager and it is a popular thing among the younger generation, so why not? It'll be fun! The only problem I have now is that there are french doors leading onto the screened in porch and there's a giant piano right inside the doors (which you can see because its all windows right there)...not very beachy if you ask me. But no worries. After searching Pinterest (you all should really not be very surprised when I say that now...), I came across this pin and a lightbulb went off in my head. Since the windows look like that, why not just put a beach scene behind the window so it's like you're looking out the window of the tiki hut onto the sun and the sand? So I'm working on that. And I've gotta try to build an actual bar (or at least figure out how to cover a table so it looks like it belongs)...and I've gotta put some bar stools together...and figure out the tiki torches...and decide on what to do with the rest of the porch...and I've got a lot more to do than I started! I guess I'm off to Pinterest again! I'll post more updates as I get 'em!
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