So in less than a month it will be my 31st birthday and I plan on throwing myself a themed birthday party which I will not share until after the party has occurred. But what I will do is talk about a birthday party I had 2 years ago for my 29th, an 80s party!
I love the 80s – the John Hughes movies, the music, the outrageous fashion sense, everything and anything about that decade. Not to mention, I am an 80s baby so I thought why not host a party and throw it back to a time when Sam turned 16 and spent her birthday with the ever dreamy Jake Ryan to the crazy hairdos of the band, Flock of Seagulls to the rise of Airhead candy.
I told all my friends to come dressed up in their best 80s garb and be ready to party hard to the best hits the 80s had to offer. I researched for a few weeks on Pinterest for some ideas for my menu, outfit and decor. Of course I had a photo booth but the real surprise was my totally tubular candy bar, but more about that later..
I had the food set up on my dining room table and the bar area set up on my kitchen island. I looked for ideas for my menu on Pinterest because I really wanted to be authentic to the decade. I ended up making a seven layer taco dip, pasta salad, crockpot meatballs, Doritos, Bagel Bites and veggies with dip.
For the bar area, I filled a plastic party tub with popular adult beverages from the 80s such as the famous Bartles and James wine coolers and Seagrams coolers. My friend Joanna and her husband loved them!
I had found an awesome idea to do a candy bar and had set it up in my living room. I used a silver fringe door curtain for the background and a black tablecloth to cover the small table I used. I freehanded the “Candy Bar” on bright pink poster board and cut them out for the banner. The candy included Airheads, Nerds, PopRocks, Pixie Stix, Warheads and Ring Pops, all very popular during the 80s. The candy bar was a huge hit!
I also had a photobooth set up and made props from pictures and word bubbles that I had printed off the internet. I used a bright metallic pink paper for my background and added two curly bows. The props included cropped photos of popular characters from 80s movies, funky sunglasses, Mardi Gras beads and leis. I wrote popular slang on the word bubbles such as ‘gnarly’ and ‘tubular’.
Some pictures from the photo booth:
In the bathroom, I set up a girls beauty bar. I filled a bucket that I had purchased at the dollar store with items that would help us maintain our perfectly coifed 80s hair, our over-the-top makeup and a little Jordache perfume wouldn’t hurt either.
Who doesn’t love using Aqua Net hairspray? The bigger the hair, the better!
Instead of baking and decorating a cake, I decided to bake cupcakes instead. I had both vanilla and chocolate cake and decorated each cupcake with bright pink frosting and a topper from pictures I printed out from the internet. They came out great!
And here is me with my tower of cupcakes:
I am always grateful and appreciative when my friends play along with my theme parties! It really adds that extra detail to the atmosphere and gives people the opportunity to do something different for a night. The birthday party I am planning for this year will do just that, so stayed tuned for more! In the meantime, enjoy some of my friends and I as we totally rock the 80s!!
And of course the best dressed dude and dudette of the night 😜
Xoxo,
Katie