The Most Magical Night

the making of my dream birthday party

Thinking back to a couple of months /weeks ago when I was feeling really weird about having a birthday party, I honestly can’t believe I even doubted for a second it was, not only, a good idea, but a necessary one. One of my mentors told me, “you simply MUST celebrate your life!”. After all, It’s not every year that one has their entire thyroid removed and neck zapped with radiation.

Once I got out of my mopey hole, I started by just letting my imagination run wild with ideas. This is how every great project of mine starts. I dream as big as I can and then I scale back to what is accessible. It’s very important for me to do it this way, though some might argue that I’m setting myself up for disappointment. I’m not, I promise. I’m in the business of dreaming big and watching God deliver BIGGER. I’ve been told I have high expectations.. for life, for people, for the work I do. I strongly disagree. I dream big and I expect miracles, I try to detach myself from what those miracles look like. The result is a life full of opportunities and experiences beyond my wildest dreams. Like this party.

It turned out better than I imagined. Because even though I would have loved to have hosted it in the Palace of Versailles (believe me, my mind went there), my sweet little living room managed to be transformed into the coziest, most magical display of love and creativity and honestly, Versailles could NEVER :’)

For starters, peep the invite:

these colors make me SO happy :’)

I decided the party would be butterfly and… magical?? themed. I imagined a sweet candle lit dinner, merged with outdoor picnic vibes, lots of flowers, lots of twinkly lights, and lots of whimsy magic. I wanted my guests drawing cute doodles on my tables, and stars hanging above our heads as we ate and laughed and celebrated together. And most importantly, I envisioned a craft session where everyone would decorate/bedazzle a thyroid so that I could keep and frame them like taxidermy butterflies (because I’ve always wanted one of those things, but they are SO expensive 😭).

So I’ll break my process down; because essentially what I did was creative direct my own party, the way I would a photoshoot or a music video. I’m nuts, I know. But honestly I’m really proud of how I pulled this party together because it looked like a million bucks, but most of the decorations were DIYed and made from repurposing old props and trinkets I’ve hoarded over the years!