Party Planning

Today I decided to plan a surprise party for B's birthday in August. Thankfully, he has no real interest in my blog so I can rest assured he won't stumble upon this (especially since I've been taking advantage of private browsing to do all my inspiration gathering).

Here's what I know: I want to do a poker party that also does a little bit of beer tasting. His sister (who hosts poker tournaments) has offered her home, playing cards, poker table, chairs, and poker chips to me. We're going to ask those invited to bring a six pack of an "exotic" beer in place of a gift. In this way, there can be beer taste testing in addition to a game.

I'll likely hire a dealer and have a tournament with a small buy-in. I'm planning for Saturday, the 6th and I'm excited about how devious I get to be in planning this on the quiet.

It's going to be an eight guest affair (not counting me and his sister). I'm getting a price quote on a cake from Freeport Bakery who did Cole's cake, which you can read about here.

They did a fabulous casino night cake before and I'd love something like that in a Champagne flavor, which you can read about here.

Decor:

 I'm thinking Red/Black streamers with these card danglers hanging at random.

Also, some red/black balloons. I still have a helium tank from Cole's party so I'd love an excuse to use that puppy up.

As for the snack table. Green tablecloth on the table. I still have an extra tablecloth from Cole's party.

Player card confetti for the table. I'll likely make some labels for the food, like I did here for Cole's party.

Red luncheon plates and black utensils, player card napkins.

Cake plates + napkins.

And coasters for the beers that they'll have at the poker table with them.

I have a budget of $300 and I need to make that stretch to cover the cost of decor, food, dealer, B's buy-in, and cake. I'm thinking the dealer and the cake will be the most expensive portion. My decor (including everything shown in pictures above) will total no more than $55, which leaves me with $245 to put forward to a buy-in (likely $20 or less), food, cake, and a dealer.

I'm planning to have his Dad call him on the 6th to hang out (which isn't unusual for them). Then I'll drop Cole off at my parents and head to his sister's to prepare (get the cake, decorate, prep food, ect). His sister will call his dad to ask them to come over for a few minutes (to move something ideally). And voila! Surprise.

His sister thinks it would be best to e-mail invitations since this is her crowd and she knows how to best contact them, I'll go along. I just need to iron out all the details.