I thought I’d kick off the week by sharing a little of my weekend with you – the surprise 30th birthday party I threw for my husband on Saturday night! I started planning this party for Mike almost immediately after wedding planning wrapped up and I knew right away that I was going to do everything in red, white and blue in honor of his favorite sports teams the Atlanta Braves and the Buffalo Bills. Mike is an English teacher and a coach and he’s been an athlete his entire life so this party was all about him and his love for sports. The menu was an ode to traditional stadium foods – hot dogs, peanuts, Cracker Jack, chicken wings, cheeseburger sliders, nachos, and lots of ice cold beer.

Mike played baseball for over fourteen years from T-ball right through college and I dug into his old scrapbooks and memorabilia to add a little personal charm to the party. I adore these super cute little baseball jerseys he wore when he was just a tiny little kid so I hung them right up where everyone could check them out.

I created a photo line with cheap jute twine, clothes pins and an assortment of Mike’s old photos, sports regalia and newspaper clippings. He loved looking at all of the old photos and sharing with our guests the who, what and where behind each image and memento.

Using my Gocco, I printed custom cocktail napkins and matching favor bags to hold peanuts. All of the condiments for the hot dogs were held in little Atlanta Braves helmets used as bowls and the paper straws I got from Urbanic finally got put to good use. I also made really inexpensive and fun paper bunting made from the pages of an old book, my trusty hot glue gun, the same jute twine as the photo line and bright red ric rac drawing inspiration from the newspaper bunting with red thread from twoandsix that I fell in love with a few weeks back.

The best part about the party? Mike was completely surprised, we had a great night with family and friends, and I only spent about $200 for the entire shindig including food, decorations, invitations and postage. I’ve got more details to share and a complete source list and budget breakdown coming up!

{Photos by Cyd Converse for The Sweetest Occasion.}