Surprise!

Last weekend was my mom's 50th birthday. She did not want a party. Even more, she did not want a surprise party! No way. She said she would be so mad if I threw her one. 

So what did I do? I threw her one. 

In all honesty, I did not start out to host one. I always had the idea, and I thought with it being a monuments event, we should do something!  Even just a small get together (surprise or not) at her favorite wine bar. But she didn't even want to talk about it! So whats a girl to do?

I putting together 50 memories for 50 years. My mom was a swim coach when I was younger, has always been involved in coaching/training athletes  and is constantly making a difference in peoples lives, so I thought it would be fun to reconnect with old swimmers and friends. 

More on that later, but with all the emailing and mention of her upcoming birthday, people started asking if there was going to be a party! I said no, trying to respect my moms wishes, but once my dad started getting asked, he was all for it. So I had a week to throw together a party for over 50 people, and I had never thrown a party before!

So thanks to Pinterest, and my beyond helpful boyfriend, we were able to pull it off!

I am a huge fan of paper, and firmly believe that the invitation sets the ton for the party. But with such a small window, evites were the only way to go. I put together this invitation in about 30 minuets, and love the way it turned out!

I wish I had more photos of the actual party, and how the decor turned out, but I was such a stresscase (I had maybe slept 8 hours total that weekend!) that I couldn't even think of taking photos! Andrew did try, but my big camera scares him, and he has no idea what he is doing!

One of my favorite little touches I added was to the balloons. We had balloons all over the house (we hosted it at a friends house, who invited my parents over for "dinner") and I attached fun facts about Kari over the years, along with photos from all different stages of her life! They were wonderful talking points amongst the guest, as well as when my mom showed up!

I made a couple of batch's of caramels for party favors attached this fun note, and put them in my favorite red and white stripped bowl. It was my favorite part of the night, I must find a picture of the finished thing!

For dessert we had a bunch of cake pops (again, I need to find a photo! I loved the way the turned out!) and a cake made by a friend. When I was getting candles, I found sparklers, which I thought we be fun. I asked multiple people, a handful of times if they were trick candles, because I did not want trick candles, they said no. They were trick candles. And I somehow ended up lighting my moms hair on fire.

It was put out very quickly, but my dad and I could not stop laughing. I am not sure how I didn't drop the cake!  

The last thing my mom needed was thank you notes! I put together two sets, both complemented the over all red and gold theme I was working for! One matched the invites (below) and the other the party favor tags (shown in the first photo!)

My mom threw my grandmother a surprise 50th, and she didn't want it. I threw my mom a surprise 50th, she didn't want it. I think we may be starting a tradition!

(behind my mom is the red and white bowl with the party favors!)

Overall the night was a huge success, my mom was not only surprised, but had a wonderful time! I would do it again in a heartbeat, but I would buy less food!