Adult Birthday Party Planning Tips

Whether celebrating a milestone birthday - 30, 40, 50, 60, or any age over or in between, a birthday party for an adult can be fun to host! It can be very meaningful for someone who dreads turning a year older, as well as a reminder that they are a very special person. Here are some tips and inspiration!

Themes

"Over the Hill" is a popular and fun theme for an adult milestone birthday.

"Back To School" Party

• Hold the party at a school gym (the guest of honor's old school if possible).
• Invite old school friends
• Decorate the room with memorabilia from the honoree's school years and crepe paper streamers in the school colors.
• Have everyone bring favorite foods from when they were in school, such as Twinkies, Sno Balls, Yankee Doodles, Smores, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, etc.

Forever Young Party

To personalize the event further:

Surprise or Consent?

Surprise parties are a fun option for birthdays, especially milestones. Here are some suggestions for pulling off a surprise party successfully:

• Have the party at a non-suspicious location such as a relative's house, restaurant, favorite bar or pub, bowling alley, etc.
• Throw the party a few weeks before or after the actual birth date.
• Throw an early morning (breakfast) or late night (desserts) party to catch a suspicious guest-of-honor off-guard.
• Make sure that everyone parks away from the party site, especially if they have unique cars or license plates or if the party is at your home.
• Instead of the usual "jump out and yell surprise", have guests walk in on the birthday person as if nothing out of the ordinary is going on.

Invitations

There are a lot of options for invitations, from traditional packaged ones that match your tableware and theme decorations, to custom ones, to electronic ones sent via email. Here are some other unique suggestions:

• Photocopy a birth certificate or announcement and fill it in with party information.
• Enlarge a baby picture of the guest of honor, mount on tag board and write the details on the back.
• For a vocation-theme party, send invitations on prescription sheet mock-ups for a doctor, report cards mock-ups for a teacher, memo forms for a Manager or Executive, and so on.
• Write party details on an inflated balloon (use a felt pen or a custom one from Party America). Deflate it and send it in an envelope with instructions to blow it up to get the details.

Memories of the Way We Were

Create a scrapbook as a gift to the birthday person. Ask guests to mail you their favorite snapshots, memories and anecdotes involving the guest of honor. They might also send poems, toasts and well-wishes. Bind it all into a book and present it at the party.

Decorations

Here are some ideas for creating a festive party environment:

• Collect baby pictures, year books and other mementos from the guest-of-honor's childhood and turn them into a centerpiece for the table.
• Fill the party room with helium balloons with ribbon, or balloon bouquets with theme weights.
• Create a gazebo effect by attaching a multi-color streamers from the middle of the ceiling, draping them towards the walls and letting them hand down the walls.
• If using an "Over the Hill" theme add humor by using black as the dominant color. Use a black table cover and tableware. Hang tombstone cutouts on the walls. Blow up black balloons and hang from the ceiling.
• Candy Bar Wrappers: Create sweet favors for your guests by wrapping up chocolate bars with personalized wrappers for your guests. Choose a design, lettering style and ink color to maintain your theme.
• Personalized favors are not necessary but creates a memento of your event for your guests to remember.

Alcohol Awareness

A party is a great time to see old friends and make new ones. We'd like to help you plan a party that is not only fun, but safe for everyone. So keep the following tips in mind when serving alcohol at your party:

• Always serve food with alcohol to slow the rate at which the body absorbs alcohol.
• Have several jiggers at the bar so mixed drinks can be easily measured.
• If you serve an alcoholic punch, make it with a non-carbonated base such as fruit juice. (Alcohol is absorbed much faster when combined with a carbonated mixer.)
• Have plenty of delicious non-alcoholic beverages for your guests as well.
• Stop serving alcohol about one hour before the party is scheduled to end. Emphasize non-alcoholic drinks and high protein food toward the end of the party. (Only TIME can help someone sober up.)
• If a guest has over-indulged, TAKE the car keys away, call a cab or have a non-drinking guest drive them home.

Smart Party Tips

• If you're catering the party or having it held at a restaurant, buffet style is a great way to go and is often less expensive than a formal sit-down affair.
• Providing a guest book is fun and helps make the party memorable.
• For large parties, try to make provisions for parking in advance. Ask neighbors about parking options or warn them that guests will be parking on the street.
• Make sure you have a good time at your own party. Hire a neighborhood teen or a cleaning service to clean up while your party is going on. Using disposable tableware is another way of making cleanup easy.

Party America has:

• Hundreds of tableware patterns covering every party theme, complete with decorations, favors and invitations.
• A rainbow of solid color plates, napkins, table covers and cutlery to mix and match with your party theme.
• An extensive assortment of over-the-hill and gag gifts, to spice up your event.
• Over 100 mylar balloons and a rainbow of latex balloons to choose for your decorating needs. Either have us fill them with helium or inquire about our helium tank rentals.

Party Checklist

Print out our Party Checklist.