Cheers to Another Year!

"Every year on your birthday, you get a chance to start new."  ~  Sammy Hagar

For my birthday celebrations this year, I decided to scale back the fanfare from the last few years and planned an intimate dinner party with a small group of my oldest friends.  I noticed as I've gotten older I truly enjoy small scale gatherings where you can really get into the conversation and soak up the moment!

Locked Up!

Small does not have to mean boring though - so I reserved a cozy and unique private dining room at an excellent seafood restaurant, Fish Urban Dining, in the ever evolving Asbury Park, NJ.  The building is an old Post Office and we had the pleasure of dining in the former Vault!  The space proved the perfect setting for lingering over good food, wine, and friends.

Cheers!

Since I can't resist adding extra festive touches to things, I crafted a "Happy Birthday!" Banner from vintage post card scrapbook paper and vinyl letters.  As a surprise for my guests, there was a party favor at each place setting which doubled as a place card.  For the favor tags, I used the same vintage paper from the banner and tied them to Voluspa candles for the ladies and Oliveros cigars for the gentlemen.

Favor Tags/ Place cards

Tip: Use favor tags as an easy tool for creating a seating chart... prior to tying to the gifts, lay them out on a table so you can arrange and re-arrange until you like the layout, then snap a picture.  Reference the picture when you get to the venue for placing the favors/ place cards at each seat.  For this party I chose a traditional set up by seating couples across from each other and alternating genders next to each other, with the host/ hostess at either end of the table.