Cheers to 30 Years

I'm a huge fan of theme parties. Being a bit creatively challenged, having a theme helps me stick to some basic guidelines and ensure that from the decorations to the food... that everything goes together nicely.

So for Chirag's 30th birthday this year, I decided on a Scotch and Chocolates themed party. Lately, he has really been into trying different types of Scotches and Whiskeys, plus like me, he has a pretty big sweet tooth. Overall, I wanted the party to have a bit of a sophisticated vibe. We were celebrating three whole decades after all. Once I had an overall theme in my mind, I went straight to pinterest to look for some ideas and inspiration. This post and this post were probably the most inspiring of them all. I also came across The Little Big Company's blog and pinterest board and if you love to throw themed parties, I highly recommend that you bookmark this because they have a zillion cute ideas for all kinds of parties.

The next thing to decide upon were the colors. I naturally gravitated towards gold, black, and white, but we had hosted a NYE party last year with the same exact colors. I played with the idea of adding pops of orange because Chirag is a huge Tennesse Volunteer fan, but it started to look as if I was planning a Halloween Party instead. Since Chirag typically likes a very clean, minimalistic look I decided to stick with a simple design with just stick with black and gold.

my vision... pardon my drawing skills

I am a very visual person so I quickly drafted out my vision for the party. I knew I wanted to get the big 3-0 balloons from Party City so I started from there. They have a convenient option to order ahead of time so that you can be sure the balloons will be available and ready for pick up. I ordered mine a week in advance. I got the idea of "Cheers to 30 Years" from pinterest boards. And I knew I wanted to make a smaller banner as the cake topper, inspired by this one from Sara. I also love this idea from Amy. I then contacted my mother-in-law to get baby pictures of Chirag to create a big 3-0 collage of pictures on the wall. Everyone, including Chirag, really enjoyed seeing his baby pictures and his 90's fashion sense.

Made with black card stock paper & Gold Alphabet Stickers from Michaels

The rest of the decor was pretty simple and classy.  The menu consisted of tea sandwiches catered from Central Market, which were super affordable and stuffed buffalo chicken and blue cheese bites from Sam's Club which were quick and easy to open in the oven. My sister-in-law also picked up these Thai Lime & Chili Almonds to go with the drinks which the guys really enjoyed. The deserts table included an assorted varieties of macaroons, home-made chocolate covered strawberries and chocolate covered pretzels. As for the birthday cake, I ordered a whole Whiskey cake from Whiskey Cake Kitchen & Bar to stick close to the theme.  It was huge hit with all the guests. I highly recommend it!

The desert table

Wishkey Cake

The big show stoppers would be three main scotches. I turned to my brother-in-law Hash and our dear friend Jay, who is an expert in this area. Per their advice I went with the Macallan 12, the Dalwhinnie 15, and the Balvenie Doublewood 12. Although most of the ladies at the party preferred to stick to the wines, the guys were very pleased with the scotch selection. Although the Dalwhinnie 15 was suppose to be the best, most of the guys preferred the Balveine 12. 

I didn't realize it until the last minute that the Wishkey cake was a sheet cake. I had gone to Home Goods earlier that day because I knew our table needed some kind of height and found these cute black and white suit cases. My good friend Vivek, came up with this great idea to use the suit cases as a cake stand. 

I was really happy with how the whole party turned out. Everyone had a fabulous time, plus Chirag was truly surprised and loved the theme!

Are you a fan of theme parties?

Inspired on a Pursuit of Happiness

Writing your first blog post can be a pretty difficult task. But as I get older, I'm learning that over analyzing anything too much in your head can keep you from doing what you are really inspired to do. So, I wanted to write about two people that really inspire everyday... my parents.

Now, I was worried that this might sound too cheesy and what not... but it really is the truth. I will touch on how my mother inspires me in future posts, but for today I wanted to write about how my father is always inspiring me to live a happier life through paying a little more attention to the little things around me that truly matter... and ignoring all the big static noise that really doesn't.

He is always sending me inspiring emails and books. To be honest when I was younger after reading about one or two of these emails, they all started to sound the same and ended up deleted before I would even open them. I makes me a bit sad to think about that now. But I guess when you are younger you just feel like "...yea,yea... I know", but you really don't. You can't know until you have lived. You don't know what mistakes to avoid before you make them until you have made a few of your own. But on a random day you stop and realize that even though those emails and books aren't telling you something you don't already know... it's almost like you didn't take the time to acknowledge that you know these things and even less time to actually bother to implement them in your own life.

So, today I'm inspired on a pursuit of happiness.

via

Unfortunately, I am not a big reader. While I was in college I always made up an excuse that I have too much reading for my classes, therefore I didn't have time to read other things (what a sorry excuse, I know!). And I have tired to get into reading and at least I can say I have read a handful of books,but in general after about 2 to 4 pages I start to doze off and before I know  it... I'm waking up for an hour long nap! But recently, I have been introduced to the world of Podcasts!

It's the perfect solution for me. Lately, I have been listening to a podcast Happier with Gretchen Rubin.I like that the podcasts are short, very relate-able and the little things she inspires me to implement in my life are super easy. Like the one minute rule, setting a bed alarm (my father has been telling me to do this for years), or not to be afraid to try something new (like this blog ;)). I feel like any positive change I make, no matter how big or small inspire the next step towards my pursuit of happiness.

What inspires you? What are you on a pursuit for?