Grand Little Place

Two of my best friends have their 40th birthday coming up within days of each other.  Our friends & I took it upon ourselves to host a forty & fabulous birthday party surprise!

I have known my best friend, Sarah, since the third grade.  When she & I went to college we met our other two best friends, Rachel & Jeanette (follow her on Instagram here).  Over the past 20 (!) years the 4 of us have made too many memories to count.  I know I am blessed to have 1 dear friend, but to have a complete circle makes my cup run over.  This past summer I was visiting Jeanette in Colorado and we began to hatch a plan for our friends 40th birthdays.  We decided in July that she would make the trip back to KC to surprise them, but that was not at all where our plans ended.  Once back home in KC I began to look around at options and brainstorm a bit more.  I found a winery that was having live music on a date near their birthday that coincided with dates Jeanette could make the trip in town.  With that as my cover story I invited them to mark off the date on their calendar for us to celebrate their birthday.

With cover story in place and a firm date we looped in our husbands who agreed we needed to do the birthdays up big.  Google led me to Chef Leto Blackman, a private chef here in KC.  We decided that an intimate, surprise dinner party would be the exact thing to celebrate our dear friends!

Now that you have the backstory let’s jump to the decor!  We had decided on a French menu and Jeanette & I immediately settled on a blue & white color scheme.  The surprise dinner party was held at my house.  I set up a tablescape and then flooded the rest of our main floor with as many candles as I could get my hands on.  Jeanette boxed all of her candles & holders and brought them to KC with her – ha!  Sarah lives directly across the street from me and we are in and out of each others homes very frequently.  It was difficult trying to keep my distance from her last week so I didn’t let the secret out!

I did take photos before I left, but I love the ones with all the candles lit so much more, even if they are fuzzy and not as ‘pinterest-worthy’.  It was a night to remember and my memory feels like these pictures <3   The husbands were all in wait at our house and were charged with lighting all the candles.  Sarah’s husband Jon took most of these in the minutes before our arrival, I’m so thankful he was able to get them!

This display greeted the girls in the entryway.  I added a ‘Forty & Fabulous’ vinyl decal to the mirror, changed up the floral display with fall foilage, and added dimension with a small table and ginger jar.  Candles were added to every horizontal surface I could find for the best ambiance you could ever imagine.

I used all of my, Jeanettes and Sarah’s (without her knowing!) candlesticks.  When I ran out of candlesticks and candle holders I grabbed every plain glass container I could and added tealights.  Take a closer look and see if you can find the candle holders vs the random glassware! Jeanette also had a set of flickering battery operated candlesticks that we ran across the catwalk in the living room.

These blue and white candlesticks were the perfect small addition to tie in the blue & white from the dining room.

I will likely do a seperate blog post about this tablescape (or more likely will transition it for Hannukah) to break it all down.  The table had major drama points!  For dinner we moved the pampas grass to the buffet (and the extra candles from the buffet to the table).  The mirrored centerpiece made the entire room sparkle under the candles.  I love the mix of antique vs new, high vs low, and COLOR on this table!

I mentioned above that we hired a private chef for the party.  We all said it felt like we had went to a fancy restaurant!  The food was amazing! Chef Leto arrived an hour before the party and prepared all of the food in the kitchen.  He made a 5 course, French meal for us.

I added a menu card to each place setting since we chose to do the 5 courses.  That way each person could reference and see what we were eating!  Chef Leto served each course and then described the food to us.  He cleared away the dishes at the end of each course.  We made sure the dishwasher was open because he will load the dirty dishes into it at the end of each course.  It was amazing!  When I walked into the kitchen at the end of the night my kitchen was spotless!  It was wonderful not having any responsibility over the food for the evening.

First Course:  Salade De Chevre Chaud

Second Course: Bisque de Homard 

Third Course: Saumon aux Legumes Provencaux

Fourth Course: Confit de canard

Fifth Course: Tart au Citron (pictured with a French martini)

Our friend, Jonathan, researched and did the best drink pairings to go with dinner!

I normally refrain from sharing personal photos on the blog, because the general audience doesn’t care about your people the way you care about your people….but today I don’t care at all.  Yes this night was about our two friends, but it was also about all of us and the friendship we share and the lives we pair together.  Chris & I couldn’t have asked for better friends, or the depth of friendships we’ve been given.

 

Happy birthday Rachel & Sarah!  You are the best friends a girl could ever hope to have, I hope you felt loved and treasured on your special night.  Enjoy your last week of 39 but know that the 40’s are going to be FABULOUS!