Ashley’s Birthday Soiree!

As some of you may have heard….a week ago today was (our very own) lovely Ms. Ashley’s birthday! If you think she was great as a 24 year old….you should see her at 25! She’s awesome!!

So, a few of us Ashley fans decided to pull together and throw a birthday soiree for Ashley. Our theme?

A NEW YORK ROOFTOP NIGHT OF GLAMOUR! Our inspiration? The glamourous Ashley herself! Don’t let her humble upbringing fool you, this girl is HIGH CLASS! 

With our theme in place….I started with an invitation to the party girl since she was the only one in the dark. Home-made with my beloved Adobe Illustrator! Stamped and sealed with stuff I already had at the house!

(As you can see, I kept it nice and ambiguous. We’re all about surprises here in ToCatchAThrift)

The vagueness of the invite helped buy me some time since we hadn’t quite locked down our location for the party yet! But, it was no time at all before our lovely upstairs landlord consented to let us use her amazing upper porch for our gig! She was actually thrilled!

My next move (and shame on me for not getting more “before” photos) was to make a trip my favorite local Goodwill and find a few necessities I would need for the soiree! First up, nothing says glamour like a white linen table cloth! I not only found one but it was even half off for the day! boo-ya! As for my centerpiece, I wanted to stick with our color scheme of Ash’s favs… teal and purple. I also knew I wanted it to be an arrangement of various shaped/sized flower vases that would be uniform when I paint them all the same color! (TEAL) Found the vases I wanted. Check. DIDN’T find the teal spray paint I wanted. Boo. Found instead an acrylic paint and spray sealer that worked splendidly!  Double Check! On the same thrift trip I happened to find a couple mini frame that would serve to accent our Guest of Honor and these adorable little tea cup/dessert plates that were…..drumroll…. TEAL! Perf! And here’s the result!

  

Is it “thrifty” if I just re-used something Ashley had already made??? Sure why not! Ashley had made these amazing tissue paper bon bons for my birthday tent which you can see if you click HERE!  She also handmade these ADORABLE heart and star garlands that were just too cute to NOT use again!

Recognize these chairs?!?! wink wink

With the day of Ashley’s party upon us, our third amigo, Emily and I set out to gather all of our last touches! Balloons, fresh flowers, a cake, and a couple ingredients for some delicious cucumber mint water! (Bet you can’t guess what the ingredients were…)

  

Time for construction! All it took was a little faith, duct-tape, and pixie-dust! With all of our elements ready to go it actually came together in no time!

  

We also made sure to stay in constant contact with our head chef for the night (my husband B!) to make sure that we were on the same time frame. We have a schedule to stick to people! haha

  

With the minutes counting down till Ashley arrived we were all busy!

B was cooking…

Emily and Steph were making signs…

And I was just too excited to operate.

Til finally….SURPRISE!!!! We got her good….

   

she hugged…she danced…she laughed…she ate…

 everything was perfect. just like she deserves.

(NOTE: Ashley’s awesome outfit? Refashioned that blouse herself! Click to see how)

 I won’t even go into describing all the food….because each course was amazing. That’s right… COURSES. He knows his stuff!

So as dusk fell, our evening became even more magical. She had cake, coffee, and even more surprises…but we’ll get into that LATER… stay tuned to find out what Ashley got for her birthday!

Happy Birthday, Ashley!

As always…Keep it thrifty!
Ellen

photo credit to Steph Jones