If Carlsberg did Birthdays – Part 3

Not content with two days/nights of celebrations (part 1 here and part 2 here), my friend Lucy and I decided to extend the party in to the weekend with a big bash for all our friends and family.

The invite pictures!

Birthday Belles Party Time!

Highlights include:

• Buying a house (fingers crossed!)
• Birthday cuppa with the inlaws
• Two birthday lunches
• Party time, surprise cakes, 100 or so family and friends and giant balloons!
• Party Time!!

So part 3 picks up with us waking up, faaaaaaaar too early in our snugly hotel room in London, packing up to the sounds of street sweepers and shops opening, checking out and heading back to Liverpool Street to get the train home. However, after all that (once-upon-a-time) Michelin-starred food and highly priced alcohol, we felt it was only right to grab a McDonald’s breakfast, you know, just to even things out a bit.

On reaching home, we did a frantic round of unpacking and tidying, before dashing off to a house viewing. It was the second time we’d viewed the property and it was one we really both liked, so…. We put in an offer.

It was rejected.

Now, I’m not one for faffing about with money. In my post about our ridiculous wedding expenditure, I explained that my attitude is that if I’ve worked hard, saved hard, have the funds there and ready to go and I know in my mind what I’m willing to pay, then I save myself the stress of the haggle and just pay. I’d be awful on the Apprentice in the negotiation tasks (I would however be bloody excellent in the other areas – obvs!). So I suggested to Mr G to offer what the vendor wanted – a wee chunk under the asking price – but still well under our budget - and he accepted!

So it seems that before lunch we managed to buy a house.

YAY! Turning thirty and buying a house – all very grown up! However, there was no time for celebrations as my parents-in-law popped in en route to town to drop in my birthday present and to have a cuppa and following that we had two birthday lunches to attend in town.

quick drink at the venue before the party

First off we stopped by the party venue (for later that night) for a spot of lunch and catching up with the other birthday girl, Lucy, and our pals. After some food, fizz and chats we then made our way to the other end of town to meet up with two other birthday girls, Natasha and Anna, for a spot of pink cava and tapas before rushing home to begin the party prep!

tapas and cava with the other Birthday Belles

So much birthday loving.

A shower, some fancy hair styling, some glittery eyeliner, hot pink lippie and a spangly dress (a replacement for the original one that broke) and I was ready to party!

At 7.00pm Lucy and I were back at the party venue with gigantic balloons, a bag full of pom poms (now christened “Amazeballs”), various other decorations and our Event Manager voices ready to go. A quick reccie of the rooms and we had our decorating team mobilised pinning, sticking and hanging white embellishments everywhere and anywhere whilst our international DJ, (not so) fresh off the train from Paris, arrived to set up.

giant balloons

We just had enough time for a raspberry bellini, a mini photo shoot to capture our outfits and decorating handiwork and to stash some dressing up props around the venue and then the party started...

birthday dresses - front view

birthday dresses - back view!



…and it went…

…and went…

…and went!

Having been told originally that we only had the venue until midnight, it was 2.30am when the bar closed and about 3am by the time we’d walked to the other end of town (with gigantic balloons in tow) for some after-party dancing.

The four Birthday Belles

After two days of surprises I certainly didn’t expect any more, especially as Lucy and I had planned the party ourselves, but out of the blue came a BIG FAT chocolate cake (and a million cupcakes of assorted flavours on cute stands and in cupcake bouquets) and a “This is Your Life (so far)” book from my friends and family.

Well, I had to stow the book away for a private moment as even the first page had me welling up.

Surprise cake and cake bouquets

There’s not much I can say, other than how we were completely overwhelmed at the all the birthday love, and at how many of our friends and family made the effort to come and celebrate with us. I tried to learn from my mistakes at our engagement party, and to keep circulating. After that event, I was a bit upset that I felt like a bad hostess for not spending more time with each of my guests, but equally didn’t get to eat, drink or dance, so this time I kept working the room, but made sure that I got some proper partying in too! 

the tear-inducing book!

I rolled in to bed elated, exhausted, a bit battered, scratched and bruised (damn shoes and sequins), but largely sober at about 4.30am and quite frankly I think our party ROCKED!

Once again, I was in the Totes Emosh zone… maybe I wasn’t as sober as I thought…

xoxo 

as it says - Thirty and Fabulous!

Part 4, on its way tomorrow! And yes, there were other people at the party, but I can't bear to show favouritism, or miss someone important out by mistake, and I couldn't find a good "whole party" picture so I kept it to pictures of the Birthday Belles and the party dresses, balloons and cake - the three key ingredients for a good party! Facebook pals, click here for the party album!