Living Life Like It's Golden

Back in May of 2016, I coordinated and decorated my aunt's 57th birthday dinner. The theme was "Living Life Like It's Golden" which was inspired by Jill Scott's song entitled "Golden."

This was another first for me as an event planner and I only had about 3 months to plan and execute this event. The dinner was held at The Pine Bar and Grill in the Bronx, New York. Since it was held in a restaurant, accommodations were made per person as opposed to paying for the venue and catering separately. We estimated about 30 guests, and we had a turn out of about 23 attendees.

Venue: As previously stated, we held the dinner in a restaurant in the Bronx. This particular restaurant had a private room for parties and events but I believe the minimum amount of guest had to be 40 and had to put a down payment about a month in advance.
Since we weren't able to book the private room, we were able to reserve a few tables arranged specifically for us on the main floor of the restaurant. (The only downside was that we were dining with regular patrons and some were not too happy with us getting our boogie on).

Favors: Obviously, one of the main colors was gold, but I wanted to throw in an accent color, so I was able to convince my aunt to use red to symbolize strength, power and life! I purchased Gold Lantern Favor Boxes, which was sold in a set of 50. We filled them with a tea light candle, some Vanilla Epsom salt in a red organza bag, some gold wrapped butter mints, a label with "Yvonne's Living Life Like It's Golden" printed on the front and a handwritten biblical scripture on the back, "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven" - Matthew 5:16 NKJV and I placed my business card (since this was my first officially paid event)! I topped it off with a small golden clip and tag with the event name written on it.

We were expecting a few men (and we went through about 2 theme changes) so I purchased a set of four black slate coasters and wrote "Yvonne's Living Life Like It's Golden" on them with a golden metallic paint marker.

Decor: Being that we didn't have our own room, decorating wasn't a real necessity. I was able to put some LED candles on the table along with some gold and white confetti (since 57 isn't a "milestone" age, I improvised with a confetti kit that was intended to be used to celebrate a 50th wedding anniversary). I had some red balloon weights that I decorated with red and yellow Nylon flowers and butterflies that I found at Dollar Tree. I also purchased a few small golden leaf frames and "Go Gold" tattoos from Party City. I placed some of the tattoos in the frames and the remainders I distributed to the guests. I placed the favor boxes in front of each table setting. 

Cake: My aunt purchased her cake from a Bronx bakery. They were able to put golden butterflies on top of the cream colored frosting. The cake was adorned with jewels around the base and the restaurant placed sparklers for candles when we sang Happy Birthday. 

Miscellaneous: Instead of a Guest Book, I had guest self address an envelop for their Thank You card. I also had a few wooden pieces such as a cross, a couple of butterflies and flowers for them to sign that I placed in a shadow box as a gift to my aunt. I also gave her a wooden Y that I outlined with the gold paint marker. 

Click the highlighted text for Photos !!