For the past few years we haven't done anything big for my husband's birthday and he wanted to celebrate a little bigger this year so, I sat down and put my party planning skills to work for his 33rd birthday!
We decided to go with a luau theme which made the party planning really fun and super versatile. Since his birthday is in January it was also kind of unique and funny since it is definitely not luau weather outside! Since it is an adults only party I didn't do nearly as much as I would for a kid party. We can entertain ourselves and don't need crafts or games. I did however want to have a few yummy things to eat and some festive decor. I got some inspiration from pinterest and made myself a planning board. I decided to go with gold, yellow and green as the main party colors but accented with a bunch of fun tropical colors too. I purchased some lei's, drink umbrellas, gold cups and plates, a photo backdrop, a flower garland, some fake palm leaves, some birthday balloons and a golden fringe curtain for decorations from Amazon and finished it up using some craft paper and tape. My friend Paige also helped with planning and contributed some fun blow-up fish and beach balls as well as a few fake palm trees and nets to add even more ambiance. We spent about four hours putting it all together the night before and ended up with a really fun, vibrant party where the guests could enjoy themselves.
We decided to go with a luau theme which made the party planning really fun and super versatile. Since his birthday is in January it was also kind of unique and funny since it is definitely not luau weather outside! Since it is an adults only party I didn't do nearly as much as I would for a kid party. We can entertain ourselves and don't need crafts or games. I did however want to have a few yummy things to eat and some festive decor. I got some inspiration from pinterest and made myself a planning board. I decided to go with gold, yellow and green as the main party colors but accented with a bunch of fun tropical colors too. I purchased some lei's, drink umbrellas, gold cups and plates, a photo backdrop, a flower garland, some fake palm leaves, some birthday balloons and a golden fringe curtain for decorations from Amazon and finished it up using some craft paper and tape. My friend Paige also helped with planning and contributed some fun blow-up fish and beach balls as well as a few fake palm trees and nets to add even more ambiance. We spent about four hours putting it all together the night before and ended up with a really fun, vibrant party where the guests could enjoy themselves.
Yellow and green craft paper were used to create the pineapples and the balloons were only $5 total on Amazon. We inflated them with a straw and taped them to a string to hang on the wall. It made a great impact!
 |  We used a green table cloth and grass table skirt we already had for the table and then added the flower garland I purchased for $5 on Amazon. Paired with Paige's palm trees and nets, the table looked adorable! |
 Guests were greeted by a tiki man on the front door. |  We created palm trees using the gold fringe curtain as the trunk and then cut out giant palm leaves from green craft paper. Golden balloons took the place of coconuts and fun palm trees were born! |  I was worried the backdrop would be pretty crappy but was pleasantly surprised with this thick plastic beauty. A steal for only $5! |
Using gold cups, I drew little x's with a sharpie and my friend Paige cut out green craft paper leaves that we then taped to the cups to resemble pineapples. So cute!
For the food I wanted a few easy but delicious tropical themed things. I decided to make a pineapple cake, pineapple salsa and Hawaiian baked sandwiches. I also had all of the ingredients for guests to make a rum punch.
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The cake was an easy recipe that used a yellow box cake mix as a base. After adding the required ingredients for the mix as well as 1/2 cup sour cream and an 8oz can of crushed pineapple, you baked until done. I made two cakes and stacked them on top of each other with icing in between. Once it cooled I iced it with icing made up of a container of cool whip, a package of vanilla pudding (powder only) and a 20oz can of pineapple. After icing, I chopped the top of off a pineapple and centered it on the cake. Then I sprinkled it with some gold sprinkles. It was a big hit and I will definitely be making this cake again luau or not. It was delicious!
 The pineapple salsa was also easy and delicious. I put it in a hollowed out half of a pineapple for added flair. And, I'm not sure if you've ever had these delicious mini sandwiches but, you're missing out if you haven't. They are sooooo yummy! |  |
Everyone had a great time and loved the decorations and the food! My first adult party planning was a success!
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I purchased an amazing gizmo that cores and slices pineapple in a matter of seconds and used it to hollow out a pineapple in order to create a pineapple cup for the birthday boy. I don't know why I didn't already own this nifty gadget. It is seriously amazing! Since it was a luau theme that relied heavily on pineapples I decided to make a shirt with my silhouette. However, I ended up running out of time and my party planning partner did it for me using her silhouette. She used gold glitter for the pineapple body and green for the leaves. So, I ended up with a super fun pineapple booby shirt!
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Hopefully you enjoyed and were inspired by my luau party! Thanks for visiting!
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