How to Throw a Kick Ass Gatsby Party

Since we moved in our house June of 2013, we hadn't officially thrown any kind of housewarming or hosted party. I've had girls nights, Naughty White Elephant Party (Which I'll be posting about soon), and a Welcome Baby get together for family, but nothing crazy.

Before Halloween came, Scott and I were thinking about throwing a Gatsby themed costume party... but after thinking about it... not many people would exclusively dress for the event given that it's Halloween and maybe they'd rather be something else. So we scratched it. But I had a genius idea... why not New Years!? Everyone will already be wearing nice dresses and suits, sequins and jewelry, what a perfect way to bring in the new year looking glam. So I got to planning. 

I wanted something that wouldn't be crazy expensive, but would be entertaining, fun, memorable... and somehow come New Year's Eve at 9pm, I had put together the perfect party. I could not have done it without my sister and girl friends who helped me get the party decor together and shopping vintage shops for the perfect headbands and outfits.

1. DECOR

What is a party without the perfect decor to theme it up. I HIGHLY recommend during parties to always have a backdrop of some sort for photo booth pictures whether you have props or not. I didn't go crazy with props because with the theme and with new years, everyone had 2014 masks, boas, party favors, and amazing outfits. I bought a door backdrop in gold and silver from Party City for $6 each. Done and done!

2. OUTFITS

One of my favorite memories of the party is how STUNNING everyone looked. Every girl was just dazzling with sequins, pearls, bling, headbands, curls, BEAUTY. Every man... holy moly. From the suspenders to the cigars to the hats... these guys were HOT! It made the party so much more fun to see everyone looking SO good. You can get suspenders from Party City for $8 and even a sequins bow-tie. 

And no, Matt is not that short. He literally couldn't stop dancing for the picture. 

3. THE PERFECT INVITE

This was so fun to create! We used the Gatsby Soundtrack most of the night for all the amazing jams. We were aiming for about 30-40 people for the evening, and really thought only about 12 were coming. We honestly didn't care we just wanted to bring in the New Year with our closest friends... well we were so wrong. We had about 35 people at our peak (around Midnight) with friends of friends, it was SUCH a great time. What else keeps it simple and inexpensive? BYOB. Sure, I bought way too many bottles of champagne and OJ, but let the guests bring beer and liquor. Sure does save a lot of money! I also made sure to let guests know to bring blankets and pillows for staying over... Which I am so glad I did because we had about 10 people stay the night and they all were able to sleep comfortably - even if we did go to bed at 5am.

It was fun to update the event keeping people super excited about coming and reminding them about weather conditions (since we played a lot of corn hole outside we wanted to make sure everyone brought jackets, scarves, etc.)

4. FOOD SPREAD

Let's be honest. Going to a New Year's Party with all that booze, beer pong, outdoor corn hole drinking games, inside Catch Phrase drinking games, all that dancing.... you gotta have food! Big bonus: get a friggin chick-fil-a platter of nuggets. Those were the first gone (duh!). Chips, Dips, Desserts, Veggie Tray. This was a huge hit and kept everyone in a not too over the top drunken state. 

Note to self: As delicious as they are, DON'T MAKE CAPRESE SKEWERS the night of the party!!!!! It was so tedious y'all. Here I was at 8:30pm yelling, "I still have to do my hair!" only halfway through the skewers. Not to mention it is super messy. Next year, I will stick to a buffalo dip or something. 

We also set up a side of the kitchen where there were lined up 30 Champagne flutes (dollar store, y'all - this only cost me $14 for all of them), a jar of straws, a shotglass of toothpicks, a bowl of olives, pepperocinis, etc. People could set up shop with their liquor bottles (which a lot left so many leftover = winning!) and it was great because it kept people from being crowded around certain areas and also - less glassware, less mess to clean up, no broken dishes - I highly recommend paper plate/ solo cup, everything trashable!

5. ENTERTAINMENT

I truly feel like we had the utmost PERFECT set up for the party in the house that kept it from being too crowded. We used the garage as a beer pong area with a few little lawn chairs and kept the coolers of beer in there. We used the kitchen and dining room for the bar/food. We used the living room for the dance party and music (spotify Gatsby Soundtrack was a HUGE hit... seriously listening to the music now brings back memories of this amazing party). We used outside and lit the backyard with leftover Christmas lights all the way around so it was all decked out. We had corn hole set up in the backyard and also a fire pit which was amazing due to the 40 degree whether. People were dancing in living room, chatting it up in kitchen, taking photo booth pictures (which was located to the left of dining room right next to the door to backyard). After midnight, we lit sparklers in the backyard too which was so fun! We had a huge cornhole drinking game tournament going on which lasted til a good 5am. 

6. NEIGHBORS

Always let your neighbors know that you will be hosting a party. Of course everyone gets that it is New Year's and all, but when you know your little house will have over 30 people and Bose speakers blasting dub-step, it is common courtesy to just let them know that they can call you or come over at any time to tell us we're too loud, etc. Luckily, we had no complaints and we even had neighbors come over to join the party with us. It was so fun! 

7. DON'T CLEAN UP JUST YET

I know you're probably thinking, whaaa? But I'm serious! We woke up at about 1:00pm and all sat around on our couches with everyone who was still there and just laughed and talked about the night before and all the funniest moments of the night. I literally have never smelt so much beer/liquor and saw so many solo cups all over the kitchen, boa feathers on the floor (EVERYWHERE), sticky spots, shotglasses for days, flapper tassels and fake eyelashes on my staircase. Don't clean up just yet! Relax, you just threw a kick ass party. Go eat a juicy burger. The clean up can come later. (Or in my case, wait til that next work day when your honey still has off and he cleans it up for you ;-) thanks babe.) We still find boa feathers all over the house. 

Any other tips that I am missing? All in all, it was one of the best parties I've ever thrown (or been to), and people still tell me they wish they could just relive that party.It didn't hurt my wallet, and we looked damn good.  It was so fun bringing in the new year with loved ones and great friends. I got to spend it with my sister and my best friends... and that's all that matters. 

Cheers to 2014! It's been great so far. 

Ziplining over Lake Travis

As most of you know, this weekend was crazy eventful as I really wanted to make my little sister, Maddie (14 - who has been staying in Austin w/ me for 3wks from Louisiana), and Scott (28- the BF), feel really special as they both celebrated birthdays on Friday and Saturday.

Friday night we had Scott's Birthday Bash, which I posted about yesterday, and today, I've got all the awesome pictures we took while out in the blistering heat beautiful sun and lake!

Saturday morning started early for me as the "event-coordinator", and I got some extra extra strength head-ache medicine and water ready next to our bed for Scottie (yay for curin' the hangover quickly before it starts!) and whipped up the breakfast of champions with some waffles, fried eggs over easy, bacon, with syrup and nutella out for the spreadin'. They were happy campers :-). I made sure to schedule the zip-lining around 3pm so that we could all feel like "sleepin in"/lying around the house during the day being lazy! Also woke up Maddie with some balloons and a card from Huxley. Although Huxley seemed a bit more interested in the balloons than Maddie. It was too funny!

 

We got there about 30 minutes early to get all prepared, and thank goodness we had been drinking water all day because we were in for a huge surprise with allllll the hiking it really was to get to these zip lines!

We did a total of 5 zip lines, all getting longer and faster each time. It was an experience to remember! The last zip line, you got up to 65mph and it stretches over a 1/2 mile directly over the lake (we had many watchers from their boats on the lake - so fun!)

The tour-guides were absolutely fantastic - fun and energetic. Very motivating while you're hiking, and water was provided at every stop/zip line. Overall it was an incredible experience and very worth the $89 per person (although I was bummed I missed the groupon back on OCT that would have made it only $50 but oh well!)

Best part is - after all the zip lining - you have access to a private beach where you are provided tubes, floaties, everything you need to have a great time - the water was perfect and we hung out and unwinded with a cold beer after ziplining. A perfect afternoon. Scott and Maddie had a great time, and that makes it all worth it for me.

Scott is holding up his shoe because we bought those before zip-lining. He LOVES them - they ar the new Apidure (Toe-shoes?) that are perfect for hiking, swimming, etc. They were only 39.99 at Academy which is NOT bad for the comfort and support he had. He said he felt like he was barefoot! I just can't bring myself to wear these toe-shoe things. Looks so weird! lol!

Once we noticed the sun slowly starting to set, we decided to take off and grab a good table ealy at The Oasis on Lake Travis in Austin. It was about 11 minutes away so it wasn't a far drive at all. Scott got Fajitas, Maddie got Fried Shrimp, and me - Shrimp Tacos w/ Baja Sauce. Oh and a cold magarita too. JUST what we needed after a day of workin' out/swimmin!

Look how breath taking the sunset and skyline was...

It was the perfect dinner, we were feelin pretty tired though and headed home for some Huxley time... he was soooooo happy to see us :-) Cuddled up with daddy right away and we watched a movie and I'm pretty sure we were all in bed by 11pm!

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Father's day has been rough on me as this will be the second one I've spent missing my daddy who passed away in October of 2010. His story is here. For some reason, I couldn't bring myself to go to Church where I knew the whole sermon was going to be on dads... I am making it up by attending Church Wednesday evening, but it was definitely hard - and I know it is much harder on Maddie who was only 12 when she lost him so we had an easy morning in the house. Sunday evening I grilled some Steaks, Corn on the cob, Asperagus, with loaded mashed potatos, and we had Scott's dad over to watch the game (for all you Heat fans- OKC will come back strong don't you worrryyy!) and we had a great time. Since Scott's dad had to work on Scottie's bday - I made some homemade brownies and had candles so he felt like he got to celebrate w/ us too.

Ruthie, notice a delicious batch of onion dip half gone? :)
That dip is amaaaazing and was half devoured in 3.2 seconds. Credits to Ruthie Hart for the recipe!

Shrimp Diablo Appetizers (Bacon Jalapeno & Cream Cheese wrapped over Shrimp and grilled)

Huxley made a #1 Fur-Daddy TShirt with paw-prints for Scott for Father's day. He looooooved it!

Well, that was my weekend! Sorry for the abundance of pictures - but I KNOW you enjoyed them! We are still unwinding from all the fun activities and great food. Also a lot of amazing things happening in our little family right now, so stay tuned! God is SO good :-) We are blessed.

Hopdoddy Burger Bar

Maddie's 2nd Day on South Congress was fun! We didn't do as much shopping because it was sooo hot!! It was fun though, we stopped by a few little shops on the other side of the street, and even visited some cute puppies (They have an Ausin Pet's Alive trailor set up on SoCo with puppies for show for possible adoption). We didn't snap as many pictures as I'd hoped, but OMG if you are in Austin or are ever planning on going to Austin, Hopdoddy is one of the best tasting burger joints I've ever been to... Maddie was in heaven!

{source: Hopdoddy Website}

Maddie anxiously awaiting her burger and fries!

Holy yum. This was a Classic Cheese Burger with their Sassy Sauce (which is a combination of their homemade horseradish, mustard, and mayo with spices). The fries are seasoned with garlic and herbs which makes them so flavorful, oh and to top it off:

a NUTELLA and Pretzel Milkshake! We obviously didn't even finish it halfway we were so full from the burger but it was the bomb.com.

So YAY for Friday!! This week has flown by for me, maybe it's because my sister has been able to hang out with me at work and we are currently jamming out to Dubstep Radio while drinking coffee. So fun. :-)

Have a great weekend, friends!