All these birthdays got me thinking about two birthday parties that were really special and fun to me. One of them was thrown as a milestone party for me; an amazing luau party I am going to tell you about in this post. The other one I am going to tell you about in a few days is a Veggie Tales birthday party I threw for my son, it was so much fun!
This Luau party couldn’t have come at a better time for me. I had miscarried my third child two weeks prior to my luau and was going through such a hard time. It was so nice to be able to get away and celebrate with good friends and really feel loved.
My good friend Michelle did everything for this party. She pulled out all the stops and was so generous in all she did. I will forever remember my luau!
Michelle and I
One of the coolest things is that when Michelle was planning this party for me she wanted to make sure that it wasn’t a cheesy Luau. It is so easy to find luau decorations but a lot of them look juvenile. Not at my party! So let me show you a few things that she did to make my party special.
The lovely walkway to get us in the tropical spirit.
For everyone of my guests Michelle made name tags. She had their name printed in Hawaiian on vellum. Underneath each Hawaiian name she printed the English name so we could find our tags. She cut out a bamboo place mat into name tag size and glued a pretty flower and the vellum to that. She attached the tags to pukka shell necklaces for each guest. Genius! Each guest also got a real stargazer Lilly for their hair and as the guest of honor she had a real lei for me to wear. It smelled heavenly. How special.
My friend Julie was very generous in offering her home for us to have the party at. She had the perfect place for it, pool and all. We didn’t swim but it added to the atmosphere. Michelle decorated the grounds well, making it feel festive.
This area was decorated for our Hula lessons later in the night. Michelle didn’t let me know this was going to happen which added to the fun of the night. Surprises for the birthday girl.
This is one of the many areas that cheesiness was absent. Instead of plastic coconut cups which are very easy to find we had real coconut cups that were filled with an awesome non-alcoholic, piña colada punch. I could have drank the whole punch bowl and these cups were so authentic!
So lets talk about the food! This was the awesome buffet outside that she setup. I love the use of the seashells coming out of the basket. Michelle recruited one of her friends who is not intimidated by cooking for a group and can cook well. We had a very yummy feast complete with sweet and sour chicken over coconut rice, Hawaiian sweet rolls, tropical salad and strawberries.
Each table was decorated with green tablecloths, seashells, Hawaiian printed cloths, and tiki torches. My seat was wrapped with a cloth matching the black and white print with flowers and greenery on each side.
Here I am sipping away at that decadent punch! This picture makes it looks like I am sitting in the pool but I am really not!
Of course we ate our food on tropical plates and napkins.
Not only did Michelle coordinate and execute a very special night for me but she MADE the cake. How cute is this? Hula girl cake. What a creative idea. She even put little pukka shells for her bikini top! Around the cake on the table are the favors that she put together. She asked me what my favorite candy was and I gave her a variety (I can’t just pick one) and she put them in the cute little boxes wrapped with color coordinated tulle and tied with a flower and bow. I wish I had a picture closer up of the boxes because she took special time to rubber stamp each box to coordinate with the Luau decorations. She really paid attention to every detail.
Look, our cute little hula girl even has shell bracelets on!
After dinner we headed over to the grassy area of the backyard and Michelle had recruited my friend Reina to teach us Hula. I had no idea Reina knew how to do this and boy was she good. Wish I could move my hips like that! I tried and it was so much fun but I am sure I looked like a total dork out there trying to shake those hips and keep everything else still. All the girls were good sports and had a great time laughing at themselves and each other and learning something at the same time. Hula is really an art and thanks to Reina we learned that.
Oh, I forgot until I saw this picture that we even had wraps to wear during the Hula lessons to make it feel like we were the real thing.
I can’t remember if it was before the Hula lessons or after but at one point we also went inside of Julie’s house because Michelle had her sister prepare a special picture slide show of my life complete with music. It was so touching and was fun to be able to share old pictures and events in my life with my friends.
I hope for my visitors to feasting on joy that this will give some wonderful ideas on how to add some special touches to a Luau party that you might be throwing in the near future.
Such a beautiful party- and a wonderful friend to have to do such thoughtful things to celebrate you!! I love both of your hearts and admire your friendship that God has blessed you with.