Silobration at Sixty Surprise (Drop a Pin)
As many of you might have read in the Silobration at Sixty in "Drop a Pin," but if you haven't, here is what you need to catch up on...
In June 2019, I realized that my mom's 60th birthday was in October. Yup, I know, "daughter of the year award" right here. But really, no one can truly fault me cause I wasn't the only one that it didn't dawn on until we were a few months away. I quickly tried to think of the options; do we go somewhere as the 4 of us? Do we invite all the family to us? Do we invite everyone to meet in Florida where most of her family lives a majority of the year? What do we do? Really, the pressure was on because we did exactly what she wanted for her 50th; New York City, staying in Times Square, Lion King tickets, Serendipity, and some shopping.
After getting in touch with friends and family about dates that might work for them, one of the weekends that was on the short list was my mom's birthday weekend, which also, coincided with the Silobration at Magnolia Market. We gave it some thought, and decided that we just needed to pull the trigger and schedule for that weekend. There were a couple of ideas for themes that came to mind, however, most things just kept going back around to Magnolia themed.
Melanie and I were in talks about the party part of the weekend, and I decided to go all in with the theme of Magnolia and then enlisted the help of Melanie with the food prep part and my sounding board. We solidified the theme, the food & the prep for the party. She sent me an image the week before the party of the changing wall entrance for the Silobration, and I had been pretty set with the theme & what I had to decorate, but I did feel like I was missing something that brought it all together. Even when Melanie wasn't trying to help, she was (really that is the story of our lives, though). I stopped on my way home, bought canvases and took a couple days to complete the painted version of the concrete wall that we would see at the silos, and kept it a secret until the Thursday before the party.
The Friday surprise was totally worth it, and you can read about in the "Drop a Pin" section!
Saturday morning, because I had spent Thursday setting up, we got to take advantage that family was here and take my mom around shopping for her birthday while I got to relax about what time it was. By 2 pm, I was back at their house and turning on the oven to prepare for biscuit baking! That's right, a biscuit bar was the food selection when making final decisions on what we would have, so what would that entail?
Well, there are sweet & savory options, so we had fruit, honey, nutella, jams & jellies for all those that wanted something a little sweet, and then we had pulled chicken, pork & chopped briscut with gravy & bbq sauces for savory. This allowed us to have a party that people could come and relax when they could make it and I wasn't having to fill over and over again.
One of my favorite things is setting up for a party, but one of the other things when it is a party with people I know is to be able to relax and talk to people. So when setting up buffet style, pick some food options that you can set and forget, for the most part. I have serving trays and heated servers that make this really easy. If I could start over again with the heated servers, I think I would end up purchasing the individual crock-pot options that you can snap together, because there have been times that the three serving thing that I have isn't enough for the party, but I use what I have right now.
Make sure that you have things marked when doing buffet style too, so that you aren't having to stand there to tell everyone what everything is. This can take some time to write (or type & print) the labels, but it is totally worth it. Being someone that has allergies, I try to keep it simple, but when I go to parties, I like to make sure that I won't have a reaction to anything without having to ask multiple people what something is. For this party, Hobby Lobby has a 15 pack of black magnetic & chalkboard signs that go with the theme but also allow for me to place everywhere to direct people through the party.
As people entered, we had a section of the entrance set up with the painting that I did to mimic the entrance to Magnolia Market along with a sign in table. This location for photos was perfect because people coming in & leaving could grab a pic with my mom or other family & friends. Having a designated spot for photos, but also having it in a spot that people don't feel pressured to take the picture at a specific time is a great way to create memories like photos. Instead of a sign in book, we had a sign in mannequin. I have one that I use for when I am sewing that friends from Pennsylvania signed for me and I love looking at it every day, so I used another mannequin to have people sign for my mom's 60th! We also had pictures printed from the day before when we were at Magnolia laid out on the table so people could see the fun we had for surprise #1, and then Melanie made whoopie pies & pumpkin chocolate chip cookies that were my mom's mom's recipes (with a Melanie twist). Whoopie pies are a Maine staple, which is where my mom is from, and we tried to bring in some nods to every place my mom had lived in her life.
Seeing extended family mingling with friends was getting to see my mom surrounded by the people that love her and that she loves was really the best part of the party! There was no end time. There was no real start time. Everything besides food was very relaxed with no solid plan or need to interrupt what would naturally.
By the end of the whirlwind of a weekend, we reflected on the fact that we had really pulled off a surprise that we never thought was going to be possible & did it in a way that never stressed my mom out which was the true goal! I am pretty sure, no matter how much I would try, that this will never be a possibility again, but it's ok, because it was perfect!
In June 2019, I realized that my mom's 60th birthday was in October. Yup, I know, "daughter of the year award" right here. But really, no one can truly fault me cause I wasn't the only one that it didn't dawn on until we were a few months away. I quickly tried to think of the options; do we go somewhere as the 4 of us? Do we invite all the family to us? Do we invite everyone to meet in Florida where most of her family lives a majority of the year? What do we do? Really, the pressure was on because we did exactly what she wanted for her 50th; New York City, staying in Times Square, Lion King tickets, Serendipity, and some shopping.
After getting in touch with friends and family about dates that might work for them, one of the weekends that was on the short list was my mom's birthday weekend, which also, coincided with the Silobration at Magnolia Market. We gave it some thought, and decided that we just needed to pull the trigger and schedule for that weekend. There were a couple of ideas for themes that came to mind, however, most things just kept going back around to Magnolia themed.
Melanie and I were in talks about the party part of the weekend, and I decided to go all in with the theme of Magnolia and then enlisted the help of Melanie with the food prep part and my sounding board. We solidified the theme, the food & the prep for the party. She sent me an image the week before the party of the changing wall entrance for the Silobration, and I had been pretty set with the theme & what I had to decorate, but I did feel like I was missing something that brought it all together. Even when Melanie wasn't trying to help, she was (really that is the story of our lives, though). I stopped on my way home, bought canvases and took a couple days to complete the painted version of the concrete wall that we would see at the silos, and kept it a secret until the Thursday before the party.
The Friday surprise was totally worth it, and you can read about in the "Drop a Pin" section!
Saturday morning, because I had spent Thursday setting up, we got to take advantage that family was here and take my mom around shopping for her birthday while I got to relax about what time it was. By 2 pm, I was back at their house and turning on the oven to prepare for biscuit baking! That's right, a biscuit bar was the food selection when making final decisions on what we would have, so what would that entail?
Well, there are sweet & savory options, so we had fruit, honey, nutella, jams & jellies for all those that wanted something a little sweet, and then we had pulled chicken, pork & chopped briscut with gravy & bbq sauces for savory. This allowed us to have a party that people could come and relax when they could make it and I wasn't having to fill over and over again.
One of my favorite things is setting up for a party, but one of the other things when it is a party with people I know is to be able to relax and talk to people. So when setting up buffet style, pick some food options that you can set and forget, for the most part. I have serving trays and heated servers that make this really easy. If I could start over again with the heated servers, I think I would end up purchasing the individual crock-pot options that you can snap together, because there have been times that the three serving thing that I have isn't enough for the party, but I use what I have right now.
Make sure that you have things marked when doing buffet style too, so that you aren't having to stand there to tell everyone what everything is. This can take some time to write (or type & print) the labels, but it is totally worth it. Being someone that has allergies, I try to keep it simple, but when I go to parties, I like to make sure that I won't have a reaction to anything without having to ask multiple people what something is. For this party, Hobby Lobby has a 15 pack of black magnetic & chalkboard signs that go with the theme but also allow for me to place everywhere to direct people through the party.
As people entered, we had a section of the entrance set up with the painting that I did to mimic the entrance to Magnolia Market along with a sign in table. This location for photos was perfect because people coming in & leaving could grab a pic with my mom or other family & friends. Having a designated spot for photos, but also having it in a spot that people don't feel pressured to take the picture at a specific time is a great way to create memories like photos. Instead of a sign in book, we had a sign in mannequin. I have one that I use for when I am sewing that friends from Pennsylvania signed for me and I love looking at it every day, so I used another mannequin to have people sign for my mom's 60th! We also had pictures printed from the day before when we were at Magnolia laid out on the table so people could see the fun we had for surprise #1, and then Melanie made whoopie pies & pumpkin chocolate chip cookies that were my mom's mom's recipes (with a Melanie twist). Whoopie pies are a Maine staple, which is where my mom is from, and we tried to bring in some nods to every place my mom had lived in her life.
Seeing extended family mingling with friends was getting to see my mom surrounded by the people that love her and that she loves was really the best part of the party! There was no end time. There was no real start time. Everything besides food was very relaxed with no solid plan or need to interrupt what would naturally.
By the end of the whirlwind of a weekend, we reflected on the fact that we had really pulled off a surprise that we never thought was going to be possible & did it in a way that never stressed my mom out which was the true goal! I am pretty sure, no matter how much I would try, that this will never be a possibility again, but it's ok, because it was perfect!