Old-style birthday party!

rozmister

Hi,

It's my birthday in a few weeks and we're going to have a Great Gatsby party on the bank holiday Sunday before (providing our Landlady is ok with it). People will be at my flat for 4 hours before we head out to a cocktail bar so it's not a really long affair but I want to do it as cheaply as possible. Roughly 20 people will be coming.

I've enlisted two more artistic people to help me work on decorations for my flat, my extremely kind friend is buying me a birthday cake and I am going to make canapes.

So far my MSE ideas are:
1. Decorations made out of jam jars, tin cans, cardboard & plastic bottles - Pinterest has been helping with this
2. I'm borrowing a Bellini drinks fountain (through Freegle) for the night as my centrepiece and am going to make up some sort of Woo Woo cocktail in it using Aldi juice/alcohol.
3. Found a few leftover party bits in the freezer and thought I'd make tiny pizzas to go with it (I'm gluten free so can't eat shop bought) as well as buy some crisps
4. Wearing clothes I already have rather than buying anything new
5. No going to proper party shops because I think it's too expensive

I was hoping to do the whole thing for about £30 - is this reasonable? Any tips from you much wiser MSEs?

sooty&sweep

Hi
What time are you expecting people ? Are they expecting a meal or snacks to go with drinks ?
Are you going to ask people to bring their own drinks or are you going to provide ?
Jen

Auntie_Sceb

According to the Telegraph the party should be a secret so you wouldn't have to inform your landlady (!).

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/10404483/How-to-throw-a-1920s-cocktail-party.html

I think you need some good music from the era.

http://www.fairytalefeasts.com/2013/05/how-to-have-fairytale-1920s-themed.html

cites a free 1920s stream for music.

It sounds fun!

rozmister

sooty&sweep wrote: »

Hi
What time are you expecting people ? Are they expecting a meal or snacks to go with drinks ?
Are you going to ask people to bring their own drinks or are you going to provide ?
Jen

I'm expecting people at 7pm and we'll leave to go to a bar at 11pm. They're expecting snacks to go with drinks rather than a sit down meal. Everybody brings their own drinks to this kind of thing, I'm only turning 25 so it's just accepted still that you need to bring your own drinks!

rozmister

Auntie_Sceb wrote: »

According to the Telegraph the party should be a secret so you wouldn't have to inform your landlady (!).

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/10404483/How-to-throw-a-1920s-cocktail-party.html

I think you need some good music from the era.

http://www.fairytalefeasts.com/2013/05/how-to-have-fairytale-1920s-themed.html

cites a free 1920s stream for music.

It sounds fun!

I think it is impossible to keep anything secret from her! We have two parking spaces and for about 1 hour we were occupying 3 last Saturday and for 10 minutes we were occupying 4 (then back down to 2) - she noticed and wrote us a letter! Nothing gets past her!

I love the free stream though and also the idea of learning the Charleston!