Dorothy’s Oyster Bar – My 30th Birthday Celebration

Although my birthday was the day after Christmas, we finally celebrated my 30th with friends this weekend with an outdoor oyster bar party. Originally, I wasn’t planning to do anything in particular for the occasion, but with friends asking how I was planning to celebrate and with big plans for their own birthdays I felt a bit obligated. To keep things easy, Hunter and I thought it could be fun to host friends in our backyard since the layout of our house isn’t best set up for indoor entertaining. That meant waiting for the cold weather we’ve been having to pass and finding a Saturday with forecasted good weather. Fortunately, this past weekend’s weather was perfect for celebrating outside. 

I found the invitation on Paperless Post and we sent it out about two weeks before hosting. I wish I could take more credit for how cute the invite was, but customizing it on Paperless Post’s site and sending it out to friends via text kept things easy. 

Even if the intent was for the event to feel easy to throw together I couldn’t help but want to make sure it looked cute! We set up two folding tables outside, one for food and one for drinks. I put together some flower arrangements from flowers purchased at Trader Joe’s and was happy to have an excuse to pull out some serving pieces too! 

I used some pillows I had to make our patio seating look a little more pulled together and found the cutest scalloped planters that I filled with plants and placed along the wall above that area. We suspected it may get cold later in the evening and were ready to enjoy our fire pit with the projector set up in case people opted to hangout into the evening. 

We had some plain frosted cups in our basement, so I made stickers that coordinated with the invitation to put on those and framed a printed invitation for our makeshift bar as well. I’ve had the porch planter boxes that we used as tabletop coolers since my very first apartment and they work great as coolers but we forgot to block the drainage hole before setting them on the tablecloth which explains why there are wet spots! I added in extra wedding huggers in a container, a rattan wine bottle holder, and a rattan vase (similar) to try to keep everything looking cohesive. Many of the balloons were leftover from a baby shower, and I especially love the impact the oversized ones have to make an area feel festive.

One of the best hosting tricks I know is to lay out all of the serving pieces you plan to use with index cards or sticky notes stating what you’re planning to put where. I did that for this party and it made setting up our spread of oysters, jambalaya, dips, and the accompanying bread and chips feel fast before guests arrived. I of course wanted to use my cute Pavilion Paper Plates and they worked well with the blue and green color scheme we had going! 

Hunter cooked the oysters and jambalaya and both were a hit. If you’re local to Birmingham, he found the raw oysters at a good price at Sexton’s. 

People came and went throughout the afternoon, so unfortunately we don’t have a full group shot but I certainly ended the day feeling well celebrated by some of my favorite people! 

I had to laugh when I brought out my favorite blankets from Chappy Wrap as it got chilly and my friends somehow ended up with blankets that perfectly coordinated with their outfits. 

I’m including links to most of the items shown below in case you’re hoping to recreate this party or a similar one soon!