Karen "Willy" Okonkwo's 25th Birthday Party

 As you all saw last year with my Kare Bear's 24th Birthday Slumber Party, I am obsessed with celebrating my birthday. This year was no different so I decided to go with a fun Willy Wonka theme for my 25th birthday celebration. It is so important to map out your birthday, making sure to ignite all five senses during your party so it is the best experience for your guests. Instead of calling it a Willy Wonka party, I did a spin off of the name and called my 25th Birthday 'Karen "Willy" Okonkwo's 25th Birthday Party'. Much like in the movie, all invitees had to "find" a golden ticket to be officially invited to my birthday. I used a popular Australian graphic designer called Crackers Art to create chocolate candy bar invitations that I turned into candy bar wrappers and golden tickets. They turned out amazing! To make the RSVP process more interactive, I asked each guest on the golden ticket to RSVP by uploading a picture of their golden ticket to whatever social media outlet they use and to tag me in it with the caption " I found the golden ticket!" This made the invitations that much more exclusive!

I decided to host my party in beautiful Miami! To make sure I captured every moment of it, I left a welcome letter for all of my guests when they checked into the hotel we were staying at that asked them to hash-tag any photos taken during the trip with #karens25thbday. I highly recommend making a hash-tag for any event that you are hosting because it is so much fun to look back at all the pictures that all of your guests snapped!

First up on the itinerary was the most fitting event of all: visiting the Chocolate Factory! No Chocolate Factory Tour can be complete without Willy Wonka gear so before the trip I ordered a Willy Wonka costume. On top of the costume, I just had to order candy and have a mini candy buffet so I ordered candy from my favorite candy store: Oh! Nuts. To make the entire experience complete, I had a custom cake made by Divine Delicacies Custom Cakes in Miami. This company can make ANY cake possible and they have catered to every celebrity you can think of from Drake to Pitbull to the Miami Heat stars. I gave them the graphic design of the "Okonkwo Bars" I sent out to my guests and they replicated that image into a delicious vanilla rum cake topped with butter cream frosting and fondant {yum}! Schakolad Chocolate Factory in Miami Beach, FL hosted my Chocolate Factory Tour and it was a blast! All of us received a tour of the Chocolate Factory learning the ins and outs of chocolate. Best of all, we got to make 3 different types of chocolate treats and take it home!

All in all, my 25th Willy Wonka themed birthday party in Miami, FL was so much fun and I can't wait to show you all what I come up with for next year's birthday theme. If you have any questions on how I created any part of this party, please feel free to contact me at partywithak@gmail.com!

Party of the Month: Kare Bear's 24th Birthday Slumber Party

Well, if you haven't already figured it out, my nickname is Kare Bear and as such I decided to incorporate my nickname with my birthday through a Care Bear themed slumber party. The slumber party was an absolute hit and I just couldn't wait to post about it. I spent lots of time planning this birthday and it was definitely one for the books. This week I will post entries on different parts of the party in which you can takeaway some great resources to make your next Care Bear themed party a hit.Click here, here, and here for some of my Care Bear themed ideas from the party!

Special Delivery: Sneak Peak of my 24th Birthday Bash

My birthday is the most important holiday of the year. As such, I like to go BIG and well, this year I am throwing a huge slumber party to bring back the old school times where having a slumber party on your birthday was the cool thing to do. It will be called "Kare Bear's 24th Birthday Slumber Party". Sticking to the Care Bear theme, I asked each woman invited to send me their preferred Care Bear name. It could be a made up one or one taken straight from the characters. I then reached out to 224 Apparel & Design and had them make a Kare Bear inspired Pajama piece of which I sent out to all the bears! Check it out below and come back to my blog to see all the pics and breakdowns of my slumber party decor. xoxo!

Favorite Birthday Decoration: Paper Lanterns

To be quite honest, paper lanterns are my favorite decorative piece for all occasions, not just for birthdays! When you are thinking about having a high focal point, paper lanterns are the way to go.

Paper lanterns come in all shapes and sizes and it is fun to use them to enhance your theme colors.

You can purchase paper lanterns just about anywhere! I personally love getting them at Michaels, Party City, Martha Stewart, or Target. All you need is some chicken wire and tape (which you can also obtain at the aforementioned stores) and you are set.

BIRTHDAY Cake of the Day!

Unda tha sea....unda tha sea...Yes, I can spell, I just wanted to introduce today's Cake of the Day, Birthday Edition, in its truest form. Today's cake comes from The Icing on the Cake. Marj Jenkins is the creator of all the lovely cakes you see in her blog and she is not cliche when it comes to her cake creations.

The unique thing about Marj Jenkin's cakes is that almost all of her cakes are iced in very smooth butter cream as opposed to fondant icing so it looks like fondant, but tastes a lot yummier.

MY BIRTHDAY WEEK!!

As we wrap up this week's lesson on activating scent, I wanted to get you really excited because this week is MY BIRTHDAY!! In lieu of my birthday, I will be showcasing my favorite birthday parties to date! I will include tips on how to plan the perfect birthday party implementing the five senses we have talked about. The week will end with pictures and creations from my 23rd Masquerade Birthday Party!

Stay tuned!!