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Alison and her husband Zach both turned 40 this year, so they threw a big party. “We thought about a sit-down dinner,” she told me. “But we love being silly, we love wigs, we love karaoke, so we thought, what if we turn this into a kid’s birthday party but for adults?” Here are a few very fun photos, plus Alison’s recap…
“We liked this neighborhood dive bar called Boat, but they didn’t have a phone number or website or email address. So, I went there three or four times and became best friends with the bartender and convinced her to let us have a party in the back.”
“My dream was to wear a dress that was over-the-top. I searched for pink dresses and ordered two: short and long. I couldn’t decide, but Joanna came over and I tried them on, and Jo said, ‘You can wear the long one anytime in your life, but this mini one is like, “This is 40!!!!”’ And I felt really hot that night, so it was a great choice.”
“For food, we decided to go high/low, like chicken nuggets with caviar, plus big piles of French fries. We also put up decorations, like fringe garlands and paper chains, and the balloons were our birth year, 1986.”
“We were like, let’s get a face painter! We were also going to do temporary tattoos, but someone was like, you should do REAL tattoos. I didn’t even know that was a thing, but you can hire people to come to your party. My brother was like, no one is going to get a tattoo, but eight people did!”
“Of course, we did karaoke. Here, Freddie and Zach were singing The Backstreet Boys’ I Want It That Way.”
“My karaoke song is Miley Cyrus’s Flowers.”
“We invited family, neighbors, and friends from all facets of our life. I love when people jump in and just belt something out, even if they have terrible voices; that’s my favorite.”
“And we served a vintage-style cake — the more colors the better.”
“At the end of the night, Zach and I sang Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield, which is a crowdpleaser. We love dancing by acting out the lyrics. For “feel the rain on your skin,” we’ll pretend it’s raining. For “staring at the page,” we’ll be reading books. And for the Journey song that goes, “I’m just a small-town girl,” we act out like we’re on a train or under a streetlight, and he’ll be the street light and I’ll be standing there.”
“We loved the whole night so much. It was a real reflection of who we are. I love attention, and Zach’s along for the ride.”
P.S. The weird thing I did at my 40th birthday party, and 12 readers share their favorite birthday celebrations.
(Photos by our friend Ana Gambuto.)
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