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How To Throw A 50th Birthday Party on a Small Budget

November 12, 2012 by Dagmar Bleasdale 18 Comments

Are you looking for tips about how to throw a 50th birthday party on a budget? Fifty or twenty — these tips work for any birthday on a budget!

How To Throw A BIG 50th Birthday Party

{or really any birthday party}

Welcome to Dagmar’s Home!

Are you looking for tips about how to throw a 50th birthday party on a budget?
Are you stressed out because you don’t have enough money to plan a beautiful party?

Then you’ve come to the right place!

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I’m super frugal and try to do everything in the most inexpensive way.

Over the years, I’ve planned many birthday parties on a budget, many for under $100.

In this post, I’ll tell you how I was able to create a 50th birthday party for 25 people for just $500.

You can adjust my tips for any birthday party you are planning.

Depending on your party, you can create a celebration maybe for even less money.

How To Throw A BIG Birthday Party on a Small Budget

I will show you how you can pay less for

the venue
music
flowers
food and birthday cake
tables and chairs
tableware
party decorations

Here we go!

When my husband’s 50th birthday was coming up, I was determined to make this a special day for him, even though we were on a tight budget.

I was able to organize a lovely surprise party with our family and friends he really enjoyed.

How was I able to throw a classy party for 25 people in a beautiful venue for only $500?

smart budgeting
some bartering
a lot of hands-on work
and some luck and ingenuity

3 Tips for Creating a 50th Birthday Party for Less

Tip 1. Venue, Music, and Flowers for Less

Venue:

Don’t be afraid to barter!

I had my eye on The Lodge room at a local farm, which is a pretty venue with a lovely main room, but I couldn’t swing the rental fee plus the costs of food, etc.

So luckily I mentioned the upcoming party to the owner and she let me have the Lodge for free, in exchange for social media consulting. It was a win/win for the both of us.

Check out your local community center or church and ask if they have a party room you can have for a few hours. I bet you could offer something in return to barter.

Music:

If you are on a budget and don’t have money for a band on DJ, don’t fret!

Having music doesn’t have to cost much nowadays: all you need is an iPhone or iPod and a speaker, and you can stream free music with the Pandora app.

Here is an inexpensive iPhone speaker.

Pandora lets you decide which type of music you prefer to hear for the party, and then you just let it run, or if you have your favorite music downloaded, then just play that.

I personally didn’t want to be distracted by music and wanted our guests to be able to talk to each other, so we didn’t even have music.

Flowers:

One of our friends, a talented florist, made a beautiful floral arrangement as her birthday gift for Don that I used as a centerpiece.

Don’t have a florist friend? One of the best deals for flowers can be found at Trader Joe’s — they offer pretty bouquets for not much money, and you can just place them in a few vases you have, or mason jars or vintage milk glass vases you can find in thrift stores. Done!

Here is another idea: buy beautiful fake flowers at the craft store. You can always find a coupon when you go to the store’s website. Show it to the cashier on your smartphone when you check out for extra savings.

Or shop and have them shipped to you via Amazon. They are inexpensive and pretty, and available in any color you want.

After the party, you can use the fake flowers in your home, or for the next party. So much more affordable than real flowers!

I hope this post makes planning a big party for little money easier for you.

Go here to read Tip 2 and 3, plus the breakdown of my birthday party budget.

How To Throw A BIG 50th Birthday Party

DIY Dresser Makeover With Wallpaper and Glue Dots

October 28, 2012 by Dagmar Bleasdale 3 Comments

Dresser Makeover With Wallpaper and Glue Dots

After simply dusting off my new little dresser and giving it a coat of wood spray, the outside looked wonderful. But there was one more thing I wanted to do.

On the day I scored the dresser at the tag sale, I also picked up these rolls of pretty Waverly toile wallpaper for only $5. One of these can run as much as $35 in the store.

When I brought both home, something just clicked and I decided to use the wallpaper as drawer liners.

Step-by-step tutorial of how I attached the wallpaper to the drawers:

All you need is

wallpaper
glue dots
a pencil or crayon
scissors

I took out one drawer and put it on the wallpaper. Then I lined up two corners on the edge of the paper and traced around the other two sides. [Read more…]

Interior Design Inspirations From My Anthropologie Visit

October 5, 2012 by Dagmar Bleasdale 6 Comments

When I lived in Los Angeles, I strolled into an Anthropologie store in Santa Monica one day — and never wanted to leave again.

These stores always have the most beautiful displays of their funky and vintage home decorating items.

Landon and I visited the Anthropologie store in the Westchester Mall in White Plains a few weeks ago. I had a business meeting nearby, and just had to combined it with a stop there.

What are your favorite items in Anthropologie? When I walk in, I always check out their kitchen and dining decorating items first. I want their pretty glasses, measuring cups, soap dispensers, kitchen towels… There isn’t much I don’t like!

I love how they always decorate in a surprising way — here L is checking out the coffee beans they used to display spice jars with chalkboard labels. [Read more…]

Life Happens — What I Did in Front of 3,000 People

September 29, 2012 by Dagmar Bleasdale

Life Happens — not like you’d like it to all the time.

After being on a huge high after learning that I was the valedictorian after three years in one of the largest community colleges in the country, reality sat in that I’d have to give a speech in front of a large group of people.

Although I had studies acting for several years, I knew this would be a large feat — I would be nervous, but most of all, I would have a hard time getting through it because my proud parents and brother would be in the audience, having flown in from Germany just for the occasion.

I didn’t grow up in a very touchy-feely kind of family, but there was a lot of love in my family, and it usually came to the surface if one of us has to give a speech in front of other people.

And sure enough, even without looking into the direction of where my parents were sitting, I choked up the second I mentioned my them in my speech.

They were so proud of me, and I knew it and appreciated their support and love so much.

Three thousand people collectively held their breath.

There was silence for what felt like minutes. I couldn’t get out another word.

Then someone started clapping.

And more people started clapping.

And that gave me the boost to find my voice again and to somehow make it through my speech.

Sometimes life is messy. Life happens.

And even though this was kind of an embarrassing moment for me, it was human and genuine, and strangers came up to me afterward saying how much my speech about the German girl who had always been a mediocre student but had fallen in love with the English language and excelling in college and been blessed to have made her parents so proud had touched them.

Life happens :)

Easy DIY Project: Decorating With Packing Tape

September 27, 2012 by Dagmar Bleasdale 1 Comment

Decorating with packing tape is such an easy way to update anything!

Decorating With Packing Tape

I’m gearing up for an organizing project and have been collecting and saving all kinds of cans, boxes, and glass containers for it.

The one that stood out was that round cookie container. I’m all about repurposing and recycling, but what’s the point of organizing if the end result doesn’t look cute?

Decorating with duct tape has been the latest craze. And since I was recently given some colorful Scotch packaging tape, I think at BlogHer, I though, Why not use that to decorate the container?

So last week I took a few minutes to sit down and try my hand at decorating with packing tape.

[Read more…]

How To Throw A BIG 50th Birthday Party

Welcome to Dagmar’s Home!

How To Throw A BIG Birthday Party on a Small Budget

3 Tips for Creating a 50th Birthday Party for Less

How To Throw A BIG 50th Birthday Party

Dresser Makeover With Wallpaper and Glue Dots

Decorating With Packing Tape

Create a beautiful home on a budget!

Thank you!

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