MIL 60th Birthday Party

A glimpse of my MIL's 60th Birthday Party Invite in 2D design by Adworks...

Almost done with my MIL's 60th Birthday Party preparations.

Its supposed to be a simple dinner party for immediate family. But when she turned over the party planning to me, it immediately turned out to be a "grand" and “festive” event. Must be my magical spending powers! lol.

MIL’s not complaining. As a matter of fact, she appreciates my party inputs. Now she appreciates that she has a daughter-in law like me who understands nitty­gritty girly stuffs for her party. And she appreciates my “kulit­-ness” and nudging her to spend a little more for herself since she really deserves it. :)

Actually, I just did a little convincing … and presto! I made her realize that being sixty only happens once in a lifetime. And in my heart, I strongly believe she owes this celebration to herself. She’s so busy with work for decades (she’s a public school principal) that she even forgot to celebrate her 50th birthday and their silver wedding anniversary. She even told me she was never given a proper debut as well since she was busy working and helping her parents to send her siblings to school. Aaawww… poor MIL! :( So in reality, this will be her first grand affair, next to her wedding of course!

So to celebrate her 60th birthday party in style, I’ve carefully lined up some surprises and gimmicks for her. And with barely 10 days to go I’ve already accomplished the following:

Party Theme: Red and Gold with Apples

Mommy chose these colors since it’s a festive Christmas color.
Why apples?!? She told me she always has this association (fixation, I guess) with Delicious Apples ... can’t argue with that, right? … kaya ayun, sinunod namin gusto nya! :)

Food: Filipiniana cuisine from Madel’s catering

Filipiniana is very ideal for the Christmas season. It gives us the “familiar homey” feeling on a cold December night. Since the guests were mostly teachers and “older” crowd…they will appreciate this familiar taste and food selection more compared to Italian or Continental food.

Moreover, this will give us good excuse to add up lechon, bibingka, puto bumbong and hot chocolate stations for ala “simbang-gabi” set up. Can’t wait on this! :)

Again, MIL chose this caterer since according to her, tested caterer of Pasig schools. Very flexible, easy to negotiate and her price affordable too! Na-trauma din from her previous caterer who came from QC and arrived really, really late in one of her school functions. Kaya ayun, she prefers within the vicinity of Pasig especially December, she don’t trust the traffic daw! hahaha! :)

For P230 per head, buffet menu includes : Corn soup, roast porkloin, kare kare, chicken galantina, rellenong bangus, lumpiang ubod sariwa, buco pandan, fresh fruits platter and Hawaiian punch. Di ba, yummy and mura! :)

FOOD CARTS : Bibingka (DONE!) and Puto bumbong (pending)
MIL got supplier already for the native bibingka. We need to find good puto bumbong maker this weekend! Would you believe MIL prepared a “bahay-kubo” façade for these carts. Hahaha…nauna pa ito than food supplier! excited! :)

Invites: Adworks (DONE!)
I wanted to try other invite makers like Q prints, for MIL but they can no longer accommodate me as of November 23. Sayang! Only Adworks I know who is reliable and can deliver good quality invites in the shortest possible time. Ayan..last minute na kasi si MIL! Hahaha! :)

Anyway, invites and thank you tags for pick up this Friday am. Wohohoo! Bait ni Mye talaga for the rush print! :)

Decors: Balloons c/o MIL’s co-teachers (DONE!)
Not yet sure of the outcome, but I told them I wanted to have balloon pillars for the stage and floating balloons entire garden area.

Give-aways: Pashmina Shawls at 168 Mall (DONE!)
My gift to MIL. I posted my pashmina hunt at 168 Mall. She was truly happy with the idea of shawls… useful for simbang gabi! :) Btw, she told me to go back to 168 Mall again this weekend to buy additional shawls pa. Her guest list doubled ata! Gawd!!

Cake: Layers and Layers by Arlene from Kapitolyo (DONE!)
We wanted affordable three-layer cake for candle blowing. And this supplier fits our budget! :) I can’t wait to see the final output.

Photographer: School official photographer c/o MIL
Another trusted supplier of MIL.

Tarpaulin Decors: PENDING! PENDING! PENDING!
I haven’t talked to suppliers yet. I still don’t have her scanned pictures! My plan is to set up 6 tarpaulin standee ( 6 x 3 ft) with story board per decade of her life. Gosh…sana umabot! :)

Fireworks: DRAGON FIREWORKS! (PENDING!)

Hubby to buy this. After candle blowing, syempre a perfect way to end the night with fireworks!

So that's it... almost complete. I am still asking MIL to get live band for her party to spice up the night, but she told me she prefers Karaoke na lang para tipid. Hmmm... I am sure the band will be a hit but as per Mommy, the teachers would prefer the videoke sessions than noisy band. Again, can't argue with this. She knows her party crowd better than I do! :)

Will post next week post party kwentos...for the meantime, need to prepare for the party program. I need to convince my BILs and FIL to prepare something special for Mommy. Hopefully they'll cooperate with my gimmick plans. Wish me luck! :)