Micah Ryan Designs

13 Going on 30

It’s been almost a year since throwing one of the best birthday bashes of my time! My best friend Casey Jo turned the big 3-0 last August, and we landed on the perfect theme for her personality and interests: 13 Going on 30.

We wanted to lean into all the cliche’s of the early 2000’s when we would have been throwing our own 13th birthday parties. Casey specifically was a “dolphin girl” her room was adorned with your classic 2000’s dolphin posters and knick-knacks. She loved Lizzie McGuire and Britney Spears and virgin strawberry daiquiris. So for this party we wanted to highlight some of her specific favorites, while also bringing in all the classics from the year 2006, including a Spotify Playlist for the decade.

Starting with the entryway! I tend to use every part of my house when hosting an event like this. My entryway happens to be completely undecorated right now as that is a project for another day, so I had a blank canvas to work with and boy did we make it an “entrance”.

I found the biggest backdrop I could find that had the classic neon’s and animal print. Transparently I was searching for something that was pink and zebra striped, but since there was nothing perfect with that pattern, this backdrop was the winner! I loved the idea of greeting Casey with the biggest “Happy Birthday” right from the jump!

Thankfully this made enough of a statement that the remainder of the entryway was simple: a bench to sit on for selfies, some selfie props, and themed party ceiling decor that shouted “the theme “early 2000s”.

“Ingredients” to a ’13 Going on 30′ Entryway:

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases

After walking through the purple “door string curtain” (to simulate the all-too popular door beads that we all had, or wanted to have, adorning our bedrooms back in 2006) you would enter the living room AKA party central.

Complete with inflatable accent furniture, daisy pillows, bright colors, and a disco ball! We pulled out all our old board games, and found some of our old favorites online that we didn’t own yet to make sure that we had enough activities to entertain until late into the night (#PartyLikeYou’re13). We also bought the fan-favorite: Dance Dance Revolution for my husband’s PS2, and broke into that before the party even started!

We stored all of the board games, my old skip-it, and the classic disco ball that brings everyone back to a simpler time, onto the coffee table as a central location for fun.

For the fireplace we found a tapestry that was IDENTICAL to a poster our birthday girl used to have hanging in her bedroom. We hung that above the fireplace along with a banner that reads “Go Shawty It’s Your Birthday”.

This is also where we stored the party favors (hello slap bracelets!) and served as the designated gift-drop area!

“Ingredients” for a ’13 Going on 30′ Party Central

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases

Next was a station that commemorated the pivotal event in every party I ever threw in Junior High: Makeovers! My makeover station included only make-over products that I would have been elated to use as a pre-teen. Transparently I COULD NOT think of what on earth to decorate with over the makeup table. I searched the internet for posters of pop icons of the genre, but in the end the only poster I could find that would ship on time was a High School Musical poster featuring 2000’s heart throb, Zac Efron. (Honestly, I bet I had this same poster already stored in my attic along with some old J-14 magazines if I’d only looked).

For the makeup station I stuck with the basics- glitter, glitter, and more glitter. I also added some decor- a sponge lamp that I combed through the internet to find because it was peak 2000’s decor and a daisy mirror that was too cute not to include. I also added all the extra slap bracelets from the party favors to this station. The makeover station was a huge hit! Most of us ransacked it at the very beginning of the party.

“Ingredients” to a ’13 Going on 30′ Makeover Station

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases

The nucleus of the party was of course, the food tables. This is the place most folks gather, whether you intend it or not.

I found that taping some plastic fringe backdrop to my kitchen island made a big splash for a small amount of money and it looked so awesome. Obviously these come pretty long, so I taped it to the island, then cut the bottom right where it touched the tile. For being a last minute addition to fill a blank area, this became one of my looks in the party.

For snacky food I chose very pre-teen candy, twinkies, and cosmic brownies. For reference, this was way more candy than the party would finish- and we ended up with a ton of leftovers. In addition the the candy, we dolled this area up with a rainbow sequin runner, dolphin plates, and some daisy/glow-in-the-dark star “confetti”. You might be wondering about the rubber ducks- well, those are a Casey Jo specialty. Though not generic 2000’s, Casey collected rubber duckies in her pre-teen years. We added this for a laugh and to make our birthday girl feel special and 13 again.

The final detail on this table that I hope you noticed, is the “The Plastics” Mean Girls label on the plasticware. I scoured the google images for a photo, printed it, added it to a skewer using hot glue and hoped for the best.

The food isn’t pictured here. We chose to serve our birthday girl’s favorite dinner foods- they were not aesthetic, so they were served on the back counter and the stove with no decorations highlighting them and no photos taken.

“Ingredients” to a ’13 Going on 30′ Snack Table

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases

I didn’t forget the cake! I also didn’t forget a myriad of other sugary treats (as if we needed MORE sugar in this party).

This cake was inspired by one that I found on Pinterest. I contacted a local cake artist that I had purchased from in the past and sent her a photo. She ended up creating this BEAUTIFUL cake from the inspiration and our birthday girl, Casey, said she was pretty sure she had this exact cake at some birthday in her past. We hit the nail on the head!!

My friend made a smore’s board (featured on the left) which was a huge hit and was devoured by the end of the night. On the right is a display of the most fun cookies in every combo we could think of! Our birthday girl is an AMAZING cookie artist herself (Caseyjo Cookies), so I knew I wanted to find someone to make her some beautiful decorative cookies to feature in her party. We decided to hit the highlights: Pink Zebra, Dolphin, Mean Girls, and Lizzie McGuire. This was a fun variety!

For this table I went with an iridescent tablecloth and used the leftover strings of iridescent circles from the fireplace to add some dimension to it. I also bundled up the extra length from the purple fringe at the snack table and added it to the corners of the cake table.

For above the cake table I added a bunch of photos from Casey’s pre-teen years that I got printed at Walmart and pinned them to some super cute felt daisy strings. I also added the extra dolphin keychains from the party favors as “confetti” on this table.

“Ingredients” to a ’13 Going on 30′ Cake Table

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases

Now the dining table is where I got a TAD more modern in my decorating. I wanted to create a centerpiece that was really RAD and looked more like decorations I would have seen on TV in 2006 than something I would have been able to create myself that year.

I used kept things simple but snazzy with a sequin table cloth, flowers, and disco balls (which are actually just disco plant pots turned upside #MultiUse). I ultimately ended up adding Gilmore Girls stickers (another birthday girl favorite) all around my centerpiece to add another layer of personalization. At the end of the night, she added all those stickers into her party favor bag and got to take them all home!

This centerpiece was my CROWN JEWEL. I was so proud of how this turned out and have even re-created it as a day-to-day centerpiece at the kitchen table in my home on other occasions.

“Ingredients” to a ’13 Going on 30′ Dining Table

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases

The thing about me is that I HAVE NO CHILL. Once I get started on a project I have a really difficult time not taking it to the Nth degree. Which is why we have some final touches. Because our birthday girl LOVED drinking virgin strawberry daquiris in her tweens, we of course made some kick-ass strawberry daquiris for the night. I also made sure she had an “Official Teenager” sash that came with a tiara.

We also setup a “burn book” to act as a guest book. We took polaroid’s of every person at the party (including my 2 month old baby that was in attendance by default) and all wrote “burns” on the page that we glued the polaroid’s to with gel pens. Example: The burns we wrote on my son’s photos were such as “pretty cute but poops alot”. We read the burns out loud after dinner and had a great laugh!

Last but not least we ALL came to the party dressed as our 13 year old selves dressed. Unfortunately for me, that meant a low ponytail with a middle part. On the plus side Bobby Jack sells some of the OG shirts we used to wear and I got to spray fake blonde tips into my husbands hair so – a win’s a win!

“Ingredients” to a ’13 Going on 30′ Finishing Touches

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases

This party was FETCH and full of nostalgia! We played games and laughed harder than we had in a long time. We stayed up late and partied like it was 2006!

I hope some of the ideas from this party inspire your own 13 Going on 30 Birthday Party!

If you’re interested in another 30th bash I’ve thrown, check out Death to My 20’s – a funeral for our youth with an elder emo twist!

Peace Out Girl Scout!

Leave a comment