Micah Ryan Designs

Spring Birthday Dinner

After showing her pictures of a dinner party I threw for a friend of mine, my mom expressed that she wanted me to throw a dinner party for her 60th birthday. I started by asking her to tell me everything that brings her joy, colors, themes and concepts.

She wanted lots of bright colors, a nod to her love of birds, and primarily- for our immediate family to be together somewhere for it.

Step one would be finding an AirBnB with lots of backyard seating and enough rooms for my parents and siblings and their spouses. I located one that met all of those marks, plus a room with ping pong, air hockey, and foosball tables- score!

A few weeks before the trip, with everything already planned and purchased, my mom called me and asked me if I could incorporate some four leaf clovers for her St. Patrick’s day birthday.

To achieve this I ordered some custom cookies from my best friend and talented cookie artist, Caseyjo_Cookies, that would blend the existing theme in seamlessly with the 4 leaf clovers, and planned one final addition to the table to ‘bring it home’.

The first step in making the dinner party magical was hanging origami paper birds from the pergola. I purchased 2 packages of these STUNNING bird garlands, counted and cut at 7 birds long to achieve the perfect length to hang. I used packing tape to tape these up, which even in the wind kept a good hold and we didn’t lose any birds.

Behind the birds I hung, also with packing tape, a glitter-gold “Happy 60th Birthday” banner– bonus points for this banner being pre-strung and saving me valuable time!

Ingredients to a MAGICAL Environment:

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To create the dinner party table I first simply pushed the 2 existing tables in the AirBnb’s backyard together to accommodate the number of family members that would be attending.

I took a few panels from a grass wall that when close-up resemble clovers and re-purposed them as a table runner. I placed a long yellow-gold runner over the panels to add dimension and color. Normally with these 10ft long runners I let them run over the sides of the table, but in this setup I tucked the extra length invisibly under the grass wall runner.

Next I set my 2 main ‘centerpieces’ one in the middle of each table, cutting the visual of the table into thirds.

The first centerpiece was the cake. I set a small 10′ white pearly cake from Walmart (my favorite money-saving hack for beautiful cakes on a budget) on a wooden cake stand and added a colorful hummingbird “Happy Birthday” cake topper onto the cake.

The second centerpiece was a pink glass basket vase full of fresh flowers (also from Walmart). These two centerpieces worked to break up the pattern of the remainder of the runner decor, as well as add height, color and additional visual interest to the table.

With the centerpieces blocking out the table for me, I then filled in additional space with clusters. I made three clusters in the middle, between the 2 centerpieces, and 2 clusters on the outside of each centerpieces.

In each cluster is a pink glass vase, a blue glass vase (each with fresh flowers from Walmart) and an amber glass, flower tealight candle holder and a tealight candle.

Next I sprinkled small colorful and patterned origami birds all through the runner, and filled the final empty spaces with the individually wrapped, themed cookies made by Caseyjo_Cookies. I also placed 3 small woven birds in the grass part of the runner to add additional dimension and visual interest.

Ingredients to a Colorful Spring Dinner Table:

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The final touch for the dinner table itself was the place settings.

For this I used 2 sets of colorful patterned plates that each differ from each other and bring together all the colors on the table. I used gold cutlery wrapped in a pink cheesecloth napkin and secured with pearl napkin rings. The cutlery held a light blue linen napkin on the plate, the napkin draped off the table. I also put a holographic beverage glass on the right of each place setting.

Ingredients to a Colorful Spring Place Setting:

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The backyard of the AirBnB had 2 bistro sets near the main outdoor dining table. I wanted a fully immersive experience, so I placed a grass wall panel on each bistro table, and used the tables as the gift area.

Lastly, I set a pink velvet runner over a storage box, on which we placed the food for the dinner party.

Ingredients to a Colorful Spring Dinner Party | Finish Touches:

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I hope this dinner party gives you inspiration on blending unique concepts as you look to personalize an event for your own color and/or bird lover!

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