OUR 4th BIRTHDAY PARTY!

"If you don't get a wriggle on and organise this party, it'll be a flop!", came our Store Manager Jodie's voice down the phone. Ten days out and we had not even sent invitations or created a Facebook Event to invite our community to our 4th birthday party.

"Rightio Mum!", we joked back down the phone, in a fond yet facetious tone. "Don't worry Jodes, we work well under pressure" (insert confidence with an overiding sense of anxiety).

First things first was to secure the grog (naturally) and the food. We were thrilled to use Darwin's Piper Collective wines which we collected from their cellar in Woolner. The gorgeous grazing table was supplied by Pony + Sid. Not only did the table look fabulous, it was delicious; a comment made on many occasions by our guests.

 
 




We then created a Facebook Event and invited our loyal customers and community and opened the invitation to all those wanting to meet new people! Darwin is such a welcoming place like that, people are always up for making new friends and are very inclusive - just another thing we love about the place.

After a day or two of replies from invitations, we realised we had a fair few people attending, so we really had to step it up! We hired a bar, bar tables and stools from events hire company Creative Two. They were a pleasure to deal with! After a full-on wedding/dry season, they were still able to cater for us even though they were going on a well-earned holiday. They delivered and collected the hired products and made the whole process extremely easy for us.

We used one of the Creative Two bar stools to sit a 3 tiered stand of the most beautiful and delicious fine chocolates by Pure Indulgence. The owner Jill hand picked 130 chocolates from her store in the Star Village and delicately displayed them on the stand. She also went to the effort of picking orchid flowers from her home garden to decorate the stand. There were certainly no chocolates left on the stand by the end of the night!




To add a bit of ambience we hired a green wall from Lush and placed it behind the bar. Lush delivered and collected the wall before and after the party; they weren't even phased that we kicked on longer than expected! (Thanks guys!)

We positioned rock star Rachel Rachel Music up on a stair case landing. This was Jodie's fabulous idea and at first we thought she was joking. Rachel was more than keen to play up there, so long as we could source some power, which we somehow managed!

To decorate the exterior of the shop, we used Balloons, Events & More. They created an awesome balloon wall. All we had to do was show them some Pinterest Inspo and they created an amazing feature balloon wall, our number 4 and bunches of helium balloons to dot around the party.



And finally, we added a swinging chair for what we thought would be a great photo opportunity spot, but turned out to be a great spot for catch ups, deep convos and meet and greets. We found this on Gumtree and gave it a total make over (see before pic below). Plants were sourced (care of Hardy Landscaping) and scattered around to create a green and vibrant setting.








So we managed to pull it off, and after a few champagnes Jodie declared we had done a great job and likened us to decorating like the Kardashians (does that mean over the top?!).

Thanks to all who attended and helped out on the night. It was such a warm, relaxed and welcoming vibe with lots of laughs.. and lots of champagne (we had to make multiple dashes to The Cav Bottle-O!).

It was great to see other Darwin businesses come and join us, thanks for coming and thanks for the gifts!

Suse & Em xx