My husband was turning 30 years old and I wanted to do something a little different than our annual BBQ with friends and family. One of Jeff’s hobbies is brewing his own beer, so I came up with the idea of a beer tasting party! Guests were mailed The Big 3-0 Birthday Party Invitations (sample shown below) and were asked to bring a 6-pack of chilled specialty beer within particular categories that the birthday boy prefers.


The menu consisted of your standard and yummy bar food. Most of my best beer tasting party ideas involved creative ways to display it. I used brown kraft bags to hold the soft pretzel bites, and mini clothespins to close the bags and add some detail. Another great tip is to use small chalk board signs to indicate different dips or food. I’ve found that guests love this because they don’t have to ask you what everything is. Using an apothecary jar, I filled up peanuts and added a pop of color with the bright red popcorn boxes. The best thing you can do when planning a party is utilize all the space you have available (including the drawers)! Of course the table wouldn’t be complete without a great sign and a beer growler filled with wheat stalks.


With the help of crafty friend Jodi, we cut out large letters from cardboard boxes spelling “CHEERS,” spray painted them a burnt red and hung with clear fishing line. Hanging in the corner was a chalk board sign with the steps on how to proceed with the beer tasting. This was probably one of my favorite items of the entire party! Little details such as coasters attached to the beer glasses saying, “Bottoms Up” and signage for each type of beer helped me stay organized throughout the event.



Lastly, what party would be complete without some dessert! Cupcakes with liners added another pop of color, and cake pops with flag toppers added the detail. I made the cake pops my “easy” way and created a tutorial here. Seriously, you will thank me later!

Hope you all enjoy the beer tasting party ideas and maybe you can incorporate them into your own parties! More pictures of this beer tasting party can be seen on Suburban Events blog.

Molly Suedbeck is the creator of the party planning and DIY blog Suburban Events.  Molly loves to provide party planning inspiration, tips and details to help others plan their own events. Molly and her husband have a dog named Lily and keep busy with their three nieces. In her free time, she enjoys helping others plan their parties, working on DIY projects, and researching new ideas on Pinterest.

It was such a fun project, and I hope it inspired you to send some love throughout the year – even after Valentine’s Day!

What girl doesn’t love a little glitter in her life? We made this party extra sparkly with our Glam Grad Graduation Announcements, and sprinkled gold glitter accents everywhere!

A girly party like this calls for a girly meal. We made adorable chicken salad sandwich triangles and fruit kabobs on skewers. You could also add some fresh veggies displayed neatly. For the beverages we chose lemonade with coordinating pink striped paper straws and edible glitter rims on the milk glasses. To get the glitter rim we dipped the glasses in some vanilla and then dipped them in edible glitter or sugar sprinkles. For the backdrop on this glam table setup we used our Glam Grad Gold Party Decorations and stuck them to the wall in a fun gradient/fading pattern.

Every party has to have centerpieces! We created a few different looks using flowers, mason jars, Glam Grad Gold Party Decorations and a few other items. These are definitely not your typical graduation party centerpieces; they are fun, grown up, and still really simple. Add some fabric to get a different look or use double-sided tape and glitter to add sparkle.

We had a lot of fun with the backdrop on the dessert table, and it is really easy to do too! We bought five different fabrics and cut them into strips. Then we tied them onto several pieces of twine and hung each string vertically. We then attached more glittery party decorations to the fabric. We love with this backdrop idea for any table! As for the desserts, we made sure they also tied into the glitter theme. We chose a cake, cupcakes and cake pops, and decorated each with either edible glitter or glitter cupcake wrappers. Feel free to mix up the desserts to give the guests a variety. To get the cupcake wraps and cake pop sticks visit Dress My Cupcake. And don’t forget the personalized graduation napkins!

If you are looking for something different for guest book ideas, look no further! We set up a photo booth with gold streamers and balloons. All of the guests will have their pictures taken in front of this and the photos are printed out immediately so guests can place them on scrapbook pages with little notes for the grad to look back on. This is such a fun way for the grad to remember their party.

Visit our grad collection to see these and coordinating graduation announcements and decorations along with many more designs to inspire you. Or get some more great graduation party ideas on our blog. Have fun with your grad party planning!

Both of my parents turned 60 this year, and although I wasn’t able to pull off a huge surprise party, I had a few birthday ideas that made it special. My big idea was to send a card announcing their birthdays to all of their friends and relatives, asking each of them to write back with a favorite memory of my parents.

My dad’s birthday was first, and I chose our Surprise Photo Birthday Invitations for him, mainly because I didn’t have a lot of childhood pictures of him, and this card featured just one photo. Inside, I wrote about his upcoming big day and asked that people use the enclosed card to write to him about their favorite Carl story. I then enclosed one of our Engraved Distinction Note Cards and an envelope complete with address labels, so the recipients just had to fill out the card and pop it in the mail. I was careful to make sure the note card I chose would fit inside the larger birthday card.

I had a ton of childhood photos for my mom, so for her I repurposed our Scattered Baby Girl Moments Baby Announcements that featured a lot of photos, with room on the back for my instructions. I felt less comfortable shouting to the world that she was 60, so I just slyly called it a ‘very special birthday.” As I did with my dad, I asked people to write a note to my mom telling her their favorite memory. The note cards I enclosed were our Picture This Photo Wedding Thank You Cards, also repurposed for a birthday and customized in colors to match the bigger card.

Over the next few weeks, I started getting piles of letters and gifts back. It killed me not to be able to open any of them! Then, on their birthdays, I packaged up all the letters and gifts and gave them to my parents. Both got letters from colleagues, friends, and family.

My dad got a card from one of my brother’s long-term friends who described a soccer game where my brother was hurt and my dad came out on the field, picked him up, and took him off the field to take care of him. My dad also got a card from his older sister thanking him for taking care of all their brothers and sisters when they were young. (There were seven!)

My mom got a card from a colleague with whom she car-pooled with for many years. This friend had counted the miles they drove together, and it was over a hundred thousand miles! She also got a card from her niece thanking her for introducing her to the sport of tennis. This niece eventually reached the state championship!

Each of my parents received letters that brought tears to their eyes. My mom described, after reading the letters multiple times over, how surprised she was at the sheer quantity.  I was so happy to see how touched they were by this outpouring of wonderful memories. And I was proud of my parents, seeing the impact they had made on so many people’s lives. I’d have to say, my birthday party ideas were a complete and total success!

If you’d like to try this yourself, here are the steps to make it happen:

1. Choose your BIG card first, the card that tells the recipients what you would like them to do.
2. Choose your SMALL card, the blank card that recipients will use to write their stories. Just remember that this note card and its envelope will have to fit inside the envelope of the bigger card.
3. Order matching address labels with YOUR name on them, enough for both the small envelope inside that they will mail back to you, and for the larger envelope that holds everything.
4. Put your address labels on the front of the small envelopes so guests don’t have to address them. It’s also nice to put stamps on them.
5. Send them out! I chose to send them out 4-5 weeks before their birthdays. Collect as many addresses as you can of your friend’s friends, colleagues, and family. You probably won’t have all the addresses you want, but I reached out to a couple ‘key’ people from my mom’s tennis group or my dad’s workplace, and asked them if they’d pass them out to friends. That worked really well!
6. Watch the cards flood into your mailbox! Since you’re requesting that all these letters come to YOU, you then have the task of guarding them with your life until you can present them to the birthday guy or gal! Of course, you can also have them send their notes directly to the birthday honoree, if you don’t want to present them all at once.

We have lots of great birthday invitations and note cards at Pear Tree Greetings that will fit any type of birthday party, so happy shopping! And keep reading our blog for more great birthday ideas.

We were overjoyed when we won the contest and realized that not only would we be able to eliminate the cost of invitations from our tight budget but they were going to be custom designed just for us! Shortly after winning the contest, we had a phone conversation with Angela from Pear Tree who has been amazing to work with throughout the entire process. We discussed what my fiancé and I were looking for in terms of our invitations and what Pear Tree had to offer. Not being a very creative person myself, Angela and the team were so helpful in offering suggestions and showing us ideas for wedding invitations that had already been done from the website.

Pear Tree helped us decide on the type of folded envelope, the invitation wording, the exact colors, designs for reception cards and wedding favor tags, and much much more. I have always wanted my response cards to be mad libs, and they were able to incorporate that in a way that I feel all of our guests will enjoy. We communicated our ideas for wedding invitations back and forth with Angela through email for a few months. She would send us pictures of the pieces of the invitations as they were finished. We really didn’t have to make many changes as the Pear Tree team listened to our wants and designed something that truly fit the look of our wedding. We never thought we would have the opportunity to have something created just for us, and this has been a great experience!

We love our wedding invitations! Thank you Pear Tree!

Read more from winners, Kelly & Jay:
Dream wedding contest winners
Follow their wedding story
Engagement photo shoot

The color palette for the party was inspired by the invitation. I chose to use the Multicolor Celebration kids’ birthday invitation from Pear Tree Greetings, because of the bright, bold colors and the fact that I could include pictures of the birthday girl on the invitation.
After choosing the invitation, I enlisted the help of my party-planning sister to create the decorations. She decided to create a backdrop out of bold colored paper chains, a polka-dot table cover, and mason jars lined with glitter to hold the utensils.

For the party, we had three stations, including decorating flip-flops with colorful ribbons, foot soaking with manicures and pedicures, and a make-up station. Each station included signage in a custom frame.

To top off the decor, we used the Round Gingham kids birthday favor stickers to accent the cups and the Big Numbers for Girls kids birthday favor stickers for the gift bags.

To thank each girl, I chose the First Big Party thank you cards for my daughter to use. I loved this design because I was able to feature a picture from the party to share with all of her friends.
The party was a big hit with all of the girls and they all loved being pampered. It was amazing to see how the birthday party ideas all came together, inspired by the invitation and using different decorative elements.

About Brianna:
Brianna is the Online Marketing Manager at Pear Tree, which means that when you see an ad or search for us online, she’s the reason you find us. She and her husband have three young daughters and, in between nail painting and glitter projects, she finds time for her favorite things, including cooking and baking, practicing Pilates, and keeping up with her favorite reality TV shows.

Check out our blog for more first birthday party ideas or start shopping our kids birthday invitations to get started on your next bash!

About Michelle:
I’m a graphic designer at Pear Tree Greetings. Honestly, I love what I do and have fun doing it! Here are a few other things that make me happy; My husband Ben. My son Alexander Archer. A cool fall day. A conversation with my Grandma. The simple things. Guacamole. Getting inspired on Pinterest. Christmastime. Sewing. Plants that need no attention. Being creative. Making others Happy. Our Dog, Duchess. Paper. Sending notes. Memories of my childhood. My spare time is usually spent on taking photos and my passion for photography.

How to make a tissue pom:
1. Lay the tissue paper out flat (10 sheets)
2. Trim top two sheets by five inches on each side
3. Trim next two sheets by two inches on each side
4. Flip the tissue paper over and repeat steps 2 and 3
5. Fold the tissue paper accordion style, making the folds 1-1.5 inches wide
6. Tie your ribbon or twine around the middle of the tissue paper
7. Pull the tissue paper apart and start fluffing
8. Cut out the printable football laces and attach two glue dots to the top two corners
9. Attach the laces to the last middle-length tissue paper on both sides
10. Tie a long string or fish line to the pom and hang!

While we did have a lot of trials and errors when creating this football-shaped pom, we are very pleased with how it turned out! Be sure to check back and see how we used these poms for our office Super Bowl party! And read more party ideas from our blog.

Click here to get the printable laces you saw in the video.

The story spoke of the Rule of Reciprocation…to me, that feels like too technical a term to put on what is really just common sense – if you get something, you should give back. So I’d like to try my own social experiment and while sending 600 cards seems rather daunting, I’d like to try 50. So I’m going to initiate the 50-Christmas-card-challenge!

The gentleman in the story sent 600 cards and in the first year received 117 replies…so that’s nearly a 20% response rate so if I send 50, I’m hoping for 10 replies back! If I follow in Mr. Kunz’ footsteps, then it would just be a regular Christmas card, it would not indicate anything about being an experiment.

As the holiday season progresses, I’ll keep you up-to-date with how this goes. How about you? Is anyone willing to join me in the 50-Christmas-card challenge??

About Stephanie:
Stephanie is the General Manager for Pear Tree Greetings and when she’s not leading this oh-so brilliant team, she enjoys her time with her husband and kids at home. Her kids, at the adorable ages of 4 and 2, have kept her on her toes lately by painting the walls with crayon and washing her makeup down the sink days before going on air at Twin Cities Live.