How to Plan a Milestone Birthday

Milestone_Birthday_Planning

Milestones mark important events in our lives. They are the moments that signal a change or transition from one stage to another. The best milestones are the ones that become fond memories, so if you know someone who will be celebrating a milestone birthday, make it one they won’t forget by planning and personalizing it to perfection.

Getting Personal with Party Planning

The best milestone birthday parties capture the essence of an individual in a way that makes them feel loved and appreciated. Unless you want the party to be a surprise, it helps to involve the guest of honor in the milestone birthday party planning to give you the benefit of going straight to the source.

However, if you are planning a surprise party, you want to either know the person extremely well or seek advice and input from someone very close to the individual. Take some time to consider who this person is and what characteristics, quirks and interests define this individual.

It may help to write a list while you are planning the milestone birthday party. This will help you determine how to make the party enjoyable and memorable enough to mark the occasion of the milestone.

Put the Fun in Funny

Depending on which milestone birthday you are planning; humor is only the right approach if the guest of honor has a great sense of humor about the milestone birthday.

Many people immediately think of funny gag gifts when it comes to milestone birthdays for older individuals. However, adult diapers, laxatives, shoes with Velcro and other similar gifts are only funny if the guest of honor would find them humorous.

When it comes to celebrating milestone birthdays with people who aren’t the type to goof around or tell a lot of jokes, avoid placing too much of a focus on funny because there is a thin line between being part of a joke or feeling like the butt of the joke. Aging can be a delicate and unsettling idea for some, so the last thing you want to do is emphasize the age and make the person feel worse about the milestone he or she is reaching.

If you want to take a humorous approach without being offensive, make light of other aspects of the milestone. If the person is close to retirement, joke about him or her not working and lounging around in pajamas all day.

If the person is older but not quite nearing retirement, you can talk about all the friends and the wisdom the person has acquired by having a long and purposeful life and tell him or her not to be stingy about sharing it.

If the person’s milestone birthday is a younger age like 30 or 40, you might be able to go a little further with the jokes and humor, depending on how the person feels about aging.

A Dream Theme

If the person isn’t one to enjoy a humorous approach, try to think of hobbies or interests the person has. Sometimes a simple hobby can be a fun theme or even make it easier to pick a place for the celebration.

For example, if the person loves bowling, have a party at a bowling alley. If the person loves golf, the theme could be golf and gifts could coincide with golf.

Any kind of hobby can become a theme with the right amount of creativity. If your guest of honor likes to garden, have a party with a garden theme. You can ask guests to wear gardening attire fit for getting a little dirty. Serve delicious, fresh vegetable dishes and the cake could be decorated with flowers, dirt and vegetables. The party can even consist of actual gardening, which might get some friends and family into the hobby, so you can all enjoy it together.

You could also pick a theme by deciding on a decade that the guest of honor loves. If your guest of honor is enamored with the eighties, throw an awesome eighties bash where everyone dresses up in the proper eighties attire, dances to music from that decade, enjoys the food and drink of that time and uses the slang of the time. The decade party theme works for any decade the person loves.

A theme doesn’t have to be limited to hobbies or decades. It can be anything the person loves, whether that love is an animal, a sport, a place or anything else.

Show Appreciation with Decoration

Flowers have a long history that is entwined with humanity. Flowers were used to communicate messages of beauty and nature. Flowers instantly brighten a room and make people feel calmer and happier.

A great way to create an atmosphere of appreciation is by incorporating flowers into the party decorations, and the flowers will even positively influence the partygoers. Research conducted by Rutgers found that participants of every age in the study all experienced feelings of surprise, happiness and gratitude when given flowers. Since those are the same emotions you want to inspire with a milestone birthday party, it makes sense to have flowers displayed around the party.

When deciding how to involve flowers in your festivities, consider the guest of honor and what kind of person he or she is. Does this person have a favorite type of flower or a favorite color? This information can be helpful when discussing arrangements with your florist.

You can also bring in photos of the party space when meeting with your florist. Your florist can decide what flowers and colors would best complement the party palette. For a soothing setting, flowers can be intense and exotic to add color and drama, but if you are having the party at a place that is colorful and hectic, soft, pale arrangements can stand out and bring tranquility to the scene.

For any and all your milestone birthday arrangement needs, let our team at Gifts by Gail in Fort Worth, TX, be there for you.

Back to Blogs