For many of us, this time of year is filled with so many celebrations. My oldest daughter was born in May (near or actually ON Mother’s Day), and we have been through numerous HS and college graduations. This year we had a dual purpose party for my daughter’s milestone 30th Birthday and youngest’s college graduation.

On top of all this, my middle daughter gave birth to her first child (and my first grandchild, yikes!). Check out our incredible Peter Rabbit Baby Shower post!

We have definitely had some pretty great parties the last several years (see our Christmas Birthday Party post), especially as my husband and his creative ideas are now in the mix. As a mature mom, I certainly don’t have the energy or stamina I did when I was planning the girls’ birthday parties as kids. So I use these tips and tricks to make our parties meaningful and memorable, yet minimal work for me when possible!

This is how we planned (and executed) this very cool Birthday/Graduation party recently. Check out these suggestions for making your special celebration easy, festive and so much fun!

Tips for a Super Special Party

Consider a different location. My oldest daughter lives out of town, so it made a lot of sense to rent an Airbnb for her and her boyfriend to stay for the weekend, while also making it the ideal place for a fun party.

The place we rented was an old firehouse, and had lots of games, plenty of space, ample room for sleeping, several refrigerators and even a hot tub.

If you look around, you can find some really great places to rent like this. And when the party isn’t at your home, it’s suddenly a lot less stressful. You do need to remember to take everything you think you might need (although these places have almost everything now), like say tape and scissors for hanging up the decorations. But walking into an Airbnb, it’s already very clean, and honestly requires little cleaning when leaving at the end of your stay.

Cater. Another time and energy saving idea is having your event catered, or picking up the food already prepared. Catering options we found leaned toward heavier dishes, like trays of meats and pasta. Caterers also often have a minimum number of guests, and our party was relatively small. So instead, we ordered trays from Wegmans, because we love their food and it’s always so fresh. I had not done this before, and was pleasantly surprised at the ease of the ordering and pick up processes!

If you have guests for the weekend like we did, it’s super smart to include a tray of muffins and fresh fruit for breakfasts, with plenty of supplies for coffee. For dessert, a tray of cupcakes for blowing out the candles, and my daughter’s favorite, baklava, from our local Greek festival. Plus special #30 cookies (see below)!

For main meals, I included my kids and our favorites like sushi, varieties of hoagies with fixings, chips, a big caesar salad, and charcuterie.

Keep the guest list manageable. My daughter who graduated actually didn’t have friends in town (since they were also graduating from other schools), so this was really just a family party. It kind of just worked out this way, but ended up being quite perfect, since people could play games, do activities without waiting, and there was plenty of food! I like how people had space and quiet to talk and catch up, too. A few more guests would have been fine, but many more would have ruined the vibe.

Get input from the honorees. Make sure you include your guests of honor in the planning as much as possible. I made sure to ask about the guest list (there was someone they did NOT want invited so this is a good idea, trust me) and definitely the food. I had a pretty good idea of what they might like, but double checking is smart. Tell people what you’re offering, then give them the option to bring what they may want, too.

Personalize, personalize, personalize! Having a BIG milestone birthday, I loved including photos of my daughter throughout the years in this fun Happy Birthday banner!

She loved it and took the photos home with her, which was so cute. We also had these adorable personalized napkins!

Incorporate Milestones. I wanted the 30th theme to be in the forefront of the decor. Here’s a cute idea, order (or make) a nice charcuterie, then cut some numbers out of cheese and add them to it! I actually got the idea from this company, Boarderie, that customizes charcuterie boards for special occasions. It was a lot easier and less expensive making this one myself!

If you’re already using number cookie cutters, make some special cookies for the party, too.

Our other theme was the graduation, so I had some fun touches to celebrate this, also. I carried the theme down to the smallest things- how about these toothpicks for the charcuterie? Cute!

I absolutely loved how this banner looked against the sliding door.

I also included lots of Penn State decor, like blue and white balloons, plates, and this great yard sign at the entrance of our party!

Activities. A big thing for my husband is making sure people are entertained. At this Airbnb, there was honestly so much to do…a pool table, arcade games, etc., so lots to keep people occupied, which was great. But we needed more!!

For our daughter’s 18th birthday party, my husband actually got software and all the accessories necessary to set up a photo booth! It was pretty successful, so he replicated it at our recent party. We even got adorable props that were graduation and birthday themed!

I love how he managed to get the date and title on the photo, so the girls (and everyone) can keep the photos and remember them for years to come!

Another very fun idea was also to hire a caricaturist! I honestly thought this was over the top-ie kind of unnecessary with everything else going on…but I ate my words because it was a lot of fun. People enjoyed it, and their pictures were something else they could take home to remember the day!

The artist can even do a drawing from a photo, so if you have one of someone who couldn’t make it to the party, it’s a nice idea. We would have loved my other daughter to be there, but she literally just had a baby; so I gave him a photo – it turned out so cute!

I also found fun 30th birthday temporary tattoos! We did these the next day before we were leaving-a little momento of the weekend!

Do you have some unique and fun ways you have celebrated very special family milestones? Let me know, I’d love to hear!!