WARNING: WORDS AND COMPLICATION ITT!!!!

anyway, here's the deal. my brother turns 21 on sept 13, my dad turns 60 on sept 15. i want to do a combination party (with mostly family and family friends, my brother can do his own 21 get wasted thing with his own friends). we usually have a combo family party for the 2 of them since it is easy because they are so close together. but this time i'm going to include some of our closer family friends (just because they are like, milestone bdays or whatev).

but between duke football, ecu football, ncsu football, and football in general saturday (any saturday from here until eternity) is pretty much out of the question. my brother and i both live in opposite directions from raleigh, my dad (family, etc) is in raleigh so that is where the partay will take place.

ideally saturday would be best, but that is a no go. would a friday night party be so bad?? i am hesitant to do sunday because people need that day to get shit done and because both my brother and i (and any other out of town family) will need to head back.

i'm thinking the weekend of september 18th (can't do it their bday weekend because my brother will be in WV for football) OR 25th. which would be better to give guests ample time. if i sent out invitations this week would the 18th be too short notice?

and what the hell am i supposed to do besides the usual: beer, cake, and food. and what kind of food? and where should it be? it could be at my house and we could do like a grilling thing, but that would be quasi hard because of the # of people involved and we don't have like a tailgate style grill. it could still be at my parents house and i could just make lots of stuff or cater it (with like um...bills bbq or something).

there's a clubhouse/pool across the street from my house that we could use, too. we've had parties there before. i could "hire" some friends to serve food and "bartend."

or should i get like my grandmother on board and try to rent out the party room of like cafe luna or some other place (i mean dinner at those places is like $40 a person so i dunno if she'd be down for that - she might be though if it was JUST our family). or i don't know if it is tacky to reserve a party room somewhere and invite people and then they pay for themselves? haha probably tacky.

i'm trying to make it special because as most of you know, my mom died in april and my dad is recovering from 2 strokes so this year has kind of been difficult. these are some pretty big birthdays so i want to attempt to do something fun with our family and close family friends. but i need ideas!!! HELP TWW HELP!!!

also IBT the strippers, hookers and other unhelpful crap

8/22/2009 10:29:11 PM

im sad your dad had 2 strokes. is he able to talk? weakness on one side? etc.

try to have healthy options at the party to value good health!

8/22/2009 10:31:17 PM

nah

[Edited on August 22, 2009 at 10:32 PM. Reason : ibt]

8/22/2009 10:31:48 PM

^^ yea he can talk but has some trouble with some words. luckily it wasn't caused by high cholesterol or high BP or anything - it was some genetic condition. like an extra copy of a clotting gene or something that caused blood clots. but yes, still should encourage being healthy.

i just don't know what to do or where to have it or anything!

8/22/2009 10:36:41 PM

at first i thought this was a cddweller thread.

8/22/2009 10:38:28 PM

just pick something and roll with it

if it were me and my family, i'd focus on your dad

8/22/2009 10:41:46 PM

yeah, your brother will be too obsessed with his newfound ability to barhop to appreciate family attention. spend most of your attention and budget on making it special for dad.

8/22/2009 11:41:53 PM

i think i'm going to (hopefully) be able to use my boyfriend's parents extra house in apex. its like really cute and they've had a million parties there. it has a really large outdoor area for tables to set up for dinner and a cool inside bar area that will be good for serving drinks. i'm probably just going to do red wine, white wine, and maybe like 2 kinds of beer.

and then we'll do an informal sit down dinner outside (i mean we might set it up inside buffet style but i want everyone to sit and eat at the same time) that way there can be announcements/toasts and people can mingle.

i can probably decorate the outside with lights - white christmas lights and japanese lanterns and stuff. and get cute table cloths etc for the tables.

thennn i can get tschudi to be in charge of music. and maybe one of my friends to pour wine/get beers just to facilitate that. hopefully we can have some sort of slideshow and a roast. and maybe i can figure out some other fun things.

i'm planning to invite my family, boyfriend's family, my dad's close friends, maybe like 5 of my brother's closest friends, and a few of my friends that know my family.

this seems like the most economical idea because i wouldn't have to rent the space. then i could just put $$$ into food, drinks, and decorations! and maybe i can do a fun party favor or something.

thoughts?????

8/23/2009 12:00:52 AM

Couldn't you make a party out of tailgating and football on Saturday?

8/23/2009 12:02:59 AM

no. my family didn't all go to state.

8/23/2009 12:05:50 AM

tl;dr

but go with vodka and prune juice

8/23/2009 12:21:34 AM

^ i actually AM using that suggestion for party favors i'm going to give away a shot glass with one of those individually wrapped prunes inside. you know, these things:


and i'll wrap it up in something cute (some cellophane or something) with a little tag that says something like "a shot for youth and a prune to help regulate your youthful indulgences" or something cheesy that will make old people laugh. and the college kids will be happy because hey, free shot glass!

so we're going to do an outside (providing it doesn't rain) dinner partay. i invited my family, family friends, and some of my brothers friends. there will be wine/beer/water/soda.

"appetizers": veggie tray, plus some sort of dip w/ crackers (nothing much)
dinner: ole time --> bbq and chicken
then i'm making: green beans, cesar salad, fruit salad, rolls and perhaps a pasta salad
dessert: for my brother i'm doing a cupcake tree of cupcakes with alternating yellow and purple frosting and i bought little pirate flags to go on top of the cupcakes (for ECU - that is where he goes)

for my dad's cake (i'm MAKING...ahhh scary) a golf themed cake.

it is going to be 2 tiered and i'm going to cover it in green fondant and then on the top i'm putting this guy:


and then i'll make a little putting green out of light green fondant with a "cup" (small circle of black fondant) and a flag. and then a sand trap with the ball in it and then two of those number candles (a 6 and a 0, duh).

and then after dinner or during desert we're going to do toasts and then my family is kind of weird and likes to make up songs/poems that "roast" people and do gag gifts so, we'll probably do that (especially for my dad). then after we'll probably go downtown with my brother (my cousins and i and his friends that are 21).

THE END.

does it sound ok?

8/30/2009 9:55:53 PM

lol birthdays in my family are never anything special. not even big ones like 21st or 60th, 50th, etc

8/30/2009 9:57:59 PM

we don't do like presents but we definitely do family gatherings. well at least on this side of the family that i'm doing it for - everyone is pretty tight.

especially after this past year!!

8/30/2009 10:02:34 PM

strippers, hookers and other unhelpful crap

8/30/2009 10:18:34 PM

both of them go skydiving

8/30/2009 11:23:36 PM

Without reading any of the posts on here the answer to the question is lots of alcohol!

8/30/2009 11:27:04 PM

today is my dad/brother's party

its a total surprise for my dad and i don't know how to set it up. i told him i'd come into town to take him and my bro out to dinner for birthdays.

but i need to make up something so that he and my brother can meet me at the "restaurant." but i don't know what to say that isn't sketchy.

9/18/2009 11:24:55 AM

just say that you ran into traffic and that you need them to meet you at the restaurant so you don't lose your "reservation"

9/18/2009 11:40:06 AM

you should have the parties separately

c-c-c-c-combo breaker!

9/18/2009 2:27:06 PM

Yeah this party needs strippers.

9/18/2009 2:27:30 PM

^^ omg you are so funny. you should be a comedian. really. so funny.

^ no strippers, sorry

9/19/2009 3:52:24 AM

9/19/2009 9:18:19 AM