40th birthday party ideas please!

AllintheDetailsDecor

I am helping throw my sister's 40th birthday party and I am looking for some ideas aside from the usual "over the hill" decor.  Any suggestions much appreciated!  

TarHeels&Rebels

Welcome

That's a pretty broad request.  Do you know more of what you're after? (At least maybe whether you want an elegant affair or a casual, fun get-together?)  You might find inspiration from a bunch of good entertaining blogs I listed in this post.

GatorWedsNole

I agree with Tarheels - it would help us help you if there was a little more direction.  Are you thinking ladies luncheon?  Co-ed night time cocktail party?  Family picnic at the park?

For some reason, the words Classy & Sassy came to mind when you requested an alternative to over-the-hill. 

If you want to keep it chic, how about decorating with deep jewel-tones.  Think simple blue & emerald vases with red/purple/dark pink roses.  Maybe some framed photos of your sister's milestones: kindergarten, graduation, wedding, with family.

AllintheDetailsDecor

Thank you

 Sorry, it is very broad.  It is going to be more of a casual, fun get-together.  We have a venue rented out so it's mostly decor ideas I need.  Like for centerpieces, I was hoping to do something more creative than flowers or candles...

Also, I would love some ideas on themes. I was thinking just a black and white theme but I'm open for suggestions.

 Thanks for the list of blogs, I will definitely be looking through them!! 

6fsn

My first thought was some iteration of "Flirty at 40."  When I think flirty, I think pink boas/feathers or red lips or big black eyelashes.  I don't know.  I may just be high on cleaning products.

AllintheDetailsDecor

GatorWedsNole:

I agree with Tarheels - it would help us help you if there was a little more direction.  Are you thinking ladies luncheon?  Co-ed night time cocktail party?  Family picnic at the park?

For some reason, the words Classy & Sassy came to mind when you requested an alternative to over-the-hill. 

If you want to keep it chic, how about decorating with deep jewel-tones.  Think simple blue & emerald vases with red/purple/dark pink roses.  Maybe some framed photos of your sister's milestones: kindergarten, graduation, wedding, with family.

I like the idea of deep jewel tones and photos! Thanks  

GatorWedsNole

If you like jewel tone, but not flowers... you could do moroccan style table top lamps with rose petals around.  Like these: http://www.kaboodle.com/hi/img/b/0/0/aa/0/AAAAC5eNTPwAAAAAAKoDiw.jpg

It would help if the food was meditarranean, but I guess it doesn't have to be. 

ondrea

We had a "Fabulous and Forty" party for my best friend.  I ordered custom drink coasters that had the saying on them in pink and we did everything in pink and black.  We also had separate drink stations set up - one was "remember your 20s" and we had shots of pucker (our shot of choice back then), "college days" with a keg outside, another was something about 30s with wine and then "40 and Fabulous" had champagne. 

I made custom drink labels for the wine and champagne bottles.  For the champagne bottles I put a group photo that had most all of her close friends and a saying "Friends are the bubbles of life".  For the wine bottles I printed different pictures of her with someone else so each bottle label was different.  It was a lot of fun and a huge hit. 

Here is the cake

and the wine table:

Wine Enthusiast

I like the pp ideas as well. 

You could also do a Disco theme since she was born in the 70's.  

6fsn

I love the drink stations idea. 

maxlad

We did black and bright pink, lime green, bright yellow.  We got some of the paper lanterns in those colors from the Dollar Tree along.  You could add some of the feathers too.