We LOVE themed birthday parties. This year, we hosted a big TWIN SAIL-A-BRATION for our 34th birthday. We were inspired by our AMAZING family trips to Nantucket. We rented a beautiful outdoor courtyard and incorporated a lot of lighthouses, anchors, whales and boats. We even managed to track down Cisco Brewery’s Whale’s Tale beers and 888 Blueberry Vodka. The party was so much fun and we are very excited to share the details with you!
Many nautical parties are red, white and blue. Since we see so much of the Americana colors on Memorial Day, July 4th and Labor Day, we decided to go with a blue, white and yellow color palette for our party.
We love using flowers to add pops of color to a space. SIMPLE arrangements can be BEAUTIFUL without breaking the bank. Since there aren’t many options for naturally blue flowers, we incorporated a variety of yellow and white floral arrangements. We placed yellow spider mums on our cocktail tables and sunflowers on our dining tables. Hurricanes with white votives and blue gems completed our table arrangements. We placed a stunning white lily bouquet in a blue vase on our buffet. White gladiolus were suppose adorn our bar but unfortunately it was so windy the arrangement had to hide indoors.
We hung a TWIN SAIL-A-BRATION burlap banner above our buffet. We LOVE how the banner framed our buffet table. We created this banner with silver letter stickers and blue string from Michaels. We had A LOT of fun creating our nautical menu, which was inspired both by Nantucket and our color scheme. We displayed our whimsical menu in a blue and white striped picture frame from Michaels.
Welcome Aboard Apps:
- Crab Cakes with Spicy Aioli and Lemon Aioli
- Mini Pizza Life Preservers
- Sailboat Spanakopitas
- Blue Cheese Spinach Dip
- Hummus with a Yellow Crab
- Crab Legs (Bell Peppers)
- Pita Chips
- Corn Salsa
- Sea Salt Popcorn
- White Cheese with Pesto Bruschetta (this was the crowd favorite)
- Blue Cheese, Pear Chutney and Pecan Bruschetta
- Lemon, Ricotta and Honey Bruschetta
Catch of the Day:
- Burgers
- Hot Dogs
We LOVED our dessert table this year. To create a stunning dessert display, incorporate platters and vases in a variety of sizes, heights, shapes and widths. We used a burlap tablecloth, a wooden cutting board and a combination of white and blue platters on our table. We recommend sticking largely to white dishes as colorful desserts photograph beautifully against the white. To add height, we placed six cylinder vases of varying size on our dessert bar. Rather than filling these with colorful candies, we incorporated colored water, candles, blue gems and lemons. Candies are great for children’s parties but not so much for adult parties (unless you want lots of leftovers!). We placed a striped picture frame to display our Seaboard Sweets menu. We completed our dessert table with two simple sunflower arrangements.
Seaboard Sweets:
- White Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting
- Banana Cream Pie Cupcakes with Pastry Cream and Whipped Cream Frosting
- Blueberry Tarts with Pastry Cream
- Sea Salt Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Nautical Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing
- Nautical Marshmallows
- Blueberries
- Chocolate Anchors
- Goldfish
- Swedish Fish and Blueberry Pie Gummies from Sockerbit
Guests had their choice of 3 specialty drinks: blue lemonade, white cosmopolitans and fresh lemonade. Archana topped the cocktails off with an anchor shaped ice cube. The ice cubes were A LOT of work and melt VERY quickly! If you plan to make these whimsical ice cubes, have your camera ready to snap a quick shot. We also served guests Whale Tale’s beers and wine. One of our guests tracked down some Nautical wine from Lucas Vineyard- we loved the names: Tugboat Red and Nauti White.
Guests had boatloads of fun with our nautical photo booth props and our TWIN SAIL-A-BRATION sign.
“Thought is the wind, knowledge the sail, and mankind the vessel.”––Augustus Weare
Recipes From This Post:
Spicy Aioli: Mayonisse, Ketchup and Hot Sauce
Lemon Aioli: Martha Stewart
Mini Pizza Life Preservers: Simply Recipes plus 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese and 2 tablespoons of dried basil; Bon Appetit
Blue Cheese Spinach Dip: Rachel Ray
Hummus with a Yellow Crab: Rachel Ray
Corn Salsa: Emeril Lagasse plus 2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar
White Cheese with Pesto Bruschetta: Martha Stewart; Michael Chiarello
Blue Cheese, Pear Chutney and Pecan Bruschetta: My Recipes
Lemon, Ricotta and Honey Bruschetta: Merrill Stubs
White Chocolate Chip Cupcakes: Toba Garrett plus 1 cup of white chocolate chips
Buttercream Frosting: Toba Garrett
Banana Cream Pie Cupcakes: Martha Stewart
Pastry Cream: Brown Eyed Baker
Whipped Cream Frosting: Martha Stewart plus 1 teaspoon vanilla, pinch of cream of tarter and 2 tablespoons of meringue powder. Check out Olivia of My King Cook for lots of tips on making whipped cream and not just in a stand mixer.
Blueberry Tarts with Pastry Cream: Taste of Home; Simply Recipes; Brown Eyed Baker
Sea Salt Chocolate Chip Cookies: Martha Stewart
Nautical Sugar Cookies: Sally’s Baking Addiction
Royal Icing: Sweet Sugar Belle
Shop This Post
Chalkboard, Banner, Silver Stickers, Menu Frame, Cardstock, Starfish: Michaels
White Platters and Cake Stands: Pier 1 and Q Squared
Star Candles: Pier 1
Plates and Napkins: Party City
Stand Mixer: Kitchen Aid Tilt Head; Kitchen Aid Bowl Lift (we prefer the bowl lift model, but it’s more expensive)
Cupcake Carrier: Wilton (includes cupcake and mini-cupcake pans)
Wine Glasses: IKEA
Champagne Flutes: IKEA
Beer, Wine and Vodka: Amanti Vino
I pretty much had themed birthday birthday parties all throughout my childhood, so this brought back so many happy memories! Thanks so much for sharing!
This looks like an awesome party! I just love the theme.
I love anything Nantucket. And I love parties! I have a milestone birthday coming up and I love this idea for my party!
What a beautiful party and I too love the fun theme! I wish I was turning 34 again…. enjoy these amazing years! My 30’s were my favorite! Happy Birthday to you!
What a great party theme. I love all the decorations and food choices.
That looks like one amazing party. I’m really loving the theme of it too. Such a great idea!
The party theme is amazing! I love it! So creative. I miss the days when we went all out on parties for my kids!
It sounds like a blast and the party is so creative and fun. The food looks tasty too!
I love themed birthday parties. It makes it fun and festive. My son has a birthday coming up and I’m not sure what the theme will be yet.
Oh my goodness, I am absolutely in love with the party theme! It’s so creative and unique, and I just can’t get enough of it! When it comes to parties, I’m all about going the extra mile and really making them unforgettable, so this theme is right up my alley!
How cute that you guys celebrated together! I love this theme and all the wonderful details. Such a memorable birthday party!
I love the pun, this was a cute theme and the colors were so nice. I like how the yellows pop!
What a fun party! I love the theme and all the blue and yellow colors.
These are awesome party ideas! I am so glad that you had an awesome birthday party!
These are great party ideas. I love the theme, and it looks like you have so much fun too.
This seems like such a fun party! And everything is so pretty 🙂
I absolutely love the theme party! It looks so fun and amazing!