Hostess With The Mostess

My husband was turning 30, so I knew I needed to do something extra special this year. Wanting to come up with a theme/activity that would be something he would enjoy AND fun to decorate seemed difficult at first. Once I decided on the theme "Dirty 30" everything fell into place from decorations to having the party at a nearby campsite so we could invite friends to stay and camp with us. He loved it!

To make this theme not just rustic, I used bold black & white stripes to give it a more modern feel. I used touches of the stripes in the pennants, food tents, signs and invitations along with different shades of blue and a touch of green.

Keeping with the "dirty" theme, I filled mason jars with moss, pine cones, rocks, etc and added signs attached to popsicle sticks that said things like "Matt's Dirty 30", and "Thirty". I also added a few pictures of my husband growing up. These table decorations helped pull the theme together. For very simple hanging decor I created pennants in different shades of blue and the black & white stripe. Using clothes pins I attached the pennants to twine that I could make whatever length I needed (this helped the flexability of not knowing how far apart the trees would be until I got to the campsite). I also used clothes pins to attach the cupcake topper signs I made. 

For the front of the food table and dessert tables I used the pennant banner also. To spice it up a bit I backed some pennants with kraft paper and added letters to make a banner for one table. For the other I added a few pictures of my husband growing up. I used clay pots for food trays and lined them with press-n-seal wrap to keep the food from sticking to them. Using wooden forks I found on Amazon.com helped keep the feel instead of using cheap plastic (and they weren't much more in cost!).

One of the things I was most excited about was my idea for the party favor. I made edible "dirt" and put it in small glass jars. Then I made a tag that said "Dirt" on one side and "Thanks for celebrating Matt's Dirty 30 with us!" on the other and attached it and a wooden spoon with twine.