After countless DM’s on Instagram this past week, I’m excited to share with all of you my epic #flocking30 birthday party! To say it was one of the best weekends that I’ve ever encountered in my life, would be an understatement. I don’t like making a fuss about my own birthday, so that’s a big deal coming from me. I had a wonderful crew of 9 girlfriends, a mix of long time friends and new friends, join me for the Memorial Weekend in Los Angeles, CA to help me ring with my 30’s with an epic birthday party weekend.

Scroll through the photos below as I share the details on the theme of the birthday party, the epic decorations, and all the fun activities that we partook in that weekend.

With large group trips, it’s always helpful to have an itinerary handy so that everyone has a sense of what’s happening and where they need to be. I recommend sending the itinerary out via email before the trip begins and having one printed out available for everyone at your destination.

For this trip, I only picked out the location and the house we stayed in. The rest of the trip was planned out by my beyond amazing friends; just about everything was a complete surprise to me that weekend. I’m a Type A personality, so it was really hard for me to let go of the planning in the beginning of the party planning process. In the end, I’m happy to say that I’m so happy I finally let go of managing all the details. I ended up having no expectations for the weekend, so everything that was planned was so fun and exciting!

LOCATION // Los Angeles, CA

I’ve known that I’ve wanted a destination birthday party for my 30th ever since it snowed in Chicago three years ago over the Memorial Weekend. I’m forever scarred by that experience. Los Angeles had everything we wanted; great location and weather, plenty of activities, and some amazing food experiences.

We stayed at this airbnb – the place was amazing and the owners were wonderful to work with. I couldn’t recommend the location and house more.

THEME // #FLOCKING30

When it comes to throwing a really great party; I think a theme is absolutely critical. Having one vision really helps make the decorating process easy and allows for some creativity to come through.

I chose to go with a tropical flamingo and pineapple theme; it was my #flocking30 birthday party and everyone was there to celebrate with me by getting “flocked up”! While the theme wasn’t unique, pineapples and flamingos are having a moment, it did set the mood for the whole weekend and I’m so happy I chose it.

 

// THE ITINERARY //

Although I had been to LA a few times already, I still had never tried In & Out Burger! It was our first stop after getting out of the airport and of course I got my burger done animal style per everyone’s suggestion. The verdict: one of the best fast food burgers I’ve ever had but the fries were blah; I’d skip those next time.

Once we checked into our amazing airbnb; I lounged at the pool with some wine and soaked in the rays while my friends decorated the place and picked up all the necessary snacks & booze for the weekend.

Later that night we set up the outdoor movie screen from Joymode and set out to enjoy wine, pizza, and Troop Beverly Hills underneath the starry LA sky. If you’ve never seen Troop Beverly Hills then you are truly missing out on a great cult classic movie from the 80’s. It’s my favorite movie from childhood, the fashion itself is something to awe at, and I’m always amazed at how many people haven’t seen it.

Also, if you are ever throwing a party in the Los Angeles area – Joymode was absolutely perfect! You can rent almost anything you need from there for your party and the pricing is amazing. We were able to rent all the outdoor movie equipment, chairs, outdoor games, and pool floats for the weekend.

We woke up early on Saturday and headed off to Off Vine for a bottomless mimosa brunch. This place was delicious and a the entire restaurant looks like an old southern house. One of the other patrons brought his dog over to wish me a happy birthday. Kody (the dog) had a blast hanging out with 10 girls at breakfast and I wish he could have come over and hung out with us all night.

We ended up exploring the Hollywood area including the Hollywood Walk of Fame by playing an amazing flocking bingo game that my friends came up with. It was such a creative way for us to check out all the touristy area while also getting to know each other.

Afterwards my friends surprised me with a Celebrity Hollywood Homes Tour – something I’ve always wanted to do but thought was too cheesy. As we drove around the Hollywood Hills, we were surprised to find out that our airbnb was just a few blocks away from the homes of Leo DiCaprio’s and Richard Simmons. Unfortunately neither of them was home at the time.

We then headed out for a night with the Beverly Hills Housewives by having dinner at hotspots Il Fornaio, drinks at Catch LA, and ended up dancing all night at Vanderpump Rules restaurant – SUR.

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:: POOL PARTY ESSENTIALS :: 

 

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Since I had quite a few cocktails on Saturday night…. I was thrilled that we kept things low key on Sunday. We had an epic pool party filled with giant pool floats, tons of balloons, plenty of mimosas, and large pieces of birthday cake (made by my BFF Christine!) to help ease our hangovers. We ended up getting In & Out Burger for a second time that weekend and let’s just say I have #noregrets

Every single decorative detail was thought of with custom stadium cups and napkins to the custom hashtag swizzle sticks. My friends did the most amazing job at making this pool party absolutely epic.

Later that night we ended up watching a marathon of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and ended the day watching another one of my favorite films – Clueless.

My actual birthday fell on Memorial Day and to round out the weekend, we grabbed coffee at Beverly Hills hotspot Alfred’s Coffee & Tea. I tried one of their mushroom lattes (it was surprisingly delicious) and a guava pastry. We bounced around the area visiting the Glossier and Marc Jacobs store before heading out to our final activity of the trip – a taco bike tour.

If you ever get the chance to visit Los Angeles, the LA Cycle Taco Truck Bike Tour was the most amazing way to try authentic tacos in a unique way. It was about a 3 hour bike tour and we visited some of the most diverse areas of Los Angeles. The tacos were beyond delicious and I felt good stuffing my face knowing that I biked 5 miles that day.

I don’t know if I could ever express how grateful I am to have had the opportunity to celebrate my 30th birthday in Los Angeles with 9 of my closest friends. All the little details of my birthday party weekend were so well thought out and on theme; it made me feel as if I stepped into a Pinterest board filled with all my favorite things. I dreaded this birthday for months and to know that I knocked down the door and entered this new era of my life with a bang; it feels good.  Cheers to 30 years!

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// PARTY DETAILS// 

Where to shop my favorite party items ::

 

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