A few months ago, I hosted my best friend and some of her friends and family for a surprise birthday celebration. We decided on a hibachi theme since Dallas now has a hibachi at home company, Hibachi Dallas, that will come straight to your yard and put on a show! I wanted to share some of the things that I purchased and used for decor because although you can be as casual as you want with a birthday party, I obviously like to go a bit over the top to make things look nice.
I started off by designing the invitation. My best friend loves a good monogram, so I knew that we had to brand this event in every which way we could. We took the design from the invitation to custom cups, seating cards, signage, and even the cocktail napkins. It was a great way to personalize the event!
The hibachi company has recommendations for table set up on their website, and once I knew the guest count, I already had a u-shaped table setup in mind. Luckily I had two tables of my own that would work, but I rented one more, along with some fun black chiavari chairs because they just make a table setup look that much more elegant, and an extra outdoor heater. We knew the weather in Texas in December could be hit or miss, but someone was looking out for us because all we needed were a couple of portable heaters and the weather was perfect.
When I plan parties at home, I’m on a budget. While in an ideal world I’d be able to rent all of the things and spend all of the money, that’s just not plausible. This is where you have to get a bit crafty and one of my biggest decisions is always determining whether to rent an item or make the purchase as an investment with the intention of using the item again for another party.
One of the biggest pieces of advice that I can give you is to think frugally – all of the plates, bowls, and glassware came from the Dollar Tree! At $1 apiece, for 15 people, it was worth the price. Renting would have been much more expensive, and now I have these items to do a fun dinner party again. I also decided to invest in the gold flatware, black tablecloths, red napkins, and chargers, because there are so many holidays that those can be used for! To add another pop of color to the table, I ordered some mini fans in a floral theme to brighten things up and coordinate with the red accents. . I had leftover votive and tea light holders from another event that I helped put together, so those were easily used again (see – I make the investment when I know it will get multiple uses)!
For the flowers, another friend helped take on this task and we just go red roses from a local grocery store and used floral foam to create some pretty centerpieces to distribute around the table. We added in a couple of faux plum blossom floral pieces from Amazon. She also concocted the perfect themed drink – Angela’s Asian Pear Moscow Mule which we served in the cutest cups.
Overall it was SUCH a fun night – the food and entertainment were delicious, the drinks were flowing, and while our heads might have been in pain the next morning, it all was because the event was a success! I highly recommend Hibachi Dallas for a fun backyard party – just be prepared for some wild shots of saki during the meal! To see more of how our night went down, you can visit my Instagram reels…
