What's a good way to make my birthday party guests feel exclusive?

Handmade backstage passes. So, while you guys are out, everyone will know who’s a VIP for your party.

Take along a kit that has a Magic 8 Ball and a few Rubik’s Cubes to compliment the drinking games. Also, an assortment of gem cut finger ring lollipops.

80’s mix CDs could be made as to put in the party favor bags

I’m gonna think about this a bit and return..this is my fav type of partay!

Kazoos, Pop-Rocks (or some other 80’s candy) and Silly string are must haves in all party gift bags.

What are the stopping points around town?

Are you having the guests really dress up? That always raises the level of the party.

@marinelife Agreed. Madonna, neon bracelets, and bangs that are sprayed up in the air come to mind ;)

make them a handmade nice frame or stub…...

Not too sure about the pricey aspect, but man, if you had t-shirts printed up with the date and the slogan “Ubersiren’s Birthday Drinking (or whatever) Team – older, slower, fatter” it would be hilarious. When you said that above, it really cracked me up. If not tees, maybe make pageant-like ribbons, the kind that cross the body with superlatives like “Oldest” “Baldest” “Most Likely To Fall Down”.

T-Shirts are fun. We threw a surprise party once where everyone had a t-shirt with has a posterization of a picture of our friend, Mark, on the front, and it said “I am a friend of Mark’s” His had his picture and said “I am Mark”. Most people still have them. It was a two color screen print so it was pretty cheap.

Some great ideas! One thing I’m not trying to do is make it an 80’s theme… I’d like it to be sort of classy, if that’s even possible for me and my motley crew, haha!

@marinelife I don’t think I’ll make everyone dress up. My lame friends wouldn’t do it. :/
@SpatzieLover I looked into getting those jelly bracelets, but they’re made mostly for kids these days and are really small… if I really had enough money, I’d get all the girls fingerless lace gloves!
@bkcunningham We’re going mostly to bars, perhaps a club for just a while if I can figure out where a good one is. I predict a lot of time spent in the limo.

I predict a lot of time spent in the limo.

So, limo games are where we should focus our energy then ;)

I wish I could have done something like this for my 40th. Instead… I had my father’s funeral.

@cazzie Do it for your 41st. You don’t have to follow any rules.

I’m past my 41st too… hahahaha….. If I get a chance to go to the movies by myself on Mother’s Day or my birthday… I count it a treat.

If you know anyone who makes jams or jellies, you could get them to whip up a bunch of jars of something that you like. Then you could print your own labels on them, commemorating your birthday. You could also buy these from a specialty shop, but it would cost quite a bit more, but might be worth it if you found the right product.

You could “pretend” to each of the guests that you need a killer recipe for something that you know they make. Don’t let the others know that you are asking everybody. You can pretend that you need the recipe for some family potluck that you will be attending at another time. Then secretly gather the recipes and print them out (maybe onto some cute paper that you like) then go to Kinkos and have the recipe books spiral bound (I don’t think that it’s that much) to make a book for each of the guests. On each recipe page, have the name of the friend who created the recipe and a little blurb from you as to how you feel about that particular person. A friend of mine did this a few Xmas’s ago, and it was a real weeper, as in everybody was so touched to receive the books, with the sweet acknowlegements. Then on the cover put the date of your birthday and your name. Like Linda’s 30th birthday blowout cookbook.

@Kardamom LOVE the recipe book idea! Thank you so much!

Did you have your party yet? How did it go?

@augustlan I did have it, and it was awesome! Thanks for asking. I’m a thirty-something now. Gasp!

And just so everyone knows, I REALLY wanted to do the cookbook idea, but ran out of time. Turns out my plate wasn’t big enough for all the things I had on it so some things had to fall off. :( But I had a great time anyway.

@ubersiren You can now do the cookbook idea with all of your friends and relatives for Christmas or Hannukah, but start gathering the recipes now. I found out that even though most people will like to participate, they can get lazy really fast, so some times you have to prod them 2 or 3 times and try to give a “need by” date, like the first month of November. So if you start now, that gives everybody plenty of time, but make sure you send the reminders out each month, or else you’ll end up with only 3 recipes by the time your due date rolls around. I found that out by experience. Yikes!

Glad you had a nice party!

Yay! Welcome to your thirties. I really came into my own in mine. :)