30 Shades of Kait

THIRTY, FLIRTY, & THRIVING!!!! I entered my thirties in the most colorful way with this perfect pantone palette party!

The years have come and gone in the blink of an eye, and just like that, I am 30 years old! Just like everyone else (I’m sure), when I was younger I thought 30 was such an old age! Now that I am here, and in it, it doesn’t feel old at all! My twenties were filled with lots of lessons learned: finding who my friends are, who I want in my life, what I want out of life and beginning so many wonderful journeys, such as marriage, owning a home and having kids! I am so thankful for these formative years, and I am so excited to see where life takes me from here! I feel like my twenties were meant for me to find myself, and now in my thirties I get to to truly be myself! Embrace all my colors, and everything that makes me who I am!

In true Kaitlin fashion, the whole day was color-themed! We dubbed it, “30 Shades of Kait“! I wanted the entire day to be absolutely engulfed in color! The decor, the clothes, the cakes – EVERYTHING!!! Color has always been one of the absolute biggest influences on my life, so it was only fitting we pay homage to it with the most colorful party ever!

Since this party was “color-themed”, I asked all of my guests to wear a solid colored top or dress. They got bonus points if they wore monochromatic outfits! 😉 Let me just tell you, our guests understood the assignment! Everyone came in so many different hues and it just made my heart happy to see them all together!

I wanted to capture a picture of each of our closest friends and family in all of their different unique colors, to make a collage to display in our home, but unfortunately, we were having such a great time that we forgot to get a picture of every single guest that attended. I did go ahead and compile a small collage of the pics of people we did happen to get! (pictured above)

Fortunately, we did take a large group photo, where I arranged everyone in rainbow order (naturally), so I have that to cherish! My only gripe is this group photo only shows about half of the people that attended. Wish we could have gotten everyone together, but I am still thankful for what we did get! (pictured below)

I had so much fun coming up with and creating decor for this party! I wanted it to feel like a rainbow threw up everywhere! (in a tasteful way, of course!) There was at least a splash of color each and every way you turned!

One of my favorite decor details was this color block tent! I tied a bunch of ribbon in rainbow order and hung it along the top of the tent, and then mirrored that same gradient along the table with different colored table runners! Ever since my wedding planning days, I have dreamed of an excuse to set up a really long table for people to eat and mingle at, and this was just the occasion for it!

This rainbow fringe decor that I hung on our clothing line was such a huge hit with the kiddos! It looked absolutely beautiful blowing in the breeze, and was an adorable backdrop for any photoshoot the guests would like to partake in! I made it myself by buying 12 plastic tablecloths (2 of each color), cutting the tablecloths up in 1 inch strips, and then tying them all onto a very long piece of string! It was a labor of love, and took a couple of nights to tie them all together, but I think it turned out to be so cute! Since they are plastic tablecloths, they withstood the wind and weather (we hung them up the night before, and the dew didn’t damage them at all) and we can totally use them again! I am actually planning to hang them again for the girls’ birthday party this coming weekend!

Anywhere I could sprinkle in a little bit of color, I did!

This was my absolute DREAM cake table!!! The pantone chips as colorful palette backdrop are so stunning that I actually still have them hanging in my dining room as I type this! And the matching rainbow cakes, cake stands and candles just make my heart SO happy!!!! I mean, how beautiful is this?!

The real showstopper of my party was this pantone cake table with not one, but five unique cakes in five different colors and five different flavors! The pink was strawberry, orange was vanilla, yellow was lemon, green was chocolate and blue was funfetti flavored! I loved giving my guests all the different flavor options, and I especially loved getting to goggle over these beautiful cakes all night long!

Jaymee, from Yes, Please Bake Shop in Cincinnati, Ohio really took my idea of “five unique colorful cakes” and just turned it to PURE GOLD!!! The cakes were not only stunning, but delicious as well! I have used her cakes to help celebrate nearly every important event in our lives since when I was pregnant with Violett, and every single time she creates a cake for us it is like a piece of art! I mean just look at them!!!

I actually created these colorful cake stands on my own by buying a cup/bowl and a platter from the dollar tree, gluing them together and then spray painting them in pink, orange, yellow, green and blue! I absolutely adore how they turned out and totally plan to use them again for other celebrations!

(Here is a DIY video to show exactly how I made them)

My sister and hubby put together this incredible charcuterie 30!

When planning the party, one of the top things I wanted to create for my guests was a rainbow candy board! How fun?!

One of my favorite things about our home is how perfect it is for hosting parties in our backyard! The kids love running around and playing together on our playset and trampoline, which are within our fence-line, so all the parents can sit back and relax knowing they are safe and having fun!

My husband, sisters, mom and cousin worked together to create a bunch of really fun games for our guests to play! Unfortunately, we did not take many pictures at all- we were too busy having fun! We played a grown-up, real-life version of Hungry Hungry Hippos, Jeopardy, paint darts, a water race and a giant puzzle we had to decipher (pics shown). Most of my friends are pretty competitive, so it was a ton of fun competing and laughing with one another!

I had the most colorful, fun, loving, magical 30th birthday party, EVER!!! I am so thankful all of the incredible people in my life that helped celebrate and bring in this new decade! I have no idea what is in store for my thirties, but I am more than excited to find out!! ❤