A Moulin Rouge themed 50th Birthday
In May this year I was contacted by Caroline who needed some help with her 50th birthday party in early June. A lot of the main elements had been organised but she needed some help bringing the design to life.
The Brief
The description of the party was Dancing and Delights and guests were asked to come in their favourite fancy dress costume. Both Caroline and her husband were characters from Moulin Rouge so we decided to roll with this for the theme. All the stationery was designed and printed by their in house graphic designers. To say it was fun working with Caroline on her party was an understatement, who doesn’t love cabaret after all?
Entertainment
Entertainment was a big feature for the night with a Dodgems and stagecoach photo booth on hire and they certainly looked dramatic. The dodgems were so popular and guests were still having a go at 2am!
Chelmer Marquees had been hired to provide a 2 tier marquee at my clients home. One of the first things I did when hired was tweak the interior of the marquee. For a Moulin Rouge theme to work you have to bring in the theatrical side of the design, it must also have copious amounts of red and black!
We asked for the ceiling to be a black starlit cloth and the walls to be red draping apart from the gable end which had a black back drop where the DJ would be. The white furniture was changed to red and black throughout inc. black covers for the poseur tables.
The main focus for Caroline’s party was for everyone to have fun, this wasn’t an elegant formal black tie. We felt it was imperative to have a striking bar as guests entered into the marquee so hired one from Alfresco Hire. Next stop was hiring my right hand man James from Wedding Creative for more draping and the bar feature.
Food
The catering on the night was handled by Mark from Just Imagine, the food was free flowing all night and certainly appreciated by the guests. We had a mixture of canapés, bowl food and late night cheese.
Caroline had already hired a DJ but we decided we needed something else. I was hoping for a gorgeous cowboy, selfish event planner I know. In the end we hired a gorgeous burlesque dancer in a martini glass. I cannot tell you how superb this girl was, so strong and so beautiful. The giant martini glass made a fabulous feature on the dancefloor.
As guests were making a huge effort with the fancy dress I felt the staff should do so as well. Having staff in formal, smart clothes just didn’t sit right with me. So using the logo designed for the invitations Caroline organised lots of staff T-Shirts and devil horns for the waitresses as well. My girls loved the devil horns but I decided to go with a red feather boa instead on the night!
A last minute addition to the party was Kerry Morgan, after all what a shame if no photos were available to show the fabulousness of the night?!
Testimonial
“Thank you so very much for everything you did to make my party such a success. I certainly couldn’t have done it without your help. The finishing touches, the bar, the hanging drapes, the chandelier just all made the event so very special. I honestly had one of the best nights of my life as it was (for me anyway) stress free. Thank you so very much.” – Caroline xxx
If you have a themed party in mind, contact me to assist with every aspect of the planning.
Credits
Dodgems – Show Time Events // Stagecoach Photobooth // Photographer – Kerry Morgan // Catering – Just Imagine // Marquee Company – Chelmer Marquees // Bar Hire – Alfresco Hire // Bar feature and draping – Wedding Creative // Burlesque Dancer – Kru Talent