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While October is usually the time to go all out on creating costumes, I use my birthday as my favorite time for creating one of a kind outfits for unique themes that I love most! This year, I went with one perfect for helping me build my own closet of costumes while celebrating one of my favorite TV styles, Anime!
My husband originally introduced me to the wide world of anime in college, and while I can hardly attest to being an expert I love so many of them for their stories, their art, and for being from one of the places I most want to visit one day, Japan! From the Boba Bar to the karaoke basement, my favorite shows and characters made cameos in this party’s details, favors, and most of all my dressed-to-impress party guests!
INVITATIONS & STATIONERY
While most of my guests got to pick what character they were showing up as, my favorite friends were asked to dress up from one of my favorite shows in the best way, with themed Sailor Scout Galentine’s Gift Boxes. Each of my favorite friends was given a gift box with a Character Themed Petal Fold Invitation during the week of Valentines day to invite them to my party, reveal which scout or cat they were, and shower them with Crescent Moon Candles, Heart and Moon Patterned Koozies, and accessories for dressing up! I myself went as Princess Serenity, so my birthday gift from my besties was dressing up as my sailor scouts and moon kingdom cats!
DECORATIONS & DETAILS
For the decorations this time around, I reused lots of the pretty pieces I already made and purchased for previous parties, which stayed right on theme and kept things affordable! For my basement karaoke area, my Assortment of Paper Lanterns made a comeback from my Zodiac Summer’s Eve and Midnight Masquerade Cocktail Party to make a quick and easy backdrop for the singers, along with a bunch of LED Rainbow Icicle Lights I recently bought for some DIY decor for future events. What I learned: my ceilings were a little short for these lights, but it was fun for the evening to create an adorable karaoke space to perform in!
I will say that one of my favorite anniversary gifts and best party investment pieces has to be my Karaoke Machine; it was surprisingly affordable and is so beloved in our friend group that it gets wheeled around to other people’s birthday parties too! If you or your friends are like mine, this portable and affordable machine will always be a hit.
For my more floral upstairs cafe area (which I didn’t get pictures of darn it!), I started by covering my largest windows with the strings from my Tissue Paper Circle Backdrop Curtain to keep a light and bright feel along with a pretty privacy wall for the room and my Hanging Wisteria Fairy Light Flower Curtain made a reappearance as the backdrop to one of my favorite theme bars yet!
FOOD & DRINKS
For my two milk teas, I wanted to base them off the two most common tapioca beads used in bobas, honey and brown sugar! After a little brainstorming and tea tasting, I made a Bourbon & Honey Boba along with a Rum & Brown Sugar Boba for my friends to try! Guests chose either the starting beads and syrup for whichever tea they wanted, then topped with iced earl grey creme tea, a choice of milks, and extra syrup as needed; completed with the iconic big boba straw.
This party gave me my first attempt at designing an alcoholic Boba Bar, which was a hit for everyone and a delicious drink to start the evening with before a night of karaoke. For my bar, a duo of bobas made their debut, using simple syrups spiked with some of my favorite spirits for tapioca tea with an alcoholic twist!
But Boba Teas weren’t the only Asian inspired treats at my birthday, I absolutely adore Pocky so this party was the perfect time to build a candy bar inspired by one of my favorite sweets! Beginning with a rainbow of Assorted Pocky in martini glasses, I built the rest of my candy bar based on the sweets I found out shopping that I most wanted to try and my local Asian grocery store.
In addition to my unique milk teas, I wanted some more traditional bar options for my guests to enjoy as well, so the basement bar included an assortment of different seltzers because they are my personal canned favorite and a trio of cold Sakes for a Japanese style wine bar, complete with an Ice tub for chilling the current bottles and a few of my Sealing Wax Wine Bottle Candle Holders for little pop of bar themed decor!
GUEST GIFTS & FAVORS
While I loved all my various candy and drink bars, my favorite piece of this party was definitely the favors! My husband had taken up a new hobby of 3D printing and when he offered to make an army of anime themed planters and toys for party favors, I thankfully took him up on it! After a search through the endless options of Amazon, I found three sets of PLA to turn into favors for my friends! I divided up the different plastics so that there were a variety of colors for all the favors, but below I’ve listed both the PLA samplers and the links to the toys, planters, and phone holder print files we made!
The PLA Multipacks:
Glow in the Dark PLA Multipack
Rainbow PLA Multipack
Bamboo, Marble, Bronze, & Glitter Gold PLA Multipack
The Print Files:
Elephant Iphone Holder
Oddish Planter
Bulbasaur Planter
Dragon Toys
While the exact printer that my husband uses can’t be bought, this 3D Printer is a great replacement option but I would also highly recommend investing in a Thermal Cover like this one before setting up a print farm of your own, for us it made a huge difference in our printer creating pieces successfully!
To finish the favor display, I made a quick sign with some Removable White Vinyl with my Cricut Craft Cutter, giving me the perfect opportunity to use a beautiful piece of Mirror Rose Gold Acrylic and Sign Stand that I had bought off Etsy forever ago to make a sign with, but never got around to it!
After a night of sipping boba and sake, singing our hearts out to our favorite songs, and snacking on sweet treats from the candy bar; my friends merrily sang happy birthday to me as midnight came and went, then journeyed home with their newest planters and 3D printed friends from my favorite shows. This party was the perfect way to start off my costume closet in true moonie style and gave us all anime-tastic memories, and maybe the perfect group costume for Halloween!
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