It's his 60th Birthday

My DH is going to turn 60 in May. I'm thinking of having a bit of a party for him. But I don't know if I want to do it in a restaurant, use our church room and cook everything myself, or have a nice picnic. When he turned 50, I had his party in the room at the church....it was nice, but you can't do a lot of decorating. I figured it out and there will be 50-60 people. Now, keep in mind that cooking for a crowd does not bother me in the slightest.

I like the idea of a picnic. But his BD is the beginning of May so our pool won't be open yet. Some of the spring flowers would be in bloom, though, so the yard might look nice. We could do pulled pork (interestingly, DH just said over the weekend that we didn't do pulled pork on the grill last summer and he really missed it) and I could also do my shredded BBQ beef and make the sides. I could always buy him a nice cake, too. I was thinking that I could rent a tent for the back yard in case of rain.

I could rent a room at a restaurant. Which would mean I don't have to do any of the cooking and could just work with the restaurant to do a menu for people to choose. But I'd think that would be very expensive? Especially for 50-60 people. I wouldn't expect to invite people and then make them pay for their own meal.

The church room is always available for a fee and there's a very nice kitchen there. That would be a good place if it rained that day. Sometimes, the beginning of May can still be rather chilly. And I guess I could always do the pulled pork a day ahead of time and reheat it, although we love it more when it's made the day of the dinner (that's a five-hour task in itself, but again, not a big deal for me). That way, I could still cook. And I'd still order the cake. (I can bake the cake, but there's just no way I can decorate it!)

I know this is just January and his birthday is in May, but it's not too early to start planning for this. If I decide to go with the church room, I'll have to reserve the room now. And work on invitations and decorations. And planning the meal. Not sure if I want to go with a theme (thinking about Tahitian, since that's his dream getaway) or just do whatever.

Any ideas? What do you think? I really want to do something for him and, although I probably will take him out to dinner later on that month, it's his 60th, so it's kind of special.

I like the picnic/bbq idea myself! I'm all for yard parties though. That also sounds like the easiest plan as well.

I would probably go with the church room. We attended what could have been a beautiful garden wedding except the weather took an unexpected turn and got cold. It was in the backyard of a beautiful home, with tents, but not warm. My friend played the keyboard for the music. We both wore long pants with long underwear. She wore gloves to play and I turned the pages for her. The bride and bridesmaids shivered and chattered and turned blue. As soon as the wedding was over, my DH, friend and I went to Joe's Muggs and spent the rest of the afternoon drinking coffee. If you use the church room, you can still cook the food yourself. You can use beautiful tablecloths, with colorful plates, napkins of the paper variety. Put flowers on each table and use some plants and flowers elsewhere that belong to you. It will be nice and you won't have to worry about the weather. Our church doesn't charge a fee for using the fellowship hall and the facility, but even so, it wouldn't be as expensive as renting a restaurant facility and having to pay for the food. Enlist some grown children or close friends to help you. It will be fun. Good luck

Since you already did the church room for his 50th, and he JUST mentioned pulled pork... I'd go with the garden party and BBQ!! If you don't have a covered area, you might want to rent a "tent" just to ensure it won't rain.

Hmm, I'm not sure where you live, but I'd be worried about the weather in May. My vote would be for a restaurant or the church. It's nice of you to consider your guests having to pay for dinner although it would be as expensive as a wedding to pay for 60 people.
I think in the church hall you can still make this a special occasion and decorate it nicely, have a great meal, have most people show up.

Rent a room at his favorite restaurant, that's what we did for my grandfather

That's so thoughtful! I would think the restaurant thing for that many people wouldcost a fortune. And since you don't mind doing the cooking yourself, then I vote for the backyard BBQ. Is there any way you could still reserve the church room and have on the invitation, In case of rain, location to be at X Church? Otherwise, I'm sure the tent would be just fine if needed.

We're definitely not doing the restaurant. The prices are ridiculous.

If we do go to the church, the decorations would be minimal. And they won't let us in the room until around 10:30 that morning as a Weight Watchers meets there earlier.

It's either the church facility or our yard. And If I decrease the number of people down to about 25, we could stay in the house, if necessary (bad weather). It would be tight, but doable....I wish our basement was finished. But I'm going to call for prices on a large tent with sides and pray for nice weather.

I've decided on a theme, too. Tahiti. DH has always wanted to go to Tahiti; that would be his dream vacation. I talked to my sister last night and she thought it was a great idea. And my BIL and my nephew-in-law have promised to help me build a tiki hut bar type of thing (just a cheap plywood thing, nothing exotic); we can work on it in their garage and DH need never know...they think the whole thing is a hoot and they're already planning on working on some things with me. Oriental Trading Company has a lot of neat ideas for tiki stuff: grass skirts for the tables, leis, paper goods, etc. I'm going to make my own invitations. We have four tiki torches somewhere in the basement and my sister has to look for hers, too. I can decorate inside the tent with paper lanterns and the like. Lots of fresh pineapples and coconuts and other tropical fruits.

I don't have to say anything to DH yet, but eventually I'll have to confess. There's no way to pull something like this off and have it be a total surprise for him. How do I explain a huge tent in the back yard? And pork on the grill for five hours? My neighbor will give me the use of her fridge to store food. And both of my nieces have offered to help me with food prep.

I've never done anything like this and am really excited about it. We've done parties and dinners, but nothing with a theme. And certainly nothing with a cheap tiki hut!

Oh! I forgot to mention.....a couple years ago, friends gave us a gorgeous triple tiered appetizer-type holder made from teakwood; he got two of them when he was in the service in Japan and when his MIL mom passed away, he wanted us to have it. It's huge and comes apart in pieces. The whole thing is made to look like a huge pineapple....the pineapple "leaves" are actually spoons that come out of the top. That would look super as a centerpiece filled with fruits and other foods! Very different.

That sounds like a BLAST! He's going to LOVE IT!

You will take pictures for us - right?

How fun! Happy bday to your DH.

I hope DH can drink a shoot of Tequila in his Birthday!.. I bet he enjoy it!...

Thanks guys! I'm looking forward to working on this....it should be fun! And of course, we'll take pictures!

No, DH can't drink alcohol at all; he's an epileptic, so alcohol is a big no-no. But I'll drink a shot! Or two!