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7th May 2013

A big birthday…

Fashion - By Alexandra Stedman
Yes, last week I turned 30. I hadn’t really thought too much of it, with the wedding and everything, but everyone told me to do something and I was so glad I did.

After the pressure of planning a wedding, I didn’t want to do anything too grand or on a large-scale but everyone made such an effort and I was overwhelmed!
Work took me out for a delicious lunch at local favourite, Bill’s, then it was the ballet with my boyfriend (I still can’t bring myself to say ‘fiance’), ‘Roka’ with the family for sushi and soft shell crab (my favourite) and a small dinner party with my friends on the Saturday.
Sunday was mainly spent procrastinating over the tidying up….

Matthew Bourne’s ‘Sleeping Beauty’ had come down to my local theatre in Wimbledon

You saw my ideas for the decoration here and I think it went quite well…These helium balloons went on our bannisters and we hired a trestle table for £6 from a company nearby so we could actually fit 12 people seated in our flat!

Twine, £3.50, Paperchase

I used the neon twine I bought from Paperchase a few weeks before and practised the flower arranging (which I will be doing myself for the wedding) using old jars – I know this an old tip now, but pesto jars are just the best! For the table cloth, we used brown kraft wrapping paper from Poundland – it looked great and meant we didn’t have to do any washing. I drew around the plates and wrote people’s names on the paper with a Sharpie pen…

Every chair and cushion in the flat was used. Napkins: H&M Home, Water jugs: Debenhams
I made a garland saying ‘Curry Birthday’ from these cute garland letters – a present from a friend (and I will re-use them for hen parties and baby showers):
Available at Liberty
Helium balloons, £10 each, KARL LAGERFELD Cakepops!! From Pop Bakery and my flowers

What did we eat? Curry, of course…we served our own canapes and then tucked into a table full of curry, picked up from our local favourite…followed by a good helping of cake!

And the best thing? Our flat is still filled with beautiful flowers and their wonderful spring-like fragrance:
L-R: ‘Snartig’ vase, 65p, Ikea. ‘Cola’ bottle from Samuel Smith pub(definitely need to collect some more of these). Old pasta jar.

By Alexandra Stedman

Fashion Editor, Blogger, Realist

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Comments

  1. Applebypie says

    7th May 2013 at 10:00 am

    Happy Birthday – looks like you had an amazing time. Fabulous decorations too! x

    Reply
    • AS says

      7th May 2013 at 9:43 pm

      Thank you! It took a while but well worth the effort x

      Reply
  2. Anonymous says

    7th May 2013 at 3:02 pm

    looks gorgeous! What did you wear?!

    Reply
    • AS says

      7th May 2013 at 9:43 pm

      I wore the Oasis maxi dress I mentioned before….done an outfit post, so check back in on Friday! x

      Reply
  3. Sheridan and Rose says

    8th May 2013 at 7:53 am

    Happy Birthday! x

    Reply
    • AS says

      8th May 2013 at 5:44 pm

      Thank you so much! I was overwhelmed with all the Twitter/Insta birthday love!

      Reply
  4. Sallytangle says

    8th May 2013 at 5:44 pm

    I think this might be my most favourite post ever (im that sad!). Im so pleased you had such a lovely birthday and love love love all the beautiful little details and thought you put into it all. So beautiful!!!xxxx

    Reply
    • AS says

      8th May 2013 at 5:52 pm

      Oh no, i LOVE that you keep track! So kind….it was a lovely weekend and so nice for once being able to share silly photos like these with people! x

      Reply
  5. Hellyhobbs says

    11th May 2013 at 5:07 am

    Happy belated birthday Alex! Looks like you did it in style!

    Reply
  6. Not Just A Pretty Dress says

    19th May 2013 at 5:15 pm

    Alex, I'm so happy you had such a great day of celebrations! Caterina

    Reply

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