As some of you may already know, last week it was my birthday. I normally love having a birthday, not for the fuss, attention or gifts, but just because it brightens up January for me, which, let’s be honest is a bit of a pants month for most people. This year was a little different. I woke up feeling terribly sad and couldn’t shift it for the whole day. I’m normally such a positive person and it really surprised me. My Grandad’s birthday is two days’ before mine and we have always had some sort of celebration together. It also happened to be exactly one month since he passed away and whilst I thought that I would be okay about it, I clearly wasn’t. I literally felt like I could burst into tears at any given second and it was a bit rubbish to be honest. I think that it was just another reminder that he’s now missing from my life and that life is continuing without him. This is all obviously fine, but I just wasn’t vibing it that day. Phil had taken the day off of work to spend it with me and I had reservations at The Ivy (my most favourite restaurant) for breakfast and was thinking of mooching about in central London for most of the day. Given my mood (which wasn’t helped by the heaviest rain I’ve seen in a while), I decided that I didn’t fancy it and traded breakfast at The Ivy for breakfast at McDonalds (a sentence I never thought I would write!). We then went and saw The Hateful Eight at the local cinema, which was both brilliant and incredibly long (it had an interval people, an interval!!). We had a nice time together and I tried my hardest to mask my gloomy mood. In the evening my family came over and we had Chinese take out and played games. Phil also played guitar and I sang along, which I love, so all in all it was a good day.

Seeing as my birthday fell on a Monday this year (I know, right?!), I decided to celebrate with my friends on the following Saturday and thankfully, I was back to feeling like my usual bouncy self.

  
 
I was a bit stuck as to what to do, but at very short notice decided to have a private dining dinner with an Alice in Wonderland theme as I wanted it to be fun and different. Plus, after all of the wedding planning, I am so used to detailing everything that I don’t think a traditional dinner would have sufficed!

  
My friend is an amazing baker and she baked the perfect cake for my birthday. I think that right next to the word ‘cake’ in the Oxford dictionary, should be a picture of my cake because it was just that blimmin’ magnificent. It had a gorgeous pink ribbon and rose with KitKats around the edge. The sponge had three layers, two chocolate with a red velvet layer in the middle. The top was covered in revels, with some cascading from the packet and sprinkled with glitter sprinkles. The piece de resistance was the smarties centre. Yes, when I cut into this masterpiece that had been crafted to perfection, I was greeted with a plethora of rainbow coloured, chocolate goodness. I really do think that my friend Rachel is the Adele of the cake world. It was awesome and I’m very lucky!

  
As it was such short notice, I scrambled around finding anything that could resemble Alice in Wonderland. I scoured the Internet, choosing next day delivery and scuttled around the shops perusing party supplies. Luckily, I managed to find props for everyone and quite a few decorations for the table – hurrah! 

I had already bought a Jack Wills play suit that I had fallen in love with and thankfully it was blue and white – Alice colours! Sadly, I have packed most of my shoes, so had to rely on my trusty Chelsea boots for footwear!

  
My end of the table was a tea party and the other end was dedicated to the Queen of Hearts. We covered one end in little pots saying ‘drink me’, tea cups, bunting, pretty napkins, cute straws and quotes from the book. The other end had huge playing cards, actual playing cards and a sparkly centre piece. I was really pleased with how it turned out, not too subtle and not too cluttered. 

We all had such a lovely evening in each other’s company, stuffing our faces and catching up. I also got completely spoilt too by our wonderful friends.

Now to think of a theme for next year!

L x