Real Party: A Black & White Wine Tasting Birthday Party

To continue the wine tasting theme I wanted to post my birthday party from last year: A Wine Pairing Party in Black and White.

We didn’t want to go crazy so we used only things that we already owned for decorations and spent our birthday budget money on good food and wine. We had a seven course tasting menu that lasted throughout the entire evening.

The menu including a fruit plate, caprese skewers, tortellini with pesto, eggplant parmesan, steak wraps, cheese plate and a black forest cake. Each course was complimented with a different delicious wine. With this many courses each wine was served in approximately 3 oz pours so that everyone could safely enjoy each wine.

I had a roll of white paper and had seen  a beautiful hand drawn wallpaper somewhere on the internet so I got the idea to hand draw all the decorations for my party. This was a much LARGER job that I had first anticipated, but I was thrilled with the results.

Hand drawn picture frames, bookshelves and furniture lined nearly every surface of the party space. I left most of the frames empty except for 5 frames that were drawn on one main wall. In those frames I drew goofy cartoons explaining how to taste wine with food using the five senses.

To continue the theme of picture frames throughout the party we filled picture frames with a “thank you” photo that would later be replaced with photos the guests took in the photo booth at the party. The only regret I have about this favor is it tended to look more like a shrine to all things “Jenni” rather than a great display of party favors.

The photo booth was a big hit at the party. With everything else being black and white we hung red curtains up for the photo booth’s background. It made the whole room pop. I cut out a black frame from foam board and it made a fantastic prop.

The last bit of entertainment was actually held in the decorations themselves. While guests waited between courses they used the colored pencils and crayons to fill all the empty frames that filled the walls.

By the end of the party all of the frames were filled and I had my choice of art made by all my friends.