Thirty, Flirty and Thriving part 2: Wine and Candles

A week before my birthday, I realized that I missed Ted Mosby and the gang and decided to rewatch some old episodes of my favorite sitcom How I Met Your Mother.

One of those happened to be the episode called “Say Cheese” which centered around Lily’s 32nd birthday. In the episode, Lily celebrates her birthday with a black tie dinner at home with her best friends.

Now by the time I was watching this again, I had already planned separate celebrations for my different sets of friends but none of them were planned for the day of my birthday itself.

Since I was turning the big 3-0, I wanted to do something extra special for my day itself, and for several days, I hadn’t been able to get the image of blowing out thirty individual candles on a cake and sipping wine from crystal flutes out of my head.

I had never blown multiple candles on a cake before, and it just seemed like a must-do thing, for some reason. But I didn’t know how to pull that off at any of the celebrations I had planned, since they would be held outdoors or in public.

The HIMYM episode made me realize how I could get my wish, the Lily way. So I planned an intimate dinner at home for my flatmates and a few other friends, asking them to dress up for the event.

I myself took some thought into my outfit, finally settling for an LBD and dressing it up with a purple fur scarf, a gold bib necklace, and nude pumps. I also discovered how to put my hair up in a messy yet stylish updo. It’s so simple that I’ve been wearing it daily to work eversince.

I was so excited to plan this particular party. I even mentioned to some friends that for the first time, I understood why brides-to-be got so excited about planning their weddings, because it was basically the biggest party of all. So here’s my supplier list:

Ikea – champagne flutes, vase, purple candles, candle holders
Cold Storage – cake candles and fresh flowers
Fairprice – wine
Awfully Chocolate – chocolate fudge cake (my favorite in Singapore)
Bonchon – crispy chicken wings and drumlets
Sarpino’s – pizza

The wine, by the way, was a serendipituous choice. A week before, while we were in another Fairprice buying picnic food for my other birthday picnic, a woman offered us a taste of Brown Brothers pink moscato. I tried it and discovered that it was sweet enough to my liking; I hate dry wine.

As for the food, my original plan had been to order pizza and pasta from Spizza but their delivery time was 2 and a half hours and we could not wait that long, so a quick of plans was in order. Luckily, everyone loved the chicken.

Another lucky happenstance was that one of the presents I got that night happened to be a tripod so I was able to pull a Lily and take timed group shots to “make a memory!” Also like Lily, I have made a scrapbook, although mine is digital. Hey, save the environment and all that, right? 😉

My thirtieth birthday was definitely legen – wait for it – dary. ^__^