For Glenn's 24th birthday, I decided to go ahead with a 'first' for both of us. I decided to plan a little surprise party for him! Now, as all of you know, we practically spent every single cent we had in our bank accounts, and therefore, this party had to be BUDGET.
Fancy dinner parties were out. Anything that involved the booking of a location was out. Even an elegant Sunday brunch was out. All the kind of parties that I usually throw or attend were all out of the question! That left me to think up a free public space and food that doesn't require us to pay 10x the cost price. And here's what I came up with: picnic at the Botanic Gardens!
The initial plan was a no-brainer - throw together some food, grab the old beach sarongs and bring a set of poker cards or something. But halfway through, the prettyist in me took over. (Prettyist as in perfectionist, you know? Perfectionist strive for prefection. Prettyists strive for well, pretty.) There was a sudden, urge need for the whole thing to be pretty. The prettyist demanded "It's a BIRTHDAY. We CANNOT have mismatched sarongs and random tupperware sitting around. We must have a GLAM-A-ROUS picnic!"
So off I went around looking for cheap but colour-coordinated picnic stuffs. The picnic mats should match the cups which should match the serviettes, while the fork and spoon should match the food containers and blah bah blah. Dear Internet of Singapore, you will find it easy to find cheap picnic stuffs. You will also find it easy to find colour-coordinated picnic stuffs.
But when you combine the two criteria, IT IS NEXT TO IMPOSSIBLE! I went to Spotlight, then I went to Daiso, then I went to the party shop at Holland V, then I went to NTUC, then I went back to Spotlight again, and finally I bought some of the party stuffs in plain view of Glenn because there just wasn't time for me to make even more trips. Hahaha thank goodness the boy isn't too observant.
And in the end, we did have a rather pretty colour-coordinated picnic. I even decorated some trees, and I can't thank my bimbos enough for coming all the way down to help me out. I was real embarrassed to ask for help at first because this was how it had to go "Hey, can you help me set up a party that you're not invited to? That's totally not offensive right? You will still invite me to all your parties right? And I am still your best friend right? RIGHT???" Precisely because of that, I'm really, really thankful to my lovely girlfriends for offering to help. :D
My minions for the day and I, abusing the trees.
I think it turned out real pretty. (:
Glam little picnic!
I went COMPLETELY crazy with "glaming up" the picnic. I suddenly decided that there should be a centre piece in the middle of the picnic mats, and therefore I needed to get the sushi mat thingie. And I also decided I didn't want to deal with any leftovers, and since Glenn was very much amused by the noodle box we saw in Europe, I went hunting for some noodle boxes for the food.
And because the noodle boxes were so pretty, and I bought some twine to decorate the trees, I decided that I needed to tie some serviettes with them. Then because the fork was white and the spoon and blue, I had to add something blue to the serviette, so I bought some blue tape to personalize the cutlery.
Finally, I decided we should have some wine (the very word itself already sounds glam!) to make it REALLY glam. So I went to buy some disposable wine glasses, and at the last minute decided I should tag the wine glasses so that people don't mix up their glasses, and so that, well, they can match the cutlery sets.
I know, friends, I know. WHO ON EARTH tries to colour-coordinate a PICNIC? I just had to indulge the Martha Stewart in me for a day.
I wasn't very far away from stabbing myself in the throat with that fork halfway through tying the serviettes. Hahaha.
And Glenn, oh Glenn is the funniest person to surprise ever. The cover story was this: I was celebrating my very belated 21st birthday with Sarah, Peiyan and boyfriends and he simply HAD to be there. I even went to the extent of having a little fight with him about the clash of dates! Haha. Then I kept pestering him for the details of celebrations with his friends (who were all in cahoots with me to turn him down). The poor boy was so sad when everyone basically ignored his attempts to plan his own celebration! Hahaha.
So when I met him at the entrance and led him to where the whole party was waiting for him, he actually thought that his friends met up without asking him along! The silly boy only finally realized it was a surprise when I turned his head towards the decorated trees. Hahaha. Too funny!
"EH! What are you guys doing here!"
God bless this boy for matching my colour scheme.
I would have dyed the noodles blue if I could, believe me. Hahaha.
When all the food were wiped out, we had a little game of Pictionary. It's such a classic, and it never fails to entertain at gatherings and parties. Especially when you have friends who draw a single flower, and declare "That's all I can do, the rest is up to you guys to guess." when the word was ORCHARD. Hahaha.
See, the prettyist even demanded I decorate a jar for markers.
And finally, I just hope you had as much fun as I did, despite your total oblivion to my very important colour scheme. Haha. Happy 24th birthday, darling! (:
Photos stolen from Jun.
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