Chocolate, Chocolate and more Chocolate

    This past weekend I died and went to chocolate heaven!  My father turned the big 5-0, and a big party was thrown in honor of his birthday! Instead of the typical black over hill theme, we did a brown chocolate theme! The party was not a surprise party, and my father was very much a part of the planning. I am like him in many ways, but one major way is we like to be involved in the details of things, especially party planning! (I won’t even give up control of planning my bachelorette party to my sister because it’s too fun not too lol!)
    As a little background info; my father has had his own business in advertising, marketing and interior design so creativity runs through his blood! My mother is a psychotherapist by day and a crafty momma by night! I definitely inherited creative genes from the both of them! 
    An amazing quality about throwing a great, visually stimulating party is being able to be budget conscious. There is no reason you have to spend a ton of money just to have an incredible party. There are SO many things you can do to keep the cost down, while it looking like a million bucks! Below are pictures from the big night. I posted a lot of pictures with details so you can see what I am talking about and how it all came together. (The last picture is a cake, made by my mother, for my dad’s second 50th birthday celebration! If you like Italian Rainbow cookies you are going to LOVE this! It was better than the chocolate cake if you can believe it!)



These were some of the items on the chocolate bar, including a picture of the signature drink (designed by my dad) and clear bags for guests to fill with chocolate as they left!

 

This was the entire chocolate bar set up including the double chocolate cake made by Olympia Catering. (The string in the pictures are from the brown and cream balloons that were strung all around the room.)



Chocolate "50" lollipops were made, tied with personalized ribbon, and hung from silver trees bought at Homegoods! These were the center pieces on the main dining table. The guests took lollipops home with them.




This is a chocolate truffle candle that was from the Dollar Store believe it or not! There were a lot of them placed all along the center of the main dining table. They even smelled like chocolate!




And these were too fun! It's a plastic chocolate popsicle ( also from the Dollar Store) that has bubbles inside, and the bubbles even smelled like chocolate! These aren't just for kids people, the adults loved them! And they got to take one of these home as well.




Here is the main dining table set up with the silver trees, chocolate candles and the plastic popsicles. The brown squares along the center are scrapbook paper from Michaels craft store.





And last but definitely not least is the official birthday cake that my mom made for my dad's actual birthday! It is a spin off the traditional Italian cookies my family loves! This cake was SO good I had to share the ingrdients with you below!




Ingredients:
3 sticks of softened butter
1.5 cups granulated white sugar
6 large eggs
12 ounces of almond paste
1 tablespoon pure almond extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoon baking powder
red food coloring
green food coloring
yellow food coloring
1/4 seedless raspberry jam
1/4 cup apricot preserves

For the Ganache:
1 cup heavy cream
12 oz. semisweet chocolate

"Life is like a box of chocolates... you never know what you're gonna get."

Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks)