GREAT EXPECTATIONS THEMED BIRTHDAY PARTY FOR MY MOM'S 80th - SEPTEMBER 19th

My mother just hit another milestone in her life - turning 80!  We always do a theme party for such big birthday events.  I thought of the idea of doing "Great Expectations".  My parent's home already has the feel of that time period so all we needed to do was to set up the table scene and add the overgrown leaves and vines.  The story goes that a girl was jilted on her wedding day.  She never recovered from being left at the alter by her beau, and so she left the table set, wedding cake and all, in preparation for the big celebration that day. She went somewhat mad over the years. She raised her sister's child, and so she instilled in her the trait of never giving your heart away.  I know, a kind of doom and gloom theme for a birthday party!  But as it goes, we liked the look of the theme, and since my mom is a writer herself, and this is a classic, we decided to go along with it anyway.  Below are some pictures of my mother and the decorations.  Maybe you will take away some inspiration for your own themed party! (There were mice added to the cake as in the original story, overturned glasses, and we added old book pages to the floor in place of leaves.) Most of the vines were real, taken from my parent's backyard.  We baked the cakes ourselves).  You can find old things to use at yard sales and thrift stores.  In the typewriter was an excerpt from the book.  We used dried and artificial flowers on the table and cake.