Thankyou all for your sweet comments, tweets and general warm wishes for my 30th birthday. I must say, I have had the most wonderful couple of days – and was fortunate enough to have birthday celebrations that were beyond even my wildest expectations. Friends and family – coming together for great food and lots of laughs. Could a birthday celebration be anymore perfect?! And, to say that I was spoilt, would be an understatement. I was truly blown away by the generosity of my nearest and dearest, and I really am so very blessed (but more on that to come tomorrow). Ok enough mushy sentiment, let me share with you the highlight of my weekend. My Magical Moroccan Dinner Party.
Taking advantage of the large living area in our new house, I decided to hold a dinner party for 40 people. We hired chairs, tables and cutlery, and with the help of cheap fabrics, candles and vases, we transformed our living room from this….
To this!
I am not really sure how I came up with the Moroccan theme for the party. All I know is that I wanted something elegant, yet festive and filled with flavour.
I am pretty certain we delivered – thanks to the wonderful efforts of my family and best friend who worked with me all of Saturday morning and afternoon to decorate the house and prepare the food! I chose orange, red and purple as the main colours for the party, using orange hessian as the table cloths…
with strips of patterned material for the table runners.
In the centre of each table we placed a large vase filled with these gorgeous red flowers and some greenery.
At each place setting was a little trivia card about Morocco – which I am told were quite the conversation starters amongst our guests.
We placed our couches outside (under a large heater that we had hired), providing a little ‘break out’ space.
And lined the entry hallway with luminaries.
But it wasn’t just about the decorations……for what dinner party is complete without food. Glorious food. Our wonderful local Turkish restaurant provided the entrees:
A selection of dips / Turkish bread, and stuffed vine leaves (and some warm zucchini balls that went un-pictured as they were gobbled up so quickly!) Served communally on large platters.
While the main menu was made up of a variety of slow cooked Moroccan tagines and meatballs…
Some of which I have shared on the blog before (here and here) during our trial runs. There was plenty of food at the start, and not too much at the end, so they can’t have been too bad lol. We served the dishes buffet style, and our guests were able to come and help themselves.
And the feedback was all positive, with the lamb and date tagine emerging as the clear winner! But now….onto dessert 🙂
Or a dessert buffet if you will! I used my DIY art technique to make the colourful ‘back boards’ for the buffet, and we were loaned some red lamps that gave the table a real Moroccan feel. But the star of the evening was a glorious macaron tower…
filled with a variety of macarons supplied by our local French Patisserie.
As well as freshly made baklava from the local Turkish restaurant.
ok ok – not so Moroccan but tasty nonetheless! It really was one of those nights that disappeared in the blink of an eye.
It felt like I had only just said ‘hello’ to my friends and family, when midnight rolled around and the crowd began to dissipate. The night turned out even better than I had hoped, and created so many wonderful “new” memories…
While also having the chance to reminisce about some “old” memories 🙂 A wonderful night indeed!
Wow! What an amazing birthday party. Looks like you had a ball- and I'm just amazed at your hostess skills!
Love it! Can't believe you did all that! Fantastic idea and I can imagine how tasty the food would have been! I love Moroccan food – we bought an authentic tagine which we loved dearly until the bottom cracked 🙁
Happy belated birthday as well! Here's to another fab, fun-filled year 🙂
Btw – love the blog – am from Melb and am so glad to see an Aussie Health food blogger. Inspiring 😀
oh my goodness!!!!!! Lisa everything looks amazing! The food, the decorations (especially the entry hallway) and YOU, your hair! Wow. I am beyond impressed with it ALL. How inspiring 🙂 Happy birthday, you clever girl!
Heidi xo
oh lisa, this is incredible. what a delightful evening.
Happy Happy Birthday Lisa! It looks like you had a wonderful birthday. You put so much work and detail into them, it's very impressive!
That macaron table is so cute! So glad the night was a success!
x
Happy 30th! What a great party.
I love your new hair colour, it makes your eyes pop! 🙂
So sad I didn't get the chance to "discover" you and maybe meet you when lived in Canberra.
What a lovely fun party! I think the attention to all the little details is what makes it special. How nice to be surrounded by those you love on your birthday. Congratulations on a special birthday and special evening!
Wow this looks amazing! Especially that baklava. 🙂 Happy 30th!!
So beautiful! Happy 30th! What a wonderful was to celebrate!
you are one amazing cook and party planner! super impressed Lisa.
You. Are. Amazing. And you're making me feel so miserable about the fact that my birthday this year is going to slip by almost unnoticed! Please can you organise a party of magnificence for me by Thursday?! 😛
So glad you had a wonderful night… and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
brilliant – love the theme and colours and food but above all I love your attention to detail – looks like a great do – and I really like your brunette look – would fit in well in morrocco
What a great way to celebrate your 30th.
Happy Birthday Lisa! Wow, what a wonderful dinner party! I love the detail and effort you put into it – seriously awesome.
I love your hair colour too! 😀
I am so impressed! That looks like an amazing party–you should plan parties for a living! Happy 30th!
Happy belated birthday, and welcome to the 30's club!
Sounds like a really fun time, and the desserts look incredible.
Everything is beautiful! I love the attention to every detail. I think my favorite were the luminaries!
Woah what an amazing party Lisa! This looks so fun, festive, and delicious! And I really love love love your hair!
Wow – this is amazing. Happy Birthday!! I may have to hire you to plan my next party! 🙂
What a COOL idea! I love this. It would be a great theme for a bridal shower, or birthday party!
You are my hero!!!! This is GORGEOUS! I could look at those pictures over and over again. I totally love the idea of a theme like Moroccan. I've been to Morocco, and the food and all the decorations look amazing! Well done, and I'm sure that your guests had an awesome time. Happy Birthday!
Your place looked amazing. LOVED everything. The food looked good too :-). So glad you had such a wonderful and memorable 30th Birthday.
The place looks great. You should definitely go into business into catering and decorating for home parties!
What a blast, the colours are just magical. And i love your little serviette facts 🙂
HAPPY BIRTHDAYYY!!! Everything looked awesome!! And I have to say I LOOOVVEEE your hair!! I know you were concerned about it being so dark but I think it looks awesome on you!!
I'm very impressed with your decorating! And the food. And your hair 🙂 Happy birthday again – it looks like it was a fantastic night.
Looks amazing! Happy Birthday!
Happy belated birthday! Your party looks amazing. I'm glad you had a great time.
Wow! Your dinner party looks so appetizing and just delicious! Everything looks perfect and like you had such an amazing night 🙂
wow!i what a party! gosh, every detail is so impressive! I love this theme as well!
P.S. I love the new blog look! 🙂
That was some impressive party! I've been to 'small family weddings' without that much attention to detail. Thumbs Up!