Welcome to Adulthood - Celebrating 18 Years

It's hard to believe, but this October, we celebrated 18 YEARS of monthly dinners together!  Yep... that is 216 dinners happening once a month over the past 18 years.  These have been such a blessing for me as they are a chance to catch up with girlfriends in our busy schedules & strengthen friendships.

To celebrate this milestone, I decided to theme my dinner "Welcome to Adulthood" and plan the decor and meal around everything you can do when you turn 18.  It was a lot of fun to plan.

Invite:  I created the invitation on PhotoShop with a fun sign with the theme on it.  I added images along the bottom of various things you can do once you turn 18 - join the military, play the lottery, vote, get a credit card, buy cigarettes, and buy fireworks.

Decorations:  I set the table with a black tablecloth, and then added items to the centerpiece that you can do when you turn 18 much like I did on the invitation.

To represent being able to VOTE, I used some flags and a hat decoration from my fourth of July decorations.  I also included a local ballot packet from the upcoming election under it.

I found some toy handcuffs to go with 18 as the age when you can be taken to JAIL.

I printed out an image of some fun and silly tattoos for when you can get a TATTOO without needed parental consent.

I hate cigarettes, but it was fun to make these pretzel and candy ones to represent 18 year olds being able to purchase CIGARETTES. I got thicker pretzel sticks, and used white and red candy melts to cover them to look like cigarettes.  I used some black sanding sugar mixed with some regular sugar to dip the red tip.  For the ash trays, I filled small dishes with crushed oreos mixed with sugar.

Also in the centerpiece I had some cans of spray paint, some fireworks, and a jury summons.

For place cards, I made name badge stickers using PhotoShop and added a little tag on top for guests to CHANGE THEIR NAME which you can legally do when you turn 18.  We had guests change their name to everything from Princess Consuela Banana Hammock from Friends to childhood imaginary friend names.

For napkin rings, I wrapped some camouflage scrapbook paper around the napkin and designed a tag for each branch of the military since a person can JOIN THE MILITARY at 18.

Designing wine labels is always a lot of fun.  For the white wine, I created the label to show a waitress serving white wine.  At 18, you can serve alcohol.  I just changed it to serving white wine.  For the red wine, I designed a wine-related image that looked like a tattoo.  At 18, you can legally get a tattoo without parental consent.

I made simple wine charms for various other things that you can do once you turn 18.

Menu: It was a little bit of a challenge to come up with menu items related to the theme, but I think I pulled it off.  I started with an appetizer of humus and pita bread as well as taquitos and salsa.  At 18, you can get a Costco card, so I served these appetizers in white cupcake wrappers in small portions like they do for samples at Costco.

Next I had a green HOUSE salad to represent that you can purchase a HOUSE at 18.

For a main dish, I made chicken parmesan.  I will admit, this one was a bit of a stretch to fit with the theme.  I was originally planning a GUILTLESS grilled chicken to tie in with 18 year olds being now called for Jury Duty and having to determine guilt in court cases.  Of course, switching to a chicken parmesan instead of just grilled chicken kinda took away the healthy eating idea with that that yummy cheese and sauce!  Oh well...it was delicioius.

Along with the chicken parmesan, I served spaghetti, but I served the blended sauce in a blood bag since 18 year olds can DONATE BLOOD.  I bought these bags from Amazon.  Since they are typically intended for drinks, I did blend the sauce a bit to make sure it could easily come out of the opening.

For dessert, one of my friends helped me by bringing delicious cupcakes from her work (Small Cakes in Huntington Beach).  

They were a beautiful pink and white with white edible pearls on top.  I added a diamond ring to each cupcake purchased at Party City.  These represented that you can GET MARRIED when you turn 18.

Favor: I tried to pull in more things that you can do when you turn 18 with my party favor.  I matched up various candy with these things, so each guest chose which candy they wanted to take home.

I designed the favor tags to match the invitation and the rest of the party details.  

What an amazing 18 years of fun it has been with these friends.  Although these monthly dinners are a lot of work, I love doing them to be able to spend this one night with my closest friends.  Hope you enjoyed my post!