This past spring, I was already starting to think about my husband’s upcoming 30th birthday and what I wanted to do to make it awesome.  He rocked my 30th birthday last year by making me a picnic lunch, treating me to a manicure, giving me a birthday photo shoot with Lauryn Galloway, and taking me out to dinner at one of our favorite local restaurants.  It was a full day of fun, and just what I wanted. But Jon, well, he doesn’t really want much.  Not the kind of guy who lusts after the latest technology (well okay, maybe sometimes) or has big things in mind.  A nice dinner out would have been appropriate, but not really enough in my mind.  Not for his 30th.  So the gears in my brain started turning.  And thus it was born: A party.  No, a surprise party.  A beer tasting surprise party.  And so it was. Near the end of the summer, I met up with Rebecca (A Daily Something) who was going to be helping me plan the basics of the party.  After all, she is a talented event planner and stylist, so who better to ask? We planned a menu (which was tweaked over time) and with the help of a friend, we came up with seasonal beer pairings for each course.

The final beer and food pairings were as follows: Cobb Salad + Corcoran Catoctin Ale Spicy Butternut Squash Soup + Corcoran Padawan Pumpkin Baked Mac and Cheese + Flying Dog Secret Stash Harvest Ale BBQ Pulled Pork + Flying Dog Dogtoberfest

For dessert, we had birthday cake (Jon’s favorite applesauce spice cake), Jon’s mom’s pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, and the pièce de résistance, beer floats featuring vanilla ice cream and Stone Brewing Co’s collab beer, Xocaveza Mocha Stout.  Those were a huge hit, and I wish I had been able to get photos of them, but I was a little preoccupied at the time.  😉 I stuck with local beers (Corcoran being out of Purcellville, VA, and Flying Dog from Frederick, MD).  I was changing the beer options up until the day of the party because I was keeping an eye to the tap menus.  Our friends Amy and Jason (brew hounds in their own right) were my beer retrievers and I left some of the final decisions up to them (and then I forgot to change up the menu board that I had written earlier that morning). The baked mac and cheese is my mom’s specialty, and she so graciously made it for the party.  I ordered the pulled pork from a local BBQ joint called Monk’s, and if you’re ever in Purcellville, VA, look them up.  I took it upon myself to make the butternut squash soup, and when the yes RSVP list started growing larger and larger, I realized that meant I needed a lot of soup.  20lbs of butternut squash and 24 acorn squash (for the bowls, of course) later, I knew the answer to the age-old question ‘how much squash can fit in the trunk of a VW Beetle?’ And as I’m the kind of girl who likes a challenge, I decided to DIY the beer tasting paddles you’ll see in several photos below.  I indeed went out on my back deck two days before the party drilling circles (with my 2″ Forstner drill bit) in eighteen 13″ 2×4 studs.  I had every intention of sanding them down really nicely and staining them, but when your husband works at home and only rarely goes into the office (like he finally did two days before the party), it makes it difficult to get away with doing these kinds of projects unnoticed.  But I think they still turned out well.  These acted as both the tasting paddles and as party favors for those who wished to take them home. I’ve listed all of my sources at the bottom of this post, but I did want to give credit to Rebecca for her tables and decor that I rented.  With 23 people to seat and serve, it was really my only option, and it worked out perfectly.  (Minus the whole glitch with the tables not actually fitting in my dad’s SUV like I thought they would… a hundred pickup trucks drive past my house every day, and yet on the day of the party I couldn’t track down one person to help us haul the tables.  But no matter, we improvised and made it work!  HUGE thanks to my dad and brother for this part.)

Part of the surprise for Jon was that his parents showed up earlier that day – they came from upstate New York to ‘spend the weekend with him’ for his birthday.  The four of us got lunch in Leesburg, where we casually asked Jon what he wanted for his birthday dinner.  He and his dad were going to golf 9 holes, which his mom and I visited Finch and went to Wegman’s to buy groceries for dinner.  Except really, she and I did go to Wegman’s, only to buy 12 bottles of wine and a bunch of other last minute items for the party. Guests arrived at 6, and I had arranged for Jon’s dad to get him back here around 6:30 – no earlier.  We were prepping until the last minute, so their usual punctuality would not have been appreciated in this particular situation. He was surprised!  While he thought it odd that I suggested he mow the lawn earlier that morning, he had no idea that anything like this was planned.  Success! Finally I felt like I could breathe – the hard parts were over – now it was time to serve up some food and beer and enjoy the evening with our friends and family.  And so we did. Finally, I would like to thank my family and friends who helped me make this party what it was.  Without my parents  and brother showing up at my house while I was lunching with Jon and the in-laws (ooh, Jon and the in-laws – band name idea!), we never could have gotten things started early.  My mom started baking and cooking, while my dad and my brother took several trips back and forth to Purcellville to get the tables and set them up.  Jon’s parents played an integral part of the surprise by first of all acting as the surprise, and then (his dad)  for occupying him until the party started.  His mom, meanwhile, ran errands with me and then took to the kitchen to help me there.  And then Amy and Jason, our friends who by the way, had just moved from Maryland to Long Island earlier that week, picked up the beer and BBQ, and acted as our beer servers through the night.  Angela picked up the Wegman’s salad (which was a decision late in the game after I realized that we would need a LOT of clams to feed 23 people, and had no place on the stovetop to cook them) and got my text for a last minute request for baguettes as I had not left myself enough time to finish making my homemade versions.  Nicole brought fabric to use as bench coverings, and Scott and Allison came with additional cupcakes for our desserts.  My brother grabbed his lighting gear from his car (because we’re photographers and of course this stuff is on-hand at all times) and set me up a strobe once it got too dark for natural light.  If this was the Oscars, the ‘hurry up’ music would be playing by now, but I really owed everyone a thank you for all of their help.  So thank you. Sources Tables & Decor// Tables, benches, vintage flatware, antlers, candle stick holders, place card holders, water glasses: Rebecca Gallop of A Daily Something rentals / Plates: borrowed from Melinda Friend of Knead and Know / Wood 6-pack caddy: West Elm / Beer tea towels: NestaHome / Fluted pan (cookies): Save on Crafts / Velvet ribbon (flatware bundles): M&J Trimming (rust) / Napkins: handmade – with fabric (1, 2) from Finch Sewing Studio / Place cards: Rifle Paper Co. hand painted names in watercolor by me/ Invites and envelopes: Paperless Post / Breadboard:  Beer tasting paddles: DIY, tutorial here / Beer tasting glasses: WEBstaurant Store / Food // Salad: Wegman’s Catering / Butternut squash soup: homemade (recipe here) / Pulled pork: Monk’s BBQ (Angry and Carolina sauces) / Beer // Corcoran Brewing Company Catoctin Ale and Palawan Pumpkin / Flying Dog Secret Stash Harvest Ale and Dogtoberfest / Stone Brewing Xocoveza Mocha Stout