twirling into 27

hello 27 and goodbye parent’s health insurance plan!

birthday’s are never something i dread, but i do always find myself never really wanting to do much for the big day. while it’s no secret i love dressing up, “not doing much” typically doesn’t equate to cockatil attire. but this year i wanted to add a little sparkle and pizzaz to the pretty basic birthday dinner.

i first thought about reaching out to a restaurant (like i did last year at mexicue) but that honestly just seemed like such a hassle…i decided to then combine my two favorite things: cocktail attire and burgers. this resulted in a “black tie” barbeque conveniently located on the roof of my apartment building!

i have worked with so many amazing partners in the past for projects, i reached out to my contacts at lady m cakes, kim crawford wines, and ode à la rose to supply all things birthday related. but i couldn’t trust myself to throw it together and make it look even slightly presentable. i needed the queen herself: christy doramus. christy magically created the perfect tablescapes for the tables on my roof and brought all of her own dishes, glasses, and silverware…really anything you see on these tables haha. and being an expert hostess herself, chrsity even thought of printing the names on the plates because name cards would blow away on the roof and tying the bouquets to the umbrella post!

when it came to the food, i really could not be of any help. i enlisted the help of lenice who i found on task rabbit. i basically use task rabbit for anything i need done around my apartment: assembling furniture, hanging shelves. you name it, they do it! but i’ve never used anyone for cooking help before. thank goodness for lenice because she did all of the food shopping, prep, and of course cooking/grilling (with the bare minimum utensils i had) and she did it with the biggest smile on her face. my guests could not stop raving about the food and especially the hamburgers (that she made from scratch!). she was the absolute sweetest woman and i cannot recommend her enough!!

i truly could not have asked for a better evening and i’m so thankful to some of my favorite people who made the trek all the way up on the upper east side! i cannot wait to see what 27 has in store for me!