My sweet husband will be turning the big 3-0 in a little less than one month's time. Since he is a pretty low-key guy, he has left almost all planning of his big day up to me.
I love party planning. (Just be glad I didn't have a blog when I was wedding planning! It would have been crazy! If you want to follow someone as she plan her wedding, check out my friend Kara's blog.)
I am fairly certain I started thinking about this party last year when Chris turned 29. We could have had a party at our house, which would have been fine, but I wanted to do something cool and interesting.
The Corner Bar. photo by Ryan Prewitt
In my job as a reporter, I stumbled onto a place in St. Charles, Mo. called The Corner Bar. It's the last place in the US where you can play a form of three-pin bowling called cocked-hat bowling. They've been playing it in the basement of this cool, grungy bar since 1875.
League play is every Monday-Thursday, year-round. But on Friday and Saturday nights, you can rent out the lanes in the basement. I wrote a story about the bar, and the cocked-hat bowling tradition, for my paper last fall. A little seed of an idea was planted in my brain.
This spring, I rented out the place to celebrate Chris's b'day. With less than a month to go, the party planning has got to get going. So I crafted a little inspiration board:
I still need to pop into the bar again sometime so I can scope out what kind of space I'll have for food, etc. The bonus is, you can bring your own food you just have to buy drinks upstairs at the bar.
I'm thinking bar snacks like cheese sticks, olives, peanuts, pretzels, cake pops decorated to look like bowling balls, some vintage pins, bowling shirts and perhaps some hats? So many options...
Kalen,
ReplyDeleteMy great great grandfather Ralph Kohlenhoefer used to own the Corner Bar, and my grandpa lived above it when he was young. I recently spoke with my grandfather quite a bit about it. In the old days, women were not allowed in the bar (except my great great grandmother and great grandmother). They also used to serve a "standard fare" of hot roast beef sandwiches ($0.25), Ham sandwiches ($0.30), Cheese sandwiches ($0.25), and Chili on a steam table. All were made with fresh bread delivered by the bakery every day! I even have a picture of my great great grandpa standing behind the bar in his white shirt and black leather tie that he wore every night after his shave & hot towel, fried steak for lunch, and nap!
I hope you have a great time!
-Lindsey Gordon