"Through the Decades" 40th Birthday Celebration

I really wanted to start this post with the quote, "Long, long ago, in a galaxy far, far away...", because it's an iconic quote from the 1970s. However, seeing as this post is about a 40th birthday party, I thought it wouldn't be the most appropriate way to honor these two really groovy people!  

Quotes and 70's jargon aside, 1972 wasn't so long, long ago, and it was a very special year because Marcy and Dave were born! Husband and wife, Marcy and Dave both celebrated their 40th birthdays in August and planned a big birthday dinner with friends and family. But, this wasn't just to be any birthday dinner. They wanted to make it fun and special, and have a good time reflecting on their lives so far.

I was honored when Marcy asked me to help her create a fun twist for their celebration. Since there were going to be a good number of people in attendance, Marcy thought that having name tags for the guests would be a great way for everyone to get to know each other. But. how to make them fun?

Since there were going to be just about 40 guests, we decided to create a "through the decades" theme. Each guest would get a name tag with their name, along with a year, and a factoid about that particular year. The years spanned 1972 to 2012, to reflect Marcy and Dave's life. The factoids were fun tid bits about both popular culture AND important moments in Dave and Marcy's lives. 

Each decade was designed in a graphic style reminiscent of that point in time. Researching THAT was so much fun!

We decided to style the name tags more like badges that the guests could wear around their necks. Thus, fun conversation starters were born!

Here are some images!

A sample of the name tags. One from each decade.

My, how technology has infiltrated our lives! Close up of the nametag from the 2000s

Close up of the name tag representing the 1990s. Can you identify the font?

Like, totally awesome! Name tag with an 80s flair (A personal note. Marcy, my client, is from New York, hence the factoid. Being from Massachusetts, I had to have a moment of silence before formatting this particular tag. Sigh... Bill Buckner...)

Atari's packaging of the video game PONG was the inspiration for the name tags representing 70s style. 

Table names were also created for the party. One for each decade.

80s name tag and table name

Table name and name tag representing the 1990s

Table name and name tag in style we all recognize!


This was just such a fun project to work on! It was fun to find out interesting facts about the past 40 years, and about Marcy and Dave. Coming up with designs to reflect the style and culture of the past 40 years was also an exciting challenge!

I truly loved this project, and I do have to say, I had a blast through every step of the way.

Happy Birthday, Marcy and Dave! Here's to 40 more!

And, with that, I say,

"Goodnight, John-Boy"
(cheesy 70s reference)

Goings on at Woods&Company

Well, it's been quite a summer for me! I've been very busy as a family and have had a lot of work to do for Woods&Company!

Personally, we had a nice long vacation to visit my family on the East Coast, where my daughter was able to have some quality time with her grandparents and cousins. I connected with friends and my husband and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary. Once home, we went right up to Napa to spend a long weekend celebrating my husband's grandmother's 90th birthday. That's right, I said NINETY! And she's still going strong! A few weeks back at home and then it was an impromptu trip for my daughter and I up to Donner Lake last week to spend some time with my in-laws. My husband had to work, so it was just the two of us (one of the perks of being home full time with your child is that you can have fun trips and not worry about using your vacation time!), and Katy's grandparents. They love spending time with her and I actually got some time to relax!

Through all of this, Woods&Company has been busy! I have a lot of fun projects in the works and opportunities for you to see us and get to know us.

Some of the fun projects include welcome bags for a summer camp themed wedding (right up my alley!), invitations for a fall in Boston themed bridal shower, favors for that bridal shower, embellishments for a fabulous "Through The Years" 40th birthday party, and graphics/marketing work for a local bakery that does a lot of wedding and birthday cakes. I am so excited about all of it, and I cannot WAIT to share the stories and photos of all this work.

In addition to all of that, Woods&Company has many new items on the etsy shop. In addition to listings that can be customized, I've been developing some of my designs to be "off the shelf" for you to purchase immediately. Take a look for your next event!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/woodsandcompany

And don't forget that you can now access my etsy page directly through my Facebook page! https://www.facebook.com/woodsandco

Moving on, I am excited to announce that I will be at the San Francisco Birth and Baby Fair on Saturday, September 29th at the Fort Mason Center here in San Francisco! I will be selling a limited amount of product there, as I am going to be focusing on taking custom orders for birth announcements,  baby shower invitations, birthday party invitations, favors and party embellishments. THis will be a great opportunity to see the variety of work that I do.

Get your tickets here: http://www.birthandbabyfair.com/

Finally, I have a special opportunity for all of you in the works that will allow you access to some of my products at a discounted rate! I will talk more about that in the next few weeks, so be on the look out for my posts!

Whew! I have a lot going on! All this work going on really showcases the breadth of work that I do. I still do Welcome Gifts, but I can work on any sort of event you have coming up from bridal showers to birthday parties, I can make your event special with invitations, favors, gifts, and other embellishments.

Happy Summer, and hope to work with you soon!

Sarah