I love Birthdays! I love celebrating anything fun but birthdays are something special. In light of recent events (**cough cough COVID-19 cough cough**), I was pretty certain that I wasn’t going to be able to celebrate my birthday in a traditional manner. I still wanted to do something special but didn’t want it to be too complicated or cheesy. There were tons of ideas online for how to do a kid’s party digitally but I wanted something more sophisticated and FUN, something for adults. I decided that I would throw my self an internet tea party to celebrate my 33rd year of life. Once I decided on a theme everything else just flowed perfectly. Par-Tea for 33 aka QuaranTEA was in full effect!
With my theme chosen I decided I wanted to take a different approach and mail invitations! These are some tough times and who doesn’t love mail. I created these invitations using Canva and printed them out on my home printer. I created my Zoom meeting before sending the invites, easiest venue rental ever! I ordered some turmeric tea on amazon that happened to be named after me along with confetti! I add everything into the envelope and mailed them off to my pals!
My girls were elated to receive something in the mail and some even drank the tea before the party!
Once invites were out, I had about two weeks until the actual virtual party date. I ordered myself a cake and some balloons to have the day of the party!
I did my virtual party on my actual birthday which happened to fall on a Saturday so everyone was available.
My friends from all over the country logged on to laugh and sip tea! I had one of my college buddies host the party so I could enjoy the fellowshipping. She kicked things off with a fun ice breaker, some group sharing, and a super fun scavenger hunt that was the highlight of the party. Everyone had a minute and thirty seconds to find 5 things in the house that started with the 5 letters of my first name. One friend actually found large letter A’s but the most creative friend spelled out Amber using an apple, mace, a battery, a toy elephant, and a rose! It was hilarious seeing everyone run and try to make it back in time.
The ladies sang an off-key happy birthday thanks to the delays and we wrapped things up! The party lasted close to an hour and it was wonderful! While it wasn’t the way I was planning to celebrate it all worked out beautifully. If you’re planning an adult virtual party here are a few tips
- Pick a Theme.
- Pick a Hosting Platform. I chose Zoom because it’s easy to navigate and user friendly but there are lots of ways to host your digital party. Facebook just unveiled a new chatting service and there’s a phone app called HouseParty.
- Invitations. I like things to be cohesive so I made invites but an email or text with party info would suffice
- Set the tone. Virtual parties don’t have to be bland. Decorate your space, order a cake, have your favorite take out delivered. Liven up your space so you can have some off-screen fun too!
- Have someone else host! Take the pressure off yourself and have another person be the stage manager. This way you can enjoy the celebration.
If Zoom and cheesy themes are not your thing; you can still throw the perfect virtual party in isolation! Netflix has a party extension on chrome. Have a movie watch party with friends/ The feature even has the ability to chat, start, stop, and pause the movie at the same time! Try it out at https://www.netflixparty.com/. If you have to celebrate your birthday in quarantine or self isolation know that you can still have a fantastic time. Cheers!
The Robinson Way Blog 