Note: more about the prep for a Nautical Themed Night

A buddy of mine had celebrated his birthday (30 something) and after one too many drinks I suggested that I’d have a little dinner party for him.  Always up for having some fun I decided to make it a Nautical Themed Dinner Party.  Any excuse to dress stupid, drink too much and laugh at myself.

So I assembled a select group of people, all of which I knew would make the effort to dress up and get into the swings of things. An invite was cobbled together and swiftly texted around (much quicker).

The date was set and as it was a Nautical Themed night I sent out boarding cards to the guests in advance.  No boarding card no entry was the rule. I enjoy throwing in lots of little details when organising a themed bash.

Next up was the menu which again followed the theme and as the birthday boy was a vegetarian, fish was the way to go.

All that was left was to throw a few nautical decorations around the house.  For the craic, and in my head it was much easier to do, I decided to cut up white bed sheets and create sails on the roof of the kitchen.  It bloody took about an hour and the aftermath is a whole lot of thumb tack holes in my kitchen ceiling.

I also managed to source a few blow up finding Nemo’s which were promptly added to the ceiling, along with some paper lanterns. The table was set with my finest bone china (Ikea) and I had wrapped the cutlery in napkins tied with bits of string and finished off with a polo mint which looks like a little life buoy. A collection of Penny’s ducks added a little seafaring charm.

For a bit of added detail I commandeered the colour printer in work and made some fish themed wine bottle labels and relabelled the red and white wine.

Having previously visited the Titanic Exhibition in Belfast I also had some great White Star Line beer tankards on hand.

Pinterest is a great source for getting ideas when you are doing anything and it was there I came across the idea of using old jam jars with string and polo mints tied around them to serve cocktails.

I even rolled out the red carpet for the guests on arrival. Only €7 for a party supply store.  The only downside being that you stick it to the floor with tape which does not want to come off the next morning.

Dessert was served in little pirate treausre chests, again from a party supply store with 8 of them for only €3.

As is typical at an Irish dinner party there was a serious amout of beer, wine and cocktails served.  Some of the beer being Titanic themed!

The night ended wild drunk which is no suprise and still in costume ended up in the local pub getting many a sideways glance.

A few pics of some of the guests, all of which made a great effort to dress up.  My favourite being Sarah who called herself De’Bris and had spent the afternoon collecting ‘crap’ from the beach and decorating herself with it.  She even had real crab claws and seaweed and christ did she smell bad.