Help for 80th birthday ideas?

[greatly80]

It's my DMs 80th birthday this year and we'd like to do something really nice for the day but struggling a lot for ideas! We'll be in Chester but just general ideas would be great unless you know the area.

A party is out as she'd absolutely hate it so it's just going to be a group of 4 'girls' of widely varying ages over 18, something with the feel of a spa day would be great but she doesn't like massages, saunas or spending long in a swimming pool so a spa day wouldn't be much fun! She's in pretty good shape for her age and can do short walks but something too energetic like a long hike or zip wire etc would be totally out of the question.

I've seen personal shopping 'gifts' where you get a session with a personal shopper and get pampered and given lots of attention to choose clothes, something like that would be great but clothes would be no good as she's gone from dressing extremely conservatively decades ago to now suddenly finding her 'geek style' and wearing very fun outfits and wouldn't want new clothes. Is there some sort of alternative, like having your own perfume made for you or something?

We're going out for a late-ish afternoon tea and then cocktails in the evening but I'm coming up blank for the daytime!

We are giving (arranging too) a family photoshoot with her choice of prints/print styles for MiL's birthday. She's delighted as the amount of effort to get just a 9 person family of 4 households in one place for 90mins is beyond her these days

Thanks, that sounds really nice - I'm not sure if DM would feel the son-in-laws were being left out (they're not coming due to distance everyone lives making it much easier to have a 'girly' holiday), might be able to get round it though by having 1-on-1 photos with each of us and her instead of a group one, that would be nice mementoes.

What does she enjoy?

Could go for a night away in a country hotel?

A boat trip on the river?
a short walk round Delamere forest
walk the city walls

Jewellery making? Pottery class? Guided walk of secret Chester?

We did a similar ‘girls’ weekend for my grandmother in law, we did a jewellery making workshop which was lovely as we all ended up with a piece of jewellery we could keep as a memento

She loves gardening but has every plant and garden related thing under the sun 😂A boat trip and jewellery making could be really good as well, thanks, starting to feel not so hopeless for the day!

If she loves looking at gardens as well as gardening, you could do a garden tour at Tatton Park

Or there’s a list of other ‘Great gardens’ in Cheshire:

https://www.greatbritishgardens.co.uk/england/category/gardens-to-visit-in-cheshire.html

There’s also a new RHS garden near Salford I believe, we’re taking an Aunt for her 70th birthday soon

What about an afternoon tea at the Grosvenor hotel. It's right in the centre of Chester and you can have a seat in the window and people watch. It's very opulent and fancy, definitely nice for celebrating especially special birthday!

How about this https://www.florislondon.com/pages/bespoke#cta

or https://www.millerharris.com/products/miller-harris-in-store-fragrance-consultation-1hr?view=experiences-main-lower

Or https://bloomperfume.co.uk/pages/bespoke-new

Cookery workshop??

I would probably not try to pack too much in as you say she is quite sprightly but the afternoon tea and then drinks might be later than she is used to.
A garden potter or somewhere nice to mooch a few nice shops.
What about a small tattoo 😀
Nails so she feels all lovely for the afternoon
Any exhibitions or shows on?
Pottery painting all together having a laugh can be silly fun.

Garden lights or figurines for outdoor design maybe?
Skin care products if she spends lots of time outside
Spa day or a massage salon certificate
Pottery or art workshop certificate if she enjoys that?
Also you can make a photobook with all of her photos, including the earliest ones. You can colorize the black and white ones through Photoglory or just repair the worn-out ones a bit and make them look newer, then reprint them all. Or could be an album with more place for more pictures to put in later!

A trip to a garden centre then on for a cream tea somewhere posh might be nice.

I took my mum on a day trip on the Orient Express for her 80th birthday. She had no idea where I was taking her, I just told her to dress fairly smartly. When we arrived at Victoria station, she assumed we were going somewhere in London and her face when we walked over to the orient Express platform was a real picture.

It was quite expensive day but it was a really special day for just the two of us, and it really was worth every penny. The train was full of people like us who were celebrating special events and the staff were all lovely. The food was also wonderful, and the train was just how you would imagine it to be. My mum never forgot the day it and still talked about it until her dementia really took hold. They didn't run trips every day, but I was lucky that there was a day trip available on her actual birthday.