Cost of husband’s 40th party

[naavaaira]

Posting here for traffic.
I am organising a surprise party for my husband’s 40th. He is the kind who loves being centre of attention and would love the surprise! I have never ever organised a proper event like this so have no idea of average cost and your input would be appreciated. I’m looking to cater his favourite Turkish food, inflatable night club in the garden, alcohol, cake, nibbles, and other bits all coming to around £1200 for 16 adults and 8 kids. Does that sound average or a lot?

Privilege, yes, certainly. But surely it's a given in this world that some people are more privileged than others. Entitlement, not necessarily. That's an attitude when people think that they deserve more than others and kick up a stink when they dont get it!

FWIW that's a fairly normal amount to spend among my friend, but certainly not universal. We spent about 3k on our joint 50th/60th. But that was for about 100 people, so only £30 per head. I know people who probably spent more. And others who just had a small family meal and few drinks with friends in the pub.

I love silent discos. We've held a couple. One for NYE, one for a big party to celebrate 20 years in our home with local friends. They are hilarious.

I've just read @Placetobreathe 's post. Goodness knows what you think of us spending £10-12K on a joint birthday celebration (mine and my dc).
Never spent so much on anything before, but we'd had a couple of crappy years, no holidays for over a decade, and I did our wedding on a tiny budget 15yrs before, as that was all we could afford at the time.

Inflatable night club?

I had to google - it looks like it could be a warmer version of a marquee - better suited to this time of year

That does look a bit, erm… tacky 😬

Sounds very fair to me

Are you the OP's husband? If not, then who cares whether you think it's tacky. The OP wasn't asking for opinions on the inflatable night club.

£75? Actually, it's reasonable.

Will you not need a lot of beer/lager? I'm just suggesting this in case you are not much of a drinker yourself. I think men tend to consume beers.

I'd say be prepared for people to drink less alcohol than you have available - you never know who might be a designated driver / who's not feeling 100% etc. Buy alcohol that keeps well and that you like so if it isn't used at the party you have a supply you enjoy to work through over the year rather than bottles of stuff you hate. Also wondering whether you'd be buying in quantities where you could buy on a sale or return basis.

Also think about how to minimise unnecessary food waste - if a couple of people don't turn up that you're expecting. Can the main courses be frozen and reheated another day?

You know your husband best - will he appreciate the surprise more than getting involved with the party planning?

One of our neighbours makes our life miserable with noise pollution... so I'm now incredibly interested in the mega inflatable garden nightclub.

I LOVE the idea of an inflatable nightclub! Is it bouncy?

Why are you having a party on a Tuesday. If I was your neighbour and you had invited me I'd hate you because now I'd feel obliged to attend and its a work night/ school night. If you were my neighbour and you hadn't invited I'd just hate you.

Entitlement and privilege springs to mind.

Strange comment.

Being able to afford something someone else can't isn't entitlement.

Sounds very reasonable lo me.Have a good time.

If you can afford it, it seems good value given what’s included, including a professional cake.

It’s always going to be fairly expensive for an event like this, the main thing is it seems your DH will be really appreciative and it seems your guests are also on board.

Hope you will all have an amazing time OP!

Being short of money when I organised my husband's surprised 50th I paid for the hire of the hall and a disco but could not afford food too so invited everyone to a bring and share buffet which was brilliant and every oen bought lovely food and drink so it didn't cost us too much in the end, though I nearly died of the stress of keeping the secret whilst organising it!

It sounds great. Nightclub will be a laugh, food sounds really nice, plenty of drinks and you can crawl into your bed easily afterwards.

Unfortunately fun things do often cost money. As nice as it is to be thoughtful in non monetary ways sometimes it’s also nice to be able to spend hard earned money on something different that you know the recipient and the guests will enjoy.

i hope you all have a lovely party.

Nasty comment.

I had a party with 30 adults (decor , musician, catered bowl food ) and it came to £5k (with the marquee for £750) .. so think your budget might be a bit tight .. I didn't want anyone to go hungry or to run out of drinks etc .)

The last large scale party I did was for 70 people.

Venue hire £50
Karaoke machine and smoke, lights, mics etc hire £120
Cake I made myself for about £40, multi tiered thing.
I catered it and there was loads of food, came in at about £200.
Decorations and sundries probably another £30.
We catered soft drinks but there was a pay bar.

It was well over £400, probably closer to £500 in the end and I was pretty horrified at the expense. For one night/party. I did all the legwork myself as much as I could to get the cost down but it’s just what it cost really.

As Mumsnet is one of the homes of conspicuous consumption l wasn't surprised to see the projected cost of this 40th bash.

Your Turkish Caterers are well over the mark. They are taking the piss.

As for your Inflatable Night Club. I suppose you can inflate anything, especially the price.Concept sounds a bit childish and silly to me to be honest

I hope you don't have this party outdoors on a windy night. Mary Poppins beware.

Can you not hire a function room with drinks and catering?

We had a huge bouncy castle for our joint adult daughter and grandson's 7th birthday BBQ party. When most of kids had gone home, and enough drink had been imbibed, we had a ball running up the slide, sliding down and dancing on the bouncy bed. It was such fun, the videos still make me laugh.

Gosh there are some po faced comments on this thread! If this is what your husband loves then go for it! I think it sounds like a right laugh. And I don’t think this is entitled or “conspicuous consumption” at all. You’re literally doing it in your back garden who would you be conspicuous to? 😂