Hosting My At-Home Cafe Birthday Party!
If you know me, you know I like to go all out for birthdays. I’m a huge fan of entertaining and what better excuse than my own birthday?! I have been seeing the trend of at-home cafes all over TikTok recently, and I just knew that would make the perfect party theme for a birthday in my 30s.
If you haven’t seen the trend before, basically people are hosting little coffee shops in their home for friends and family to stop by and grab a drink and catch up. They provide the drinks and coffee-shop inspired foods (like pastries and sweets) and they create a cozy environment like a cafe but in the comfort of their own home.
So today I’m sharing all the details of how I put together my own little birthday cafe for one day only! Check it out :)
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First and foremost, it was very important to me to create a “brand” for the coffee shop. I went on Canva and designed this adorable cafe logo using our last name and this sweet little french bulldog illustration that I found there. I love using Canva for all my design projects. It is soo easy to use and you don’t need any special design experience or knowledge. They also have so many great existing templates for things that you can easily just customize for your specific needs.
For the cups, I bought a mix of plastic cups (for iced drinks) and paper cups (for hot drinks). And then I ordered custom 2” die cut label stickers from Sticker Mule of my Café Ott logo and stuck one in the middle of each cup. I’m so happy with how they turned out, I kind of want to keep a stash on hand in our apartment for whenever we have guests over now!
Food was another important part of the cafe. We wanted to have a bunch of easy grab-and-go options for guests, but we also didn’t want to give ourselves too much prep work. So we ended up doing a mix of baking and premade items. Here are all the snacks and treats we served:
Scones (Jalapeno bacon cheddar & chive and lemon poppyseed)
Mini cinnamon rolls (from Costco)
Egg Bites (bacon & cheddar and red pepper & feta) - Daniel made these by scrambling up some eggs, adding the ingredients, and baking in a muffin pan.
Yogurt berry parfaits - we filled some glasses with layers of vanilla yogurt, granola, and fresh strawberries and blueberries
Assorted macarons (from Costco)
Cinnamon coffee cake muffins (the gluten free ones from Trader Joes — these are so good!)
Chocolate & almond croissants (these were the frozen croissants from Trader Joes that you just leave out on the counter overnight and bake in the morning)
Funfetti cake pops (we made these with a store bought cake mix box and frosting)
Cutie oranges
I think Kevynn had the best time of anyone at the party. All of her friends stopping by the house all afternoon? It was her dream.
I wanted to have a bunch of seating options for guests around the apartment so I used a mix of our existing furniture and borrowed some stools from our neighbor. Then I put together a bunch of little bud vases using fresh cut flowers from Trader Joes to display at each cafe-style table.
I also setup a water station with a drink dispenser filled with ice water and plastic cups for guests to help themselves throughout the party.
I used an IKEA cart that I had in my craft room to display all the things like straws, stir sticks, spoons, tops for cups, cocktail napkins, and I found the cutest porcelain wavy plates that I thought made the dining experience feel more like a fun local coffee shop!
To display all the food, I already had this wood shelf in our kitchen/dining room area where we normally have things displayed like cook books, jars of dry goods, our toaster, air fryer, etc. I cleared off a few of the shelves and set up different cake stands and trays to make a food display area for people to easily grab-and-go.
I also created some really fun food sign holders that matched the party color palette and style — I’ll have a full blog post on how I made these coming up soon!
I love any chance I get to add an extra cute detail to a party, so I started brainstorming all the elements that you normally see in a cute coffee shop. And one thing that is always fun to peruse is coffee shop merch! So I thought it would be really fun to have little party favor pins available for guests to take that reminded them of Café Ott. There will be a full post up on the blog soon of how I used my Glowforge Aura machine to make these fun themed pins, so stay tuned! The That’s That Me Espresso ones were a huge hit, obviously.
Another element that I made specifically for the party was this adorable Café Ott sign to hang on our front door as guests arrived. I made this using light basswood plywood in my Glowforge Aura craft laser. I simply used the laser machine to cut out the outside shape on one piece of wood and painted it this pretty lilac purple (part of the party color scheme). Then I cut out the inside of the logo on a second piece of wood and glued them together for this cool 3D coffee shop sign.
Creating the right ambiance for the party was another important factor in setting up a cafe space. So with the help of my sister, Chrissy, we have created the perfect Coffee Shop Ambience Spotify playlist that we had playing on low throughout our apartment all afternoon. Check out the playlist here for your next party:
My husband Daniel did such an amazing job as the barista for the party. He actually had just bought a new espresso machine a few days before the event and worked tirelessly to perfect the best pull of espresso (thanks Daniel!!). So not only did he serve a bunch of yummy espresso drinks, but he also prepared some of the beverages the night before and kept pitchers in the fridge for quick options. Here was our drink menu for the cafe:
Latte (hot or iced)
Vanilla latte (hot or iced)
Iced coffee
Brown sugar shaken espresso
Matcha latte (hot or iced)
Cold brew coffee
Peach & orange iced tea
Hot tea
And one of my favorite personalized touches that I ordered for the party was this big menu poster that we hung next to our coffee shop “counter”. Again, I used Canva to create the design. And then I simply had it same-day printed at our local CVS in a large 24” x 36” poster size and put it in a poster frame that we already had up on this wall.
I know I said that Café Ott would only be open for ONE DAY ONLY! in my invitation… but we had such a fun time hosting this party that I think we will have to bring it back again soon!
If you are celebrating an upcoming birthday, or even if you are just looking for a fun, unique hosting idea for the summer months ahead, I would highly recommend hosting an at-home coffee shop for your friends & family. It is such a fun excuse to get everyone together to catch up in a very relaxed atmosphere.
Hope you enjoyed seeing all the details from the party, and thanks again to everyone for their birthday wishes!
xo Rachael
