Everyone knows the best part of a surprise party is the moment when all the guests get to yell . . .

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Jacob’s dad, Chester,  just turned 60 and his mom had the idea to throw him a surprise party. She came up with the name ‘Chesterfest’ and let me take the reigns on the decor.

Remember when I showed you the ‘secret project’ I was working on a few weeks ago?

Well, that was the beginnings of these:

I used this tutorial from Jordan at Oh Happy Day only I didn’t fill them with anything. I was really happy with how they turned out and were practically free, but FYI these babies are time-consuming. As in they probably took 8 to 10 hours.

Here’s what they looked like in front of the cake table. We had photos of Chester all over the table with the cake in the middle.

And what a cake it was.

My mother-in-law’s instructions to the cake decorator were an “Oktoberfest theme” that said “Chesterfest.”

Which they took quite literally. We had to laugh when we picked up the cake to see they had seriously printed a clip art Oktoberfest picture on some edible paper.

Luckily, what the cake lacked in creativity it more than made up for in flavor.I’m still dreaming about that frosting.

For hanging decorations, I designed a six foot vinyl banner to hang on the wall.

And of course I didn’t get any good pictures.

Trust me, it was hilarious.

We had the party in the party room at Big Whiskey’s, a bar in Little Rock. We had our own room, patio and even a private bar. I covered all the walls in Happy Birthday signs and banners. Again, no photos.

My mother-in-law blew up some photos of young Chester and we put 1951 trivia cards on all the tables.

I also designed “60 years of Chester” stickers and we handed them out to the guests as they entered.

We had a great turnout and everyone mingled while we waited for the guest of honor to arrive. . .

To Be Continued!