Over the Top Party Ideas

Big-budget birthday parties around the world spare no expense when it comes to glittering decor, guest activities and comfort, and high-end food and drink. Here's a look at ideas from spectacular birthday bashes that you can steal for your next event.

To celebrate a 70th birthday, a couple chose a Casablanca theme in an homage to their favorite movie. The front yard was turned into a Moroccan lounge decorated with seating groups, pillows, tables, glass lamps, and hookah pipes evocative of the North African locale.

Guests gambled at a roulette table and noshed on tray-passed Moroccan-influenced hors d’oeuvres such as mini crab cakes with harissa remoulade, smoked salmon on potato pancakes with cardamom crème fraiche, lamb meatballs with tomato and minted yogurt dipping sauce, and spanakopita. A quartet played vintage ‘40s tunes.

Photo: Peter Bohler

Yahoo C.E.O. Marissa Mayer recently celebrated her 38th birthday on the San Francisco Bay's Treasure Island with a beach boardwalk theme. A huge tent housed a massive sand castle decked with beachy props and entertainment, according to Business Insider.

Photo: Jurvetson 

Samantha Sackler and Tammy Morgan Ratner's new social event production firm Social (a division of Samantha Sackler Productions) produced a destination 50th birthday party in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, that treated guests to a weekend filled with events. The festivities kicked off with a welcome dinner on the beach featuring a live-action taco bar, a piñata hung from a truss structure, live entertainment, and s’mores over a fire pit. The weekend included activities like poolside cocktails and beachside volleyball tournaments. It was all capped off with a dinner at one long table overlooking the ocean.

Photo: Courtesy of Social

At the end of the evening at the 50th birthday party in Mexico, a fireworks display was coordinated to the honoree's favorite songs.

Photo: Courtesy of Social

Sackler and Ratner's Social also produced a winter-wonderland-theme child's birthday party that created a snowy look and feel in Los Angeles. A custom-designed treat display offered sweets—and real snow allowed for sledding activities.
Photo: Courtesy of Social


A Great Gatsby inspired party had "Prohibition punch" that was wrapped in paper bags for a speakeasy feel.
Photo: Katie Stoops Photography


A fire dancer advanced the Hawaiian luau theme.
Photo: Mike Windle/WireImage

To celebrate a 75th birthday and pay tribute to the honoree’s birth era, JOWY Productions designed and produced an event with a Coconut Grove-style, ‘30s and ‘40s vintage feel. The Los Angeles event for 200 took its inspiration from the theme “Let’s Relish Life,” a theme announced on the event’s printed materials. The entire party was black and white with silver and crystal accents.

Photo: Peter Bohler