Making plans for my 40th birthday (part 1)

Ah yes, the inevitable 40th celebration draws close. Only 309 days to go. It's time to plan for that evenings shenanigans!

First up, securing a place to throw the party. I had my mother book the party venue where she lives, so that's nailed down. I just need to pay the 1800 dkk security deposit, which should be due sometime next week. Once that's been paid, the next stage of the planning begins: Inviting people. So far, I have invited 23 people, 24 with me. Some of the people I want to invite does not have a Facebook account, so I am estimating that 30 people will be there, so I have to order food for that amount of people. I need to make sure that there is enough for everyone to eat. Even if we're not 30 people, I will still order that much food. Nothing worse than running out of food halfway through meal service. I am in touch with a catering company that can provide me with food for 30 people, at 129 dkk per person, so I am looking at 3870 dkk for the food alone.

I also need soda, beer, wine and alcohol. The beer is 744 for six crates plus the fee on the cans as well. 24 cans per crate, that's 144 extra. 744 for the beer alone. Then comes the soda. I need six crates of coke as well as six crates of various mixed soda. Six crates of coke for 744, the same price as the beer. The other six crates of mixed soda is 447 dkk, meaning that for the beer and soda, I'm looking at 1935 dkk. Then I need wine and alcohol.

Wine is relatively cheap, at around 70 dkk for a boxed wine. I need five of those. That's 350. I also need bottles as well. I am not really a wine guy, so I don't know what I will have to pay for that. I do know that I need seven bottles of red, and seven bottles of white. They usually have an offer where you can get six bottles for 350 dkk, so let's go with that. That's 700 dkk for the wine. I then need the rest of the alcohol. One bottle of whiskey, priced at 177 dkk, three bottles of rum, priced at 100 each, so that's 300 dkk, one bottle of champagne priced at 500 dkk, one bottle of licor 43, priced at 120 dkk, two bottles of Malibu rum, priced at 110 dkk each and two bottles of bacardi rum, priced at 100 dkk each. Adding all that up, I'm looking at 2667 dkk for the wine and alcohol.

Then we come to snacks! Nothing fancy here - just the cheapest I can find. I might just go for ten bags of various chips. One bag is about 15 dkk, so that's 150 dkk in total. Next up is the party sticks. No party is complete without party sticks! Two packs of those, priced at 17 dkk each. I also need a load of candy and chocolate. I expect to pay about 500 dkk for that.

Then, we come to the final expense: Coffee! I think six bags will be enough. Luckily, they are 25 dkk each, so 150 dkk for that.

Now comes the grand total. I'm almost scared to add it up.

With the venue, the food, the drinks and the snacks: 9306 dkk for everything - spared no expense. 9306 dkk is $1367. The price can be more or it can be less. This is just a rough estimate.

I also need some confetti cannons, but they are pretty cheap. 59 dkk each, and I need 10 of them. I can buy one each month, so it's not something I will add into my budget here.

The party is gonna rule, and I can't wait!