My milestone birthday of 30 years old is this month and I had an early celebration at one of my favorite places in downtown Austin, DuMont’s Down Low. 

However, instead of a birthday party, I planned a Funeral for My Youth, because who doesn’t love themed parties?!

So, I wanted to share my experience and plans with you and if you have any questions, leave them in the comments!

If you’d like to jump directly below to any of the categories, click below!

Austin VENUE

INVITATION

SNACKS

PHOTOBOOTH

DECOR

OUTFIT

Venue

DuMont’s offered me about a third of their seating area from 8pm until close for my party. I had such a great experience setting up the details with their marketing manager, Lauren, and the general manager, Nate along with the other wonderful staff at DuMont’s.

Invitation

I did not hand out physical invitations (even though I would have loved to) because we had to change the date a couple of weeks out. But I ordered the template of the invitation off of Etsy (invite template here) and was easily able to edit it through Templett.

Snacks

I ordered a dozen custom cookies from a local place, Hayley’s Cakes and Cookies a few weeks out for $60. They turned out incredible and were a lot bigger than I had expected. I also bought more cookies from Central Market, that people wouldn’t be afraid to eat (since the others are so darn pretty!).

Also, I made some ‘Champagne Tears’ where I grabbed a couple of pounds of cotton candy grapes, that I soaked overnight in the freezer in champagne and then rolled them around in sugar the next day. They were refreshing and very sweet but delish!

We ordered some snacks from Chispas*, the restaurant next door that DuMont’s shares a menu with. Their Tortas are very, very tasty! [*closed now in 2021]

Photobooth

The talk of the night was our photobooth, GifPod, from Austin City Photo Booth! They are in charge of bringing the unit to your venue, place it in the correct spot you want it, show you how to use it, and then they break it down, and take it from your venue. Additionally, you have the ability to have a digital overlay made for your event and your photos and gifs. 

Not only are there photos you can take, but you can also do boomerangs and burst shots with GifPod!

Decor

For the decorations, I shopped at several places like Amazon, Party City, Spirit Halloween, Oriental Trading, and Target.

Here is an Amazon link with some of the decorations I used: http://a.co/95s0rrw

Outfit

Last, but not least, my dress (dress link here) [$59] was from a boutique in Wimberly, Gypsy Market (Here’s an Amazon dupe for only about $20 cheaper!: https://amzn.to/2NuBl6w ) which I wore a lace bodysuit from Fashion Nova underneath (bodysuit here) [$29.99]. I bought my heels from BooHoo (link here) [$20]. To top it off, I wore Static stiletto Nails that were shiny black except one sparkly black glitter nail (nails here) [$16].

The day before the party, I went and saw my girl, Sarah Bensley at her salon, Sentrel Natural Beauty, and told her I wanted something bold for the start of my 3rd decade. We know that red is my color, but this time, we wanted to go bolder than we’ve ever gone and wow, she nailed it and the color looks remarkable!!

Conclusion

If you have any questions about throwing your own Death to Your Twenties/Funeral For Your Youth (especially in Austin), reach out to me, I’d love to help with any ideas or share more about my experience.

Also, I absolutely recommend hosting an event at DuMont’s Down Low or at least go visit them for a drink! DuMont’s has an extensive selection of bourbon along with a great happy hour and wonderful staff!

I recognize that age is just a number, and we’re all as young as we feel. I’m excited about this new chapter in my life and I have a feeling my 30s will be more exciting and rewarding than my 20s!

Cheers!