Nicole’s Café Birthday and How to Make Your Own

When it comes to birthdays it can often be stressful to try and come up with a theme or vibe, especially as you get older! This year, as it’s my 31st birthday, I wanted to do something low-key and relaxed while still having fun and making sure the day felt special, enter the Coffee Shop Birthday! I had seen a few people online who had café get-togethers at home during the work week and thought what a perfect way to have the birthday of my dreams while also getting to be creative, not to mention have delicious coffee all day. I’m so happy with how everything turned out but the real MVP of this day was my husband Ryan who volunteered to bring his work home and be a barista/bartender for all of our guests throughout the day. As a little extra fun, we also turned over the coffee bar to be a real bar with a signature cocktail in the afternoon for when it was time for something a little stronger. It was an absolute blast and I wanted to share my top tips on how to make your very own Café Birthday, let’s dive in!

Step 1. Pick your Name and Branding

It is no secret that in every good coffee shop, there is a cohesive vibe and pallet which is what makes it so nice to spend time in, not to mention a cool name. To make sure our apartment felt the same way, I opted to lean into my living room’s already green-forward look and decided our main branding colours for our coffee shop would be Hunter Green and a simple beige. Very on-brand! I also knew I wanted to keep any graphics simple so that it was easy to repeat in the invitation, menu and any other signage so I went with a simple flower, a coffee cup and a croissant for any images I wanted to include anywhere in the “shop”. Once I knew the direction I was headed, I needed to pick a name for this special shop. This was tough because I wanted it to mean something to me, feel fun, and if we ever wanted to do this again, not feel dated or irrelevant. I decided to go with ‘Café Commonwood’ which is not only a nod to our favourite coffee shop ‘The Common’ (whose beans we were serving throughout the day) but it is also the name of the shared Animal Crossing New Horizons island my husband and I created together on the Nintendo Switch. No one would ever know that but it was fun just for us.

Step 2. Pick your Layout & Timing

Deciding how the day will be set up for timing felt like such an important element that I imagine for many daytime parties, gets overlooked. We wanted to make sure we weren’t “Open” too early but also didn’t want to waste the day so we opted for 11 AM - 4 PM for the coffee portion, and then from 4 PM - 7 PM turning over into “Bar Commonwood” so people knew when they would likely be joining. It was still a very loose structure but gave guests the option of deciding if they wanted to be part of coffee, drinking or both! As for the layout, I decided to move the furniture (no surprise) so that my desk acted as our “Bar” and the living room felt a little more open for guests. I knew it was unlikely we would use the TV at all that day so it was easy to shift the couch to allow people to still be able to engage with Ryan (and not have their back to him) as he made drinks while still feeling like they were in a coffee shop set up.

Step 3. Decide your Menu

Though my husband said he could just make people whatever they liked, I wanted to make sure that people didn’t feel overwhelmed by choice upon arrival so we kept it simple including classics like lattes, americanos, cappuccinos, and tea beverages both hot and iced and would offer everything with both 2% and oat milk. Something to keep in mind with this selection process is to know what your coffee machine is capable of. We are lucky and have a nice espresso machine so making fancy drinks was easy, plus making homemade vanilla syrup made things extra fancy but if you’re working with a simpler machine maybe opt for quick wins, and nothing too complicated.

I then printed and framed the list to have on the coffee bar so people could select what they liked. This also made our shopping list a lot easier and more focused. Once we hit the bar portion later in the day we opted for BYOB but would have a signature cocktail Ryan would make if people wanted to give it a try. For food, we had a few vegans and vegetarians on our guest list, so the morning before opening Ryan went and picked up pastries from a few different places (so as not to destroy an actual business’ stock right away in the morning) and I made a vegan blueberry banana bread the night before to make sure everyone had something to snack on. I also planned a charcuterie and extra snacks for the bar portion so we still had food after the baked goods were gone.

Step 4. Decor and Styling

Unsurprisingly, this was my favourite part. As someone who has spent arguably too much time in coffee shops, I was very excited at the idea of decorating for one. Once furniture was in place I got to work and decided I wanted a banner sign at the front of the bar to make it feel more official, so I bought some canvas and painted it myself. Keep in mind this definitely wasn’t necessary and was absolutely extra work, but it felt like it was worth it for the final display! I wanted to make our little alcove feel like a separate space so opted to add bunting and flowers to frame it. I had these things on hand from other events but as long as they’re in a colour pallet go wild, it is a party after all! I opted to add fairy lights and a few battery lamps to make it feel like a little forest, it may have seemed silly but we’re all about dopamine decor here and this gave me a lot of joy! I also decided to have some fun and make my very own stamps with the branding I had chosen and stamp all of our cups for the day. It was a small detail but I feel like it added so much, plus I got to do a craft I never had before and now have cute little stamps I can use any time!

Nicole’s Café Birthday and How to Make Your Own

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