My husband Mark turns 40 this year, and when I asked him how he'd like to celebrate it, he responded, "A day at the cottage with friends." So this weekend, we did just that.

Naturally, there was some paper prettiness that went down. He is married to me, after all. I joke with friends that my creativity ends when I get in the kitchen, so I tried to line up as much catering as I could so that I was able to focus on my forté: cute decorations, and good wine. Hehe.

For the theme, I started with a black & white chalkboard motif... but then I worried that it might seem too depressing (mostly black), so I threw some mint green in there. Where does the "20+20" come from? Well, he's as fun as two twenty year olds (I wish I knew where I read that...) so I thought I'd spin off of that for fun. I cut long runners (12" wide) out of chalk cloth that I found here, and then at the last minute I drew some fun swirls and numbers on the runners. It was an easy way to dress up our simple white tablecloths!

Our food was catered by the phenomenal chef Dino Grossi, a client and friend of mine from Volare Ristorante in Wixom. And together with the help of some friends and family, we pulled off a perfect evening and the funnest weekend filled with laughter, conversation, and good food to celebrate my hubby.

Looking forward to many more birthday celebrations to come!

Happy Birthday Mark!