My Dr Pepper Birthday Party

This year is the first time I've celebrated my birthday away from my parents and younger brother. I've lived close enough to them to be able to get together for birthdays and holidays every year until now. We've been in Texas for 9 months now, and while we love it here, this is the first birthday we've come upon (since we moved two days after Nate's birthday in January). It has been hard, but I know Christmas will be harder.

So, to keep from being so bummed about it, I decided to plan a little Dr Pepper themed party for myself. Not that my husband wouldn't do it...because he was very willing, but I wanted to do it because I love being creative, decorating, event planning and fun things like that. It was truly a joy for me.

I joined the addiction that is Pinterest, and I pinned so many ideas for my party-on-a-budget. Seeing as I'm already an avid fan of Dr Pepper, it was super-easy to use things I already had for this evening.

For example, I have three awesome vintage Dr Pepper bottles that today I discovered (while touring the Dr Pepper Museum in Waco) are older than I thought!

I have two like these with the red 10-2-4 design. They are from the 50s (when I previously thought they were from the 70s).

I also have one of the above clear bottles that reads "Good For Life" under the logo. It is from between 1927-1950, when I previously thought it was 1950s or later. I also already owned a vintage wooden Dr Pepper crate, which is from the same period. The rest of the items in the photos are self-explanatory. 

I used Dr Pepper flavored Jelly Belly Jelly Beans that I found on clearance for half-price (*squeal!!!*) at Target to hold the roses in place.

The recipe for Dr Pepper cupcakes came from here.

Please don't judge my cupcakes too harshly; this was A) my first time decorating cupcakes pretty much ever, and B) I discovered my muffin pans are smaller than the cupcake liners which resulted in squished and weird-looking cupcakes. When I bake, I usually make cookies, so this was kind of an adventure for me. :o) The "28" design was what I decided to do instead of candles. I initially wanted to copy the look of the "23 flavors" on the Dr Pepper bottle, but it was way too intricate to do repeatedly on cupcakes for my first try.

Dr Pepper made with cane sugar - the original recipe. You really can't tell the difference in the taste, but the little glass bottles are awesome. :o)

I also made a banner that says, "I'm a Pepper", but I have to wait until I can get better lighting to get a good picture of it.

I originally wanted to have chocolate covered strawberries and raspberries stuffed with chocolate chips for other snacks, but it was a bit too pricey for our tiny budget right now. We all enjoyed it anyway!