My hubby was celebrating a milestone birthday last month. And I wanted to throw him a party. However, I didn’t want to have it at one of those venues that forces you to use their caterer and is crazy expensive after you price out tables, chairs, etc. That’s why I stole an idea from my friends Sean and Victoria who had their engagement party at The City of Mountain Park’s Community Center.
The space is beautiful for a party of 30 to about 75 people. The nice thing is that the space comes with tables and chairs along with the rental fee of only $500. We were able to utilize the tables and chairs to set up all the food and still had plenty of tables left for our guests.
What’s also nice is that there is a wonderful sound system which easily hooks up to an iPod. I should have turned up the music louder for my carefully selected playlist. I also should have taken better pictures for this post, but instead was enjoying the party.
Note that the venue can be a bit tricky to find even if using GPS. And while it is nothing to look at from the outside the interior is pretty nice. There’s even a field adjacent with a pretty gazebo. Though if you want to utilize the gazebo, you’ll have to pay extra. I didn’t opt to pay the extra for it and we still had it all to ourselves if we had wanted it.
As for the food, I first started out with an elaborate menu which consisted of a mix of items I’d make myself plus some items I wanted to order from my favorite Indian restaurant. I decided that it might be too much to cook and set up the same day, so ended up ordering all the food. I wanted to choose something that would be a crowd pleaser . Even if I am a foodie, that doesn’t mean all my guests would be. So, I ultimately decided Mexican would be my best bet.
I love Teela Taqueria. They have incredible food, so I ordered a taco bar from them. Everything was a breeze with ordering and setting up the day of the party. Artie, co-owner, did a wonderful job! For starters the lime dusted chips were fantastic by themselves but the cheese dip, guac and salsa were equally tasty. I opted for chicken and brisket filling for the tacos and while the brisket was better, both seemed to be pretty well-liked from our crowd. The taco bar also came with sides of rice, beans and jalapeno slaw. Everything was fantastic!
We also had a photo booth complete with props from Let’s Booth It. They were a breeze to work with too. I sent them the party invitations and they quickly made a unique outline for all our pics. The booth operator was on time and set his space up quickly. Everyone seemed really thrilled to have the photo booth there – and we got some terrific pics!
