My 2000s Emo Themed 30th Birthday Party

Okay, okay. I know the real reason you're all here. I threw an epic 30th birthday party—with a mandatory theme and all. I created hype around it, shared sneak peeks on TikTok, and posted some epic photos on my Instagram. I get it, you're ready for the breakdown of the party and I'm ready to share 😈.

@michelekatsaris y’all aren’t ready 😜 • #30thbirthday #itwasneveraphasemom #februarybirthday #aquarius #elderemo #millennial ♬ Misery Business - Paramore

I almost don't even know where to begin so I guess I'll just go in chronological order. This means we're going back to a year ago when the planning began. Originally I wanted to be in Greece for my 30th, but a friend told me how crappy it is during this time of the year and to just wait a couple more months and go in the late summer/early fall. Okay, fine, but now what do I do? I always had this theme of 2000s Emo/Elder Emo/MySpace Emo—whatever you call it—and once I settled on the theme, from there I was unhinged.

While starting to plan this party I originally thought that the party would be in Northern Virginia since 99% of my friends and family live there—and I was too at the time! But the last fall as you all know, my boyfriend and I bought our home in Florida. So what did that mean for the party? I had two choices—plan for the party in NOVA and fly home for the weekend or save a crap ton of money and invite all my friends and family to come to Florida for the weekend. I knew it was a big ask but as I mentioned in My Birthday Weekend blog post I appreciate all the people who did come down for my party because it meant the world to me. And it just showed how many people I have in my life that love and care that much about me ❤️.

So we re-directed and started planning the party to be in Florida the weekend of my birthday. I invited probably close to 100 people and a little over 30 people came. Mostly people from Virginia, but we also have some friends and family in Florida too which was a great way to blend our old and new worlds together. Since I invited a lot of people I decided instead of sending the same text over and over again, I actually made a birthday website that had all the party info, the mandatory theme (linking a Pinterest board for inspo), and a place to RSVP. The website was password protected and had all the information anyone would need.

As it got closer, I started cracking down on people's RSVPs because I offered everyone to stay with us at our house. Our house did come fully furnished so we had about 20+ spots for people to sleep between all the couches, pull-out beds, air mattresses, and actual mattresses. I also decided to create welcome bags for the people staying with us and with the leftover items I made some goodie bags for people who were just coming to the party. I set up all the bedrooms and totally transformed my home into an Airbnb 😅 (pun intended).

@michelekatsaris made welcome bags for the 20+ friends that stayed with us during my bday weekend 😜 • #30thbirthday #welcomebagsideas #goodiebags #DanceWithTurboTax #partyplanning #elderemo ♬ Pretty Girls Walk - Big Boss Vette

The next thing to do was plan out the details. Ohhhhh, I had so many details to include. The theme was very important and I made sure everyone knew if you didn't at least, at the bare minimum, show up wearing all black then you would be asked to leave. I was not going to spend all this time and money planning a party for people to half-ass it. And while I love my friends, they have half-assed in the past. So I had to make it SUPER clear that I was not fucking around. To make it easier for people I provided multiple options for people to ~spice~ up their fits just in case. Starting with party merch. I told y'all I was extra AF. I created custom t-shirts that say "Michele's 30th" on the front and "It Was Never A Phase" on the back. I ordered 45 shirts in various sizes and gave one to everyone staying with us as well as put one in the goodie bags. I then ordered 50 custom rubber bracelets that say "Michele's 30th" on one side and "Elder Emo" on the other and put it in everyone's bags as well. I then set up a beauty bar by the entrance complete with temporary tattoos, fake facial piercings, black eyeliner, choker necklaces, extra merch bracelets, glow sticks, and those thin black silicone bracelets we used to wear back in the day. I'm so, so happy I had this station set up because people really used it! Everyone had temporary tattoos on their necks, hands, and face—it was hilarious. And the boys actually used more eyeliner than the girls did 😅. It was a great detail to include! Next to the beauty station was a voting station for the best-dressed. In order to get people excited about the theme and actually participate I also held a best-dressed (male and female) that everyone voted on. The winners freakin' deserved it too, because they brought they killed it! Across from the voting section was a photo booth—duh!

@michelekatsaris turning my house into a 2000s emo party 🖤🎶🍾 outfit reveal at the end 🕷️ • #30thbirthday #emothemedparty #emothemedbday #2000semo #millennial #millenialsoftiktok #elderemotiktok #elderemo #elderemomillennial ♬ There's a Good Reason These Tables Are Numbered Honey, You Just Haven't Thought of It Yet - Panic! At The Disco

The details don't stop there though. As you walk more through the house you'll see the decorations all over the place. I'll go into the decor a little later, but we made sure to give the DJ (Shout out Gabe) a lot of room so that way people could "mosh" 😂 to their fave emo songs throughout the night. Over at the bar I even made signature cocktails and shots for people to order. The bar menu included 2 cocktails: Rawr xD (Shirley Temple + Vodka) and Stacy's Mom's Spicy Marg (Tajin Rim + Spicy Margarita, Ritual Zero Proof Tequila Alternative) and 3 shots: Sugar We're Going Down (Pop Rock Rim + Orange Juice + Pineapple Vodka), What's My Age Again? (Cinnamon Rim + Apple Juice + Whiskey) and Where Are You? (Edible Glitter + Black Tequila). Everyone wanted to know what "Black Tequila" was, but it was just black food dye in tequila 😂—I had to be on theme okay, hah!

I also made a video to play on a loop throughout the party of old 2000s Emo music videos mixed with photos and videos from that chapter of my life (middle-high school), but unfortunately, the HDMI chord kept fucking up throughout the night so I don't think we actually saw the whole video. But when it was working (Thanks Javi!) the photos were so cute and great memories to see photos with friends I've had for so long 🖤.

The last thing we had set up was actually a last-minute addition. Shout out to Rocio for this idea, we set up the laundry room to be a confessionals room. You know in reality tv how the cast will do private interviews in front of a green screen—we wanted to do the same thing! I purchased a small camera, a green screen backdrop, and a ring light/tripod combo for people to record their "confessions" throughout the night. It wasn't perfect but man was it funny! First of all the camera kept dying so I had to keep charging it throughout the night, then it was like the same 3 people to do confessionals so I had to explain it over and over and really push people to go do it hah. But once I explained it for the 100th time (or maybe it was after my 100th birthday shot 😅) I just let people do their own thing. I'm shocked I found the camera the next day because it looks like people took it out of the confessional's room and just started filming the party haha. I loved editing this and putting it all together because this quickly became a staple or "must-do" for every party now. GREAT IDEA RO!

@michelekatsaris my 30th birthday 🙌🏼 • #emo #emobirthday #emobirthday💔🥀⛓ #elderemo #millennial #30thbirthday ♬ Misery Business - Paramore

Now let's focus on decorations. There's not much to say about the decorations really hah, I thrifted a lot of black party decor and 30th birthday decorations last summer, and then I purchased a bunch of stuff off of Amazon and the dollar store. So let's see, here's a list of everything I got—black streamers, number 30 balloons, number 30 birthday cake candles, black roses, color-changing lightbulbs, it was never a phase banner, colored-light sconces, checkered balloons, happy birthday letter balloons, chalk pendant banner, black table cloths, and a shit ton of black balloons! Phew—did I forget anything 😅?

For food, we just kept it simple with some appetizers like taquitos, chicken fingers, wings, pastry bites, chips, cupcakes, and chocolate cake. I also had a light of drink options outside of the bar including seltzers, beers, and non-alcoholic drinks.

@michelekatsaris 30 going on 13 🖤🥀⛓️ • #elderemo #emobirthday #emobirthdayparty #emobirthday💔🥀⛓ #millennial #elderemomillennial #elderemotiktok #30thbirthday ♬ Teenagers (Live in Mexico City) - My Chemical Romance

After we got the house decorated, it was time to get ready!! I originally had planned to wear one outfit and then do an outfit change, but the first outfit I was going to wear you've already seen because I wore it in my birthday photoshoot, and I was freakin' tired by the time it was ready to get dressed hah. So I decided to ditch the outfit change and wear outfit number two. I freakin' LOVED my outfit. To start off I wore these high-waisted black cargo pants, then I layered a fishnet shirt underneath this corset top with mesh sleeves. It sounds odd, but the combo together really gave it that edgy look I was going for. I wore my checkered high-top vans and black french-tipped press-on nails. But the crown jewel was this black and purple long wig. No one even recognized me when they first got here 😂. It definitely gave me the Emo-themed hair that I had always wanted, but since it was a wig and we were jumping around dancing all night it eventually had to come off.

@michelekatsaris my outfit was everything my teenage emo heart could have wanted 🖤🥀🎶 • #elderemo #30thbirthday #birthdayoutfit #2000semokid #2000semo #scenekid #elderemomillennial #elderemotiktok ♬ Shake It - Metro Station

And now...the party!!!

I loved every minute of the party. And what I loved most was that everyone (to this day) is telling me how much fun they had at the party which makes me so happy. Watching all of these videos back you can just see all the smiles on everyone's faces. There was absolutely no drama, no fights, no arguing, no annoyances—and if there was, everyone, respected me enough to take that shit outside. We played beer pong, took photos, announced best dressed, talked, took bday shots, and RAGED on the dance floor. DJ Gabe crushed it with the playlist and we played Emo music until about 3 a.m. Then we switched to trap house music and partied our asses off until almost 6 a.m.—freakin' crazy! I think all but three people crashed at the house haha. And as promised I had a place for everyone to sleep. It's hard to explain how much fun this party was, how do you put into words one of the best nights of your life? Even writing this now I'm in tears because it was everything I wanted and more. It beat every expectation I had—which is really hard to do as someone with high expectations. My friends who came all the way from Virginia I just want to say THANK YOU. I know it was a lot to just come to Florida for the weekend, but truly with all my heart I love you all so damn much and am so honored to be one of your friends.

A big thank you again to all of my friends and family who made my 30th birthday so, so special. My 30th birthday was everything my angsty teenage heart could have imagined.