Ask any of my friends, I love me a good birthday party. Whether it's throwing one for others or for myself, I like to go ALL out, because, why not? You only turn (insert age) once plus it's a reason to get all your favorite people together for an epic party.

For my 30th I wanted to go big, as most of us do, so I settled on The Amado in Palm Springs which ended up being the PERFECT spot for 20 or so people. I won't go into to much detail about the place, since you can check it out on their site, but it basically boasts 6 bedrooms each in their own secluded apartments with one main guest house that all look in to the pool. You can book individual units or the whole property, so naturally, I booked the entire property and it was awesome!

#pursuing30 came with a pretty busy itinerary but the goal was to make the most of Friday night on the town then spend the rest of the weekend at the house ie: have an epic pool party...

And pool party we did! Besides booze (thanks Whaling Club!) and tunes, there are four other must-haves to making any pool party a success:

1. pool floats 

I knew I didn't want the typical swan or pizza floaty, so I turned to funboy since they're like the epitome of awesome pool floats.  The pegasus and gold swan were great loungers and photo props. They also fit 2 people pretty comfortably! Of course, the boys ended up using them to play a game -  who could jump from the side of the pool and successfully land on the float without dumping it over - 30 going on 13, always! Psst... don't forget the air pump, these babies are impossible to blow up with your mouth.

FUN BOY FLOATS FTW

2. polaroid pics

It's not a party without polaroids, promise, they're better than Instagram sometimes! I bought a few cameras and laid them out around the pool area for everyone to grab snaps. Then on Sunday I strung them in the main house for everyone reminisce on during brunch. 

Polaroid Picks

{photos:valorie darling}

3. huge balloons

Every party needs an instagrammable balloon backdrop, am I right? I shied away from doing # signage because it's been done... a lot. In brainstorming some funny sayings, a friend and I landed on YOUNG AF, that's young as f*** in case it doesn't translate. It totally represented my feelings about being 30 and was just the right amount of letters for a pool backdrop. Note to self: be very trust worthy with whoever is in charge of blowing these up. One mishap and you're without a letter! I would almost suggest having backup balloons if it's feasible. Believe me, you don't want your significant other driving all around Palm Springs looking for a replacement. Yup, that happened.

4. FRIENDS!

Duh, birthdays are nothing without friends. I can't even explain how much joy it gives me to look back on these pics because we just had the most incredible time and made some hysterical memories.

Stay tuned - back tomorrow sharing all about the Saturday AM champagne bar! 

EssentialS for an epic pool party