A Celebrity Decorator's 1920s Party

“I was wearing a vintage-inspired wedding dress, and at times, it really did feel like a wedding. One I could actually enjoy,” said Sommers.

Because the requested attire, 1920s formalwear, was clearly stated on the invitation, Sommers considered the guests themselves to be the primary decoration. “The women in their beads and feathers, and the men in their tuxedos, looking so handsome — they made the party beautiful,” she says. (That dapper gent at the left is Ruthie's dad.)

Otherwise, she kept things simple, and surprisingly inexpensive: Tables were covered in burlap; dozens of white Ikea votives lit the rooms; and well-placed single gardenias in shallow bowls, plus jam jars ($16/dozen at cooking.com) filled with calla lilies and green hydrangea, were the finishing touches.

Lilac matchboxes were printed with “happy birthday” on one side and “to me” on the other.

“What’s most important to me is that people feel taken care of, not serving complicated food,” says Sommers. I avoid big messy food tables. She used a sizable chunk of her budget to hire wait staff, dressed in white jackets, to pass food on trays, including chicken pot pie served in white ramekins and endive with blue cheese.

Tiny Altoids tins were passed around on a silver tray, with a card that read, “You might need these.” And a cigarette girl passed around packs of Juicy Fruit and other treats.

Sommers, who has two young girls—one three and the other barely six months—stayed up way past her typical bedtime. “I finally went to sleep at 3:30 a.m. with fifty people dancing in my living room. I said, ‘I’m forty years old! There’s no way I can see stay up to see that sun rise.’”