You've already got some great ideas - pumpkins and fall mums make great decorations. Collect real or silk autumn leaves to scatter over tables. Send each guest home with a mini pumkin to commemorate the special day.

For your menu choices, I think harvest and comfort foods would be nice: like a beef stew, with field green salad with cranberry vinagrette and thick slices of multi grain bread.

For a nice finish, a spiced carrot cake would be perfect, ask your baker to decorate the cake with frosting or marzipan decorations to compliment your decor (autumn leaves, pumpkins and fall-color flowers). OR go really different - a bread pudding with rum sauce maybe?

Consider serving a fresh chilled or hot mulled cider with your appetizers and/or dessert.

well, don't catch her too much off guard. She's not going to want to be having a bad hair day or an unflattering outfit in front of a hall full of people.
And I'd make sure my menu had sugar free drink options.

im throughing my mom a surprise 50th birthday party. I have rented a hall and there will be a dJ. 80 + guest should i cater or prepare food. what dishes should i serve fro a mid march b-day. Her name is Rose what should i do for decorations. some ideas but there sorta all over the place pleases help..honest opinion needed!!! thank you

Get a caterer! That is a LOT of people to cook for. You can do a few things yourself and ask the caterer to serve if you ask nicely. If a caterer isn't in the budget, at least order prepared food or platters to serve. Cooking for 80 at a hall is just too much.

Hard to say what kind of food. I would pick what your mom loves best -- keeping in mind what your guests will enjoy, too. If she's a baseball fan, for example, have hot dogs and peanuts and beer. If she loves travel, have exotic choices.

But I think really your best bet is to give the caterer a budget and let him/her suggest things. That always works for me.

For decorations, flowers always say "special occasion," but they can be expensive. You can make copies of photos of her at different stages of life and put them in inexpensive lucite frames of different sizes (you may even be able to ask the store if you can return them if you keep them in perfect shape) and put a few on each table for centerpieces, perhaps with a single flower or candle. We did that for my mother's 70th and it worked nicely. Potted flowering plants with a ribbon around the pot are also nice and inexpensive centerpieces (and a lot less work). You can give them as thank you gifts to people who help you with the party.

You are so nice to do this for your mother! Good for you. I am sure she will be thrilled.