Birthday party design can be a challenge, especially for kids. They tend to be set in their ways and only want what their friends like. So even if they have been to 20 Princess parties, there are some little girls who just want a princess at their party too. Well not this little girl! {I mean mom...} Our son's birthday is half a year away from his little sister's, so they each begin planning as soon as the last guest has left their sibling's party. So Mid-October, someone decided "Fashion" was the theme this year. Up until the planning of the actual event, she was pretty set in her theme. When we got down to what a "Fashion Birthday Party" meant, we had a slight difference of opinion. Theme and Inspiration
Invitations With a more concrete idea in my head, I start to work on the elements of the event. First, the Invitations. They were inspired by backstage passes that I found but I kept it simple and monochromatic. After all they are really more for the enjoyment of the parents than the children who can barely read. Handwritten names in calligraphy gave the invitations a sophistication. I used a variety of white and black patterned papers on the front of the invitations, that I planned to carry into the decorations. The back was straightforward; when, where and a little what to wear {added to prevent princess costumes}. Decorations
Once the photos were hung, the space began to look more like a studio. Curtains were hung in an archway for the show with a red "carpet" for the girls to walk down. A photographer and mommy "paparazzi" were given a space at the end of the carpet. The Main Event Little girls were whisked behind the curtain and their makeovers began. From a little sparkle added to their cheeks and lips, to accessories to spice up their look. We basically turned out dining room into a very large tickle trunk and let the girls play dress up. {Snacks were available throughout} The stations that were set up behind the curtains to get the girls red carpet ready became part of the decor of the event so we kept them to theme in mostly black and white. When they were ready, we sent them out to the red carpet and the awaiting paparazzi. {Make sure to take the parents' emails to send photos of their child}. Once the girls were fashioned out, we moved onto the traditional birthday party schedule of events. Presents, cake, and optional craft. The craft was coloring black white drawings of dresses from different eras in fashion. Final Touches Thank you gifts were filled with cookies and cream cake pops covered in white chocolate and a small square of temporary tattoos {the tiniest bit of Frozen}. They were then individually wrapped in white tissue paper with black ribbon. I really like the idea of a small Thank you gift and wrapping them makes them that much more special. This isn't an event for 30 kids but I would still try and do something special if it were. Thank you! While most of the items were handmade by Rose, we are grateful for the help from the moms who helped make the girls glamorous. As with anything many hands make light work and I think that the adults enjoyed the party as much as the girls, which made it a success in my books.
Big Thank you to Genevieve Goyette Photography for the photo shoot and the action shots at the event. So you have decided on a theme, you've set the date, and organized a guest list. How are you going to get people to your event? Well unless you are doing a major media launch for an obscure brand of shoelace cleaner, you can just send an invitation. {Actually, the shoelace cleaning company would probably send out at least one invitation as well} But how do you send out an invitation these days? Does anyone use paper anymore? Do online invites only work for kids parties or girls' night out? And what do you say exactly? How early should you send them? What if no one responds?!?! I know you know the questions, so let's get to some of the answers! Paper or VirtualThe first thing to consider is your event and your guest list.
Once you have decided whether to send paper or virtual invitations, you can browse through some of my favorite links for each.
Design and Print or Send Maybe the templates just don't do your idea justice. In that case, you can alwasy design your invitation from scratch using an online program like Canva {my fav} and it's custom Wedding invitation Designer. Obviously, you are not limited to wedding invitations and there are lots of fun graphic tutorials to help you refine the look. WordingYou've decided on a delivery method but what are you going to say? There is some basic information that your guests will need in order to attend your fab event.
*Be sure to set a clear response method and date. And don't be shy to check with people who haven't responded, everyone is busy these days! When to SendYou want to give your guests the opportunity to receive and reply to your invitation in time for you to put on a fabulous event. If you are having hand embroidered place cards done for each guest, then you may want some advance notice to who is coming and who will not be attending. For a playdate at the park to get ready to go back to school numbers are not so important.
And of course, don't forget to Thank your guests after but we will talk about that in another post!
Looking to create a Mood Board? It isn't as hard as you think. I first learned about making mood boards when I was working on rebuilding my catering and event website. I took a course called the Girl's Guide to Web Design and it was given by a friend of a friend, self-paced, and a really good introduction to coding and building a site from concept to launch. {Yes, I recommend it.} One of my favorite take aways from the class was the Mood Board, which is a collage of images and text that give a way to define and refine your vision. When I say that it is one of my favorite takeaways, I really mean FAVORITE! I started using them as discussion points for clients, for event guidelines, and for pure graphic delight, whenever the mood hit me. How to Find Images
How to Make a Mood Board There are only three steps to making a mood board.
When I am working on creating a board, I do not just go in search of decorations or photos of other people's events. I try and think about how I want to feel at the event and then I start pinning whatever makes me feel that way. After I have all those photos on one board, I add in some specific decoration, food and drink ideas. At this point there is no judgement, I'm not trying to create a theme in pictures. I am just gathering. Here is what my Pinterest Board looks like. Things to Remember
It is important to mention that I use these boards only for inspiration. By this time we have all seen and or experienced the Pinterest fails and that is definitely not my intention. I want to be inspired when I start to shop, when I plan the menu, when I design the invitations, and when I talk to my guests about the party. The board above is just my starting point. As the event creeps closer, I will add more pieces. I hope you have fun playing with the mood boards!
Rose I was so lucky to have Elisa Elliot, photographer and master story teller, to record some of the memories of our Ice Cream Social. It is her beautiful work that starts off this post on building a toppings bar and it puts me in the mood to shop for candy! Now if you don't have little people to help you choose the toppings, you will have to tap into your inner child and think of the biggest and best ice cream sundae that could ever be - those are the toppings you want to include. Your bar should include something chocolate, something crunchy, and something sprinkly. How many of each is completely up to you but as they say variety is the spice of life. And of course, there must be chocolate sauce. Feel free to add caramel, strawberry, and pineapple if you want more of a banana split feel. If children are invited I would leave out items that contain nuts. I like to mix purchased and prepared items, so I made the chocolate sauce and brownies but left the Salted Caramel to Genevieve Grandbois (a local chocolatier}. And while you can pick up several things at the local bulk barn, it is nice to have some more sophisticated items as well. Finally, the fun thing about a bar of any sort is the variety of containers and heights that you use to display your items. I tried to stick with glass and porcelain but played with the shapes of containers that I used from a square vase to a retro lemon juicer. Pistache always says that you eat with your eyes first, so make sure to give the toppings visual appeal. I am including a checklist for your next ice cream social. You just have to print out the invitations from my last post and get to shopping! Click here to download your checklist!This year, I wanted to welcome summer with an ice cream social. The idea was to get together with friends one time before the crazy schedules of summer took over. What I envisioned was something like this... But there are several steps between idea and event and along the way there is plenty of room for distraction. The first thing for me is always the guest list and the invitation. With young families on the list the numbers increase very quickly. Keeping it under 50 people seemed daunting at first but once the replies came back that a couple families were vacationing we ended at just under 30 people. Invitations were simple with a retro twist. I made a template in case you are inspired to host your own. Click on the image below to download the template. All plans require a back up plan. The original plan was to make ice cream sundaes for an hour and then head to a local water park to occupy the kids and give the adults time to socialize. However, I have not been able to bend the weather to my will on every occasion so a back up plan was in order. The secondary plan was to have a range of activities set up inside for the kids after they finished their ice cream. Which plan did we go with? Sometimes the best thing to do at an event is go with the flow. All of the guests enjoyed the party. The adults were able to talk with old and new friends. The kids had a great time inside and outside with lots of running around in the rain. And I was very happy with the way everything turned out.
If you are curious about how the Ice Cream Bar turned out, come back next week for the next post - Building An Ice Cream Bar! |
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