In my head, I come up with fantastic ideas to make a party perfect. I search on Pinterest, make special boards and plan it all out. Then, I begin actually putting it together and either time, money or ability prevents my party from resembling those I see online. I’m not a good enough party planner to devote much space to them here… so, I’ll just post some pictures and ideas for how an average non-party-planner (me) can make a pretty cute party at an affordable price.
Themes
Rainbow Party
My daughter has always been obsessed with rainbows. Her rainbow birthday party was so easy to put together and the decorations were all very affordable.
• Rainbow Decorative Garlands ~ For the rainbow wall garland, each strand was separate and taped together behind the white tissue poufs. I bought the yellow and blue garlands at Michael’s and cut out shapes for red, orange, green and purple that I taped on yarn.
• Rainbow Sprinkle Cake ~ I love the way this simple sprinkle birthday cake turned out. I covered the cake in homemade cream cheese frosting and then poured jumbo nonpareil sprinkles all over it. Simple!
• Rainbow Beverage Bucket ~ I found these Izze drinks by accident. I bought them solely for the purpose of looking like a rainbow in a beverage bucket, but as an added bonus they tasted good.
• Rainbow Fruit Platter ~ My sister had this white wavy platter, that sort of resembled a cloud. It was perfect! We just cut up strawberries, cantaloupe, pineapple, green grapes, blueberries, and blackberries.
• Rainbow Balloon Archway ~ I made this balloon archway over the door with balloons I already had in my party drawer at home. I used wire to keep them all together and just taped it up above our door. It turned out okay considering the mismatched balloons and lack of time!
• Rainbow Sprinkle Pretzels ~ These are just dipped in dark or white chocolate, and while still wet, sprinkled with sprinkles.
• Rainbow Cloud Cookies ~ I bought natural food coloring on Thrive Market, so that’s why the colors are not quite as bold. I love the look of these and I love that they aren’t made with artificial food coloring.
Vintage Newspaper Baby Shower
“Big News”
• Design a few custom newspaper front pages, print them out in various sizes. Put the larger ones on the wall and smaller ones to wrap utensils. You can also roll the smaller ones to look like real rolled newspapers and use those as decor.
• Stacking Oreos to resemble a tiered cake is a super easy, cheap and delicious way to have a black and white display-worthy “cake”.
• Coffee and donuts go with the newspaper theme, so here we set up a fun coffee and donut bar. The coffee cups had personalized sleeves / jackets.
• A personalized crossword puzzle is a fun game that perfectly fits the newspaper theme.
• A mimosa bar doesn’t particularly fit the newspaper theme, but it’s super fun to have at any daytime party.
• The cookies were custom made by a bakery, but if you’re friends with a talented artist/baked-goods-decorator, personalized cookies are a wonderful touch.
• We’re lucky to have a friend with a vintage typewriter!
Out of This World Party
My son is OBSESSED with the solar system, and all things outer space really. So, for his second birthday, we had an outer space themed party.
Some of the food included:
• Moon Birthday Cake
• Planet Cake Pops
• Saturn Fried Chicken and Waffles
• Rocket Sausages
• Rocket Fruit Kabobs
• Milky Way Candies & Meteorite Rock Candy
Appetizers
I LOVE mini individual appetizers for parties. These individual seven layer dips are always a big hit!
I’ve also done something similar with veggies and dip: spoon some hummus or another dip in the bottom and top with vegetable sticks. If you want to get really fancy, instead of a plastic cup, used a hollowed out baguette.
Sweets & Treats
For my children’s birthday parties I always make sugar cookies that go with the theme and wrap some up individually to go with party favors.
Adorable cake pops are not quite as easy as they look, but they are an appreciated touch to any party. You can see more of my amateur attempt at professional cake pops here: cake pops.
Labeling Glasses
Cute ways to guests identify their glass…
If you don’t have wine charms and want any easy way to label glasses, write on them! You can use a chalk marker because it washes off easily. But the only problem with these is that if the glass gets wet, the name will rub right off. A paint pen would be a little less temporary of an option.
Another way to help people identify their glasses: put a sticker with everyone’s first initial on their glass.
Misc Touches
• Striped paper straws always add a fun touch.
For a baby shower, display children’s books that go with the shower theme and the mom-to-be can take the books home as a gift.
