Carnival Themed Birthday Party

Carnival Party Details:

This is what Marisol said about planning/styling the party- “My daughter recently turned one and in my favor she was born at the beginning of Fall, my favorite season. So I jumped on the opportunity to throw her a simple backyard yet festive Fall Carnival themed party incorporating pumpkins. I wanted a soft girly approach to a fall themed event so for the invitation I designed a peach colored pumpkin adorned with ruffles and pearls which I in turn used the color scheme and artwork as my inspiration for the rest of the decor. I stuck to earthy tones but mainly the peach and brown.

DIY

For the centerpieces I took faux carvable pumpkins from the craft store and painted them a soft orangy peach color. After they were dry I ruffled strips of muslin with my sewing machine and attached three strips to each pumpkin, then glued on large white craft pearls to replicate my invitation design. My idea was to fill them with flowers and let the top part of the pumpkin hang over but never got to it in the time I had. The rest of the decor was harvest themed, great thing is that all types of Fall themed decor was in season!

A neighbor was discarding a vintage looking changing table so I claimed it and spray painted it in a soft peach and used that as my dessert table. The desserts were all Fall themed including mini pies, pumpkin streusel muffins, sweet and salty peanuts, mini cinnamon rolls and cake! To keep the homemade feel, when ordering the cakes I asked that they have a whipped unfinished look except for her smash cake which was ruffled. I also bought a few stacks of hay from a local feed store to add to that festival feel. For the backdrop I hung strips of fabric and burlaps onto my stand and glued on some fall leaves.

I took a store bought halloween pumpkin piñata from Party City stripped it of its bright orange tissue paper and then took a roll of peach tissue garland and glued it to the piñata to coincide with the theme.

I took what was left of the peach tissue garland and used it to decorate a paper party hat for her then glued on some cute hair accessories and a burlap mini pumpkin all from the craft store. It was definitely one of my favorite touches.

I have also been photographing her first year professionally and used some of the photos from those sessions along with pictures I took on my own and created a banner of images and took a chalk marker and chalk board stickers to label each month. Then used jute rope and clothespins to display them on a fabric wrapped canvas.

All of the food served was homemade which included a Spicy Turkey Chili bar with all the fixing’s and sweet potato chips to dip with. A baked potato bar with toppings bar and had the grill going for the burgers and hotdogs. I used foil hot dog wrappers to keep the buns in. We also served fresh fruit, meatballs and chicken wings. I used slices of wood from the craft store and labeled them with chalkboard stickers for the topping. For the kids I set up a fund foods section with bagged popcorn, cotton candy, juices, lemonade and fruit snacks.

For entertainment I hired a clown to come and coordinate games for the kids as well as a caricature artist. The caricature artist was very talented and it was also a great favor for the kids to take home, definitely a hit!

The party was put together in only a few days and despite the torrential down pour we were blessed with, the party was a success and the kids most importantly the birthday girl and her big brother had a great time”!

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