A Mad Mad Birthday

I realized it has been a while since I told you about one of our special events so I thought I would get back into the swing of things by telling you about a really fun first birthday party I recently planned and designed for one of my favorite long time clients.

Last Summer my client contacted me to start the process of planning her daughter's first birthday party.  Having worked with this client several times, I had a good idea of what she wanted and immediately went to work to plan the perfect party for her little girl.

We started with the venue.  After checking out several potential locations we decided that the perfect place for the party would be Maritime Parc on the waterfront in Jersey City.  While the party was in Winter, the venue has great views of the city and provided the perfect backdrop for the party.

Now that we had the venue, it was time to decide on a theme for the Birthday.  My client wanted something fun but not over the top.  The first thing that came to my mind was "Alice in Wonderland".  My client loved the idea so I now set off to pull together all of the other elements needed for the party.

To start setting the theme I knew I would need the perfect invitation.  To create the invitation I enlisted the help of Ceci New York.  Ceci created a custom invitation that was perfect to set the stage for our Alice in Wonderland theme.  Using a Mad Hatter shape as the base, and pink and purple as the primary colors, the invitation had the whimsical look that I was looking for.

In thinking about the Alice in Wonderland decor I thought it would be great to make the birthday cakes become part of the decor.  To do this I initiated the help of Anne Heap of Pink Cake Box to create a themed cake that would serve as the focal point of each tables decor.  I cannot tell you what a great choice this was as Pink Cake Box creating some of the most incredible cakes I have seen.  Just look at the photos of some of the cakes they created for this Birthday.

Now we had the invitation and cakes, next on my agenda was the entertainment.  I knew my client would really like to have a lot of activities to keep the kids busy so I contacted Darren of On the Move Entertainment to put together the various elements to create a fun party for all of the kids that would be attending.  Keeping with the theme we naturally had to have Alice and the Mad Hatter in attendance.  

To help Alice and the Mad Hatter we enlisted the help of a great face painter, an amazing balloon artist, and Wacky Wendy who truly lives up to her name.  Also, to help the parents relax for the afternoon, Tish from Elegant Event Sitters provided staff to take care of the kids and make sure everyone was having fun.

I cannot tell you how much fun I had putting this party together with all of the details that went into the decor to carry the theme through the party.  While we had these amazing cakes for the centerpiece, I added a lot of small touches that were simple but really finished off the party.  

This includes the bright pink embroidered taffeta linens and special touches like the teapots filled with bright pink and purple flowers, butterflies that were used to accent the napkins.  Everything came together for a terrific birthday.

When all is said and done it was a wonderful party for a terrific client.  I really want to thank all of the vendors who helped bring all of the elements together and a special thanks to Jen at Fifth Avenue Digital for the terrific photography that is features here.

Until the next great party.

Cheers!