Real party: elephant and balloon first birthday - Dairy Foods

This beautiful event was submitted by Susana and Clara of Dulce Sobremesa. They designed this sweet, modern elephant and balloon party for Mateo's first birthday party. 

As told by Susana and Clara:

"We designed the garlands, labels, little elephants and the table decorations. Everything was handmade by us (no printer used!) We also designed a mini-cake so that Mateo could blow out his first birthday candle! This event took place in Valencia, Spain."









Such gorgeous, clean details! Thanks so much to Susana and Clara for sending this party my way!

Real party: a sweet baby blessing - Dairy Foods

This sweet blessing celebration was sent to me by Kaysi, mom to baby Kruz. This party was 100% DIY from the centerpieces to all the (gorgeous) cupcakes.

Kaysi had her whole family over for a brunch after the blessing and included tons of gorgeous details.















Thanks to Kaysi for sending this sweet party my way. Your little guy is so adorable!

I won't be back with new posts until Thursday morning. I'm sorry but I need to face reality and I won't have time this week for the blog. I'm traveling for work on Monday for a new business pitch so please send happy/positive thoughts and vibes my way on Tuesday at 11am - 2:30pm CT. I will be a whole new, much more relaxed version of myself on Wedneday.

Real party: a butterfly tea party - Dairy Foods

If you like all things pink and girly you will adore this butterfly tea party that Stacie created for her daughter Bella's 5th birthday.

Photo credits to Stacie Hawley Photography.

I'll let Stacie describe all the details: 

""I can’t believe my little girl is five. FIVE. Someone pinch me. With such an important milestone we had to celebrate in style. So I asked Bella a few months back (like how I start planning in advance – someone stop me – these things are just way too fun) and she knew exactly what she wanted. Without even a second thought, she decidely stated that she would LOVE a butterfly party – with tea cups.

I started scouring the internet for butterfly things and tea cups – and there wasn’t much. But as spring sprung - wouldn’t you know it – butterfly things magically appeared everywhere. Butterflies were the “it” thing this year!! Such a style diva – my little Bella, always one step ahead of the trends. Makes a mama proud.

I choose a strawberry, rose and coral color pallet with lots of bright popping accents. Polka dots and gingham with fresh garden flowers. I found the paper first and then went to town making butterfly cut-outs with my Cricut using this fabulous cartridge. I attached the butterflies to some curly twine and away they went! Fluttering beautifully from the chandelier to the corners of the room and then down to the middle of the table.

As with any great undertaking, I couldn’t plan such a beautiful party alone, so I have to give a shout-out to the very talented Lindi Haws at Love the Day. I used some of her designs for my friend’s 30th Birthday Party, and everything turned out so darling I knew I had to work with her again. I sent her my colors and my vision and she came up with all of the darling printables! They were perfect! From signs, to water bottle labels, to give-away tags, everything was just adorable and so Bella. I couldn’t ask for more!

Putting everything together, adding in an assortment of cute rustic chairs with sweet little butterfly wings for each girl - and the party was complete – and a smashing sucess might I add!!

The girls loved every little detail – and Bella had the time of her little five-year-old life."








It doesn't get much better than a donut tower for dessert. 










Gorgeous little Bella. 

Thanks so much to Stacie for sending this beautiful celebration my way. 

Do you have a party you'd like to share with Eat Drink Pretty readers? Please send your submission to eatdrinkpretty(at)gmail(dot)com.

Real party: last day of school ice cream party - Dairy Foods

Deanna of Mirabelle Creations sent me this adorable, perfect for summer, ice cream party. Now that the temps are in the seventies, sometimes eighties, there is nothing better than a big bowl of ice cream. My favorite is mint chocolate chip and there is a gallon of it in my freezer right now. I'm back on Weight Watchers (this week) so it taunts me each time I open the freezer door.

This ice cream table is so simply sweet; it pops with color and is filled with more toppings anyone could ask for.

As told by Deanna:

The last day of school is quickly approaching, which started me thinking about the after-school  party.  After the last day of school, our neighborhood kids often get together to play in the sprinkler and slip ‘n slide, celebrating the start of summer.  I wanted to design a dessert table for the last day that wouldn’t take a lot of time to plan.  The last week of school is usually filled with special activities, school talent shows, and awards ceremonies.  Since it is such a busy time, I designed this Ice Cream Shoppe Party to be done with minimal work.

The main component is the Ice Cream Toppings Table. My family has recently become a little addicted to Orange Leaf frozen yogurt restaurant. Unfortunately, the nearest store is about 40 minutes from our house; not close enough to take all the neighborhood kids. But, the Orange Leaf concept inspired my design with the fresh orange and lime color palette and large array of topping choices.

I designed the modern, simple paper items and accented with some scrapbook paper from Martha Stewart. I kept the drink table options simple – citrus water or sparkling tangerine juice. Since the kids would be eating the treats after school, but before supper, ice cream was the only dessert we served. But, the kids had plenty of choices -- four ice cream flavors, two syrups and twelve topping choices. The best part of the party was seeing all the great topping combinations the kids chose. It really reflected each of their personalities.












Thanks so much to Deanna for sending this sweet ice cream party my way!

Do you have a party you'd like to share with Eat Drink Pretty readers? Please send your submission to eatdrinkpretty(at)gmail(dot)com.

Real party: a baseball concession stand - Dairy Foods

After my baseball outing the other day, I thought this baseball concession stand was fitting. Stephanie and the team at Spaceships and Laser Beams always have wonderful and creative party ideas for boys and this is no exception.

As told by Stephanie:

I am always very concerned about the amount of junk food my son intakes. I thought instead of a candy bar, we'd develop a healthy(ish) concession stand that would be perfect -- and affordable -- for any boy's party. The shopping list includes multigrain crisps, popcorn, apple slices, pretzels, chocolate covered berries, grapes and chocolate covered pretzels. For beverages, we had water and juice boxes.















About Spaceships and Laser Beams:

- They only do collections for boys - or "non-frilly" girls: we're a no princess zone
- All of their illustrations are 100% original and drawn by hand, they won't be found anywhere else
- All of the collections are created by professional graphic designers
- This collection was designed by Janelle
- Items in the Classic Baseball collection can be bought individually or as part of a party value pack
- They believe that happy childhoods are about making every day feel special, 5% of all sales goes to the YMCA Strong Kids campaign -- to help young boys grow in to strong young men
- Visit them at their Etsy shop or follow on Facebook or on Twitter. They also have a blog.

Real party: a cowboy-themed celebration - Dairy Foods

Stephanie of Spaceships and Laserbeams sent me yet another fabulous soiree that I am excited to share with you. Yesterday was all about pink, girly details and we have exactly the opposite today. One thing in common is they are both super fab.

Stephanie planned this party for her 35th birthday and had 39 of her closest friends and family celebrate with her.
Details as told by Stephanie:

To keep things manageable (I work long hours outside our home in addition to having a busy toddler), we decided to have a desserts only event from 2:30 to 4:30 on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Naturally, I wanted to use decor from our Etsy shop and decided upon our Cowboy Cool Collection. I couldn't have been happier with the results. We had a parents lounge area, a dessert table, kids table and a huge open space where the kids could play.

For decor, I hung a pennant around the room. I filled mason jars with an assortment of all white flowers and was careful to arrange them so that they looked handpicked and unfussy. Some of the mason jars were spray painted white for a more modern country feel. On the dessert table itself, I purchased a bunch of horses from the dollar store and sprayed them white. This also helped reinforce the modern country feel and also made a items that didn't match seem cohesive.





Here's a rundown on some the desserts:

- Fondant cake: The Cake Box, the flavor was called "The Elvis" and it was banana cake with peanut butter icing
- Second cake: Goodness Bake Shop,  the flavor was orange basil and it was awesome!
- Cupcakes: (with horse cupcake wrappers) Peanut butter chocolate, caramel chocolate, and cookies n cream from The Cake Box
- Coconut vanilla cake pops and sugar cookies also from The Cake Box
- Brownies and cream cheese and strawberry parfaits
 - Popcorn and chocolate covered pretzels













Credits:
Spaceships and Laser Beams team - Catherine (Printable Design), Mike (Photography), Stephanie (Set-up)
Cowboy Favor Bags were purchased from the Etsy shop Jettabees (custom made to go with the design)

About Spaceships and Laser Beams:

- We only do collections for boys - or "non-frilly" girls: we're a no princess zone
- All of our illustrations are 100% original and drawn by hand, they won't be found anywhere else
- All of our collections are created by professional graphic designers, we are people who have work in the corporate world but have been itching to release our inner child
- Items in the Snakes and Snails Collection can be bought individually or as part of a party value pack
- Because we believe that happy childhoods are about making every day feel special, 5% of all sales goes to the YMCA Strong Kids campaign -- to help young boys grow in to strong young men
- You can visit us at our Etsy shop or follow us on Facebook or on Twitter. We also have a blog.