This is a repost from a birthday party five years ago! Gosh, just a couple of weeks ago my daughter celebrated her 8th birthday… In any case, I want to demonstrate how using Pinterest as a visual inspiration can offer a great starting point for personalizing your special occasion with the elements you care to have on the budget you set. This freedom of choice is something that I prioritize fiercely.
Summer quickly turned into fall and suddenly a lot of party planning begins. Among the obvious, there was Maya’s third birthday to plan for too. I decided to do my own take on “Young Wild & Three”. I just love that fierce little slogan and couldn’t resist.
Handwritten onto cardboard and cut out for photo backdrop - Kids were asked to bring a favorite mask or prop canceling out any need to buy photo props.
While researching, I saw a lot of boho motifs used for the Young Wild & Three theme. It wasn’t going to work for me as I had already done something with teepees and feathers for her first birthday, and I just felt it didn’t say enough about the emerging freedom and enthusiasm toddlers have. I still wanted to incorporate it however, so instead of just one motif I created a mix of motifs which I thought represented toddlers wide and blossoming interests. The graphics were also used to send email invites. In Italy, it’s still very common to pick up the phone, knock on a door or send a mobile message to invite someone to a gathering. The paper invites are mostly reserved for weddings (sigh).
Naked cake with a sparkler and fresh herbs (sage & thyme) for decoration - simple foods, everyday linen and tableware.
I love to include backdrops at parties and parents enjoy me sharing memories with them of their children! I found a great, inexpensive and to top it off up-cycled tutorial on how to create cardboard cut-out letters and forms via OH HAPPY DAY. I also asked parents to bring their own prop their children felt affection for and gave them a sense of "power”. This helped personalize the picture.
I kept the food selection simple. I included a mix of cheese and yogurt fruit cups, cookies with the motifs decorated on top and variety focaccia. I spent more time on her cake. I made a couple of layered cakes with a fantastic white cake recipe from cooks illustrated, a lemon curd recipe from the Barefoot Contessa and Italian raspberry preserves. The smaller cake with candles was for her to blow out, while the taller one had a number 3 which was lit and sparkled!