Jul
15

How to style your children’s party

Robin

Plenty of articles have sprung up in recent years bemoaning the pressure parents are under to throw the most amazing birthday party for their children. News features about charging non attendees, celebrities splashing out tens of thousands on their offspring and the advent of party inflation are pretty regular features in news columns. Obviously as the owner of a cake company which specialises in bespoke cakes, I’d be a bit of a fraud if I didn’t acknowledge the benefit of this trend to Cakes by Robin however as the owner of a 3 year old, I can equally understand the concern!

With this in mind, I have decided to dedicate this blog post to ideas for styling your child’s birthday party without having to spend thousands. We want to show you ways to create a visually stunning event but with fun being the main emphasis and no additional mortgage needed!

We have included images of some of our recent work with top London party planners to inspire and show what can be achieved with a bit of imagination and creativity and also their details lest you decide it’s all a bit of a faff and want to hand over to the experts.

Robin’s guide to DIY party styling

My daughter wanted to have a Peter Rabbit cake for her party this year. In my line of business, the cake was no problem but I wanted it to look fun too so I spent a little time at our local garden centre seeing how I could theme this. I spent a total of £65 on various bits including little plastic flower pots to hold their food, wooden seedling boxes (£5 for two), 3 lavender plants (£7.50 each) which are now happily living in our garden and some potato sacks (£4.50 for two) which I wrapped around the bottom of the plants to look a bit more like they might have come from Mr McGregor’s garden. We had a nice white watering can at home which I pinched and I used garden signs with chalk to write what the food was. I then popped to our local green grocer and bought radishes, carrots with tops and beet root to lay out on the food table. All Peter Rabbit’s favourite food! Balloons are also a fab cost effective way of decorating and perfect as a take home gift with a party bag for the kids. I themed ours in a pink, yellow and green colour scheme.

Wooden seedling trays and a lovely watering can
Wooden seedling trays and a lovely watering can

 

Bargain hessian sacks
Bargain hessian sacks

 

Little flower pots with yummy healthy food in for each child
Little flower pots with yummy healthy food in for each child

 

Peter Rabbit birthday cake
Peter Rabbit cake styled up!

Robin’s pick of handy places for DIY party styling

http://www.partypieces.co.uk (brilliant website for every theme imaginable all ordered online and delivered to your door-easy!)
Local garden centre always has loads of bits for all sorts of party themes and is great for educational party bag fillers

Pinterest-the most enormous source of inspirational imagery and ideas from all over the world. Beware-many hours have been lost to this site. It is addictive!

Party theme inspiration:
Alice in Wonderland:
We expect a few Alice in Wonderland parties over the next few months as it is 150 years since Alice in Wonderland was written. Lewis Carroll fans eat your heart out and get creating your own. If you’d like expert help, get in touch with Jemma-Jade Events who styled up a storm at this shoot. Images: Kate Nielen Full shoot images at the following blog:
Alice at her feast table
Alice at her feast table

 

Pretty crockery used to style up the table
Pretty crockery used to style up the table

 

More is more
More is more

 

A beautiful cake is a must
A beautiful cake is a must

 

Books, candles and crockery go a logn way in the styling of an Alice in Wonderland event
Books, candles and crockery go a logn way in the styling of an Alice in Wonderland event
Insect party: 
Got a budding entomologist on your hands? Then this is the inspiration for them. Bug cupcakes, creepy crawly cakes and lollies with real bugs insides. Perfect! Credit: Styling and party planning from the legends that are Les Enfants, images Julia Boggio
Bug cupcakes
Bug cupcakes

 

Yummy party bag bits
Yummy party bag bits

 

Perfect party favours
Perfect party favours

 

Cute tins cups look amazing and are from any outdoor shop
Cute tins cups look amazing and are from any outdoor shop
50s Milk and cookie party:
Get guests along in their 50s finery for a bit of Diner action. Burger and milkshakes are the order of the day. Amazing! Credit: Les Enfants for stunning styling and Julia Boggio for fabulous images
50s diner cake
Stunning diner cake decorated with cookies

 

Beautiful Les Enfants designed invites and a sundae cookie
Beautiful Les Enfants designed invites and a sundae cookie

 

Cute straws are a fab addition as well as milk bottles
Cute straws are a fab addition as well as milk bottles

Farm party: 

Foxes Events styled up a storm with this Farm themed party. Probably aimed at a younger clientele, this party featured cake pop eggs in their very own chicken coop (made by the team at Foxes), hay bales, lemonade glasses wrapped in gingham fabric and of course cakes and sweet treats by us. LOVE!

 

Farm themed cake pops
Egg cake pops in a chicken coop

 

Farm themed dessert table
Homemade lemonade with raffia and gingham ribbon

 

Farm themed dessert table
Farm dessert table

 

Hints:
Remember that it’s the child’s birthday so if they want yet another Frozen themed party, there’s no point fighting it-it took me 6 months to persuade my daughter to opt for something else!
Plan in advance so you can order most things online
Party bags should contain one nice present and a balloon and perhaps something edible like a cookie or cake pop. No one likes extra plastic tat!
And if I haven’t managed to convince you that party styling is really fun, please get in touch with our friends at the following companies who I can personally vouch for and are simply amazing at what they do:
Foxes Events (Jordan Cullen) http://foxesevents.com
Jemma-Jade Events (Jemma-Jade William) http://www.jemma-jade.com
Les Enfants Party (Katie Burnett) http://www.lesenfants.co.uk
If you want to see more inspiration, check out our party styling page. There’s more exciting examples coming soon too!

 

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