Description
When you name your son Maverick - well, at some point, you need to throw him a "Top Gun" themed party. You just have to. So, for Mav's 2nd birthday we did just that. No, he has never seen the movie, but he loves airplanes, and birthday cake, so I thought, why not? And us adults loved the fact that we could get our party jam on with the Top Gun Soundtrack!
Design Inspiration
I watched (and re-watched) one of my husband and I's all time favorite movies, Top Gun, to get most of my inspiration for the party - quotes (most of which I already knew), style, etc. I knew I wanted to do a red, white, and blue color scheme - this way I could re-use a lot of my Fourth of July decor as well!
Decorating Style
I used simple silhouettes of fighter jets, aviator sunglasses, and aircraft carriers. I also incorporated stars and American Flags for that "All-American" feel.
Project Details
Vendor Credits:
Party signage, graphics, invitations and banners: Emily Klaparda
Cake topper - fighter jet, aviator sunglasses, dog tags: Les Pop Sweets
Aviator Glasses and Fighter Jet Banners: Emily Klaparda
Wall Decals (Fighter Jets, Aircraft Carrier) The Vinyl Mill and Chic Walls
Custom Family T-shirts: UberPrints
Fighter jet balloons: Amazon
Pump and Splash - Party entertainment/water play
Favor bags and signs - Emily Klaparda
Favorite Items
I made our entire family personalized shirts that said "Maverick's Wingman" - it was so much fun!
The party favors were pint-sized aviator sunglasses and personalized dog tags that read "Thanks for being my Wingman." So fun!!
I also loved creating the "sky scene" in the dining room - I used cardboard fighter jets (spray painted in metallic silver), pillow batting for clouds, and light blue tulle for the sky.
Advice
I used party colors that i knew I could re-use! the red, white, and blue theme meant I use a bunch of my 4th of July gear!
The "Top Gun" theme turned out to be a great way to bridge the party from kids to adults - everyone had fun!
Janine
Saturday 16th of September 2017
Where did you get his jacket? I love it
Emily Klaparda
Wednesday 31st of August 2016
Hi everyone! First of all let me say that I am truly so sorry for not responding to the questions - I am not notified that there are questions. I would have to manually come back to my post and keep checking it, which I rarely do, so that I why I haven't responded. Project Nursery actually just contacted me to let me know there were a bunch of questions.
I am going to try to answer most of the questions above. 1. All of the little 4 x 6 red, white and blue frames are from IKEA 2. Unfortunately I do not do designs or printables for sale. 3. I just purchased plain cups and plates, then I cut out the airplane or aviators icon out of sticky-back vinyl and applied the "stickers" to the plates, cups, aviators banner, etc. So, these things were DIY, you won't be able to find this in a store. 4. I didn't have actual dog tags, only ones made out of fondant that were on the cake, but I'm sure you could find them on Oriental Trading or a similar website.
Hope this answers most of the questions. So sorry if this isn't timely enough for your party.
Emily
Trisha Pelhank
Thursday 16th of June 2016
Any chance you would sell the signs as printables?? :)
Krista
Sunday 1st of May 2016
This girl doesn't seem to respond. I ordered a bunch of stuff for my son Mavericks 1st birthday through a girl on etsy. Her name is polkadotpigpaperie. She customized a name banner, time flies banner, cake topper and made the cute signs this lady has. The frames are from ikea. I'm just going to do red and blue plates and you can get dog tags from orientaltrading.com or party city.
Emily
Sunday 1st of May 2016
Just wondering where u got the plates, cups and aviators banner?