Liesl’s Old-Fashioned Carousel Party

Description

We held Liesl's 2nd birthday at the historic Carousel at Santa Monica Pier.    It is one of the few surviving all-wooden Carousels still in existence today and its charm & vintage beauty is so inherent.   Ever since Liesl rode The Carousel a few months prior to her party, she couldn't stop talking about the "horses", so I knew this would be the perfect venue to host her 2nd birthday!

Design Inspiration

The vintage Carousel was my main inspiration & central theme of Liesl's party.  The colors for her party - fuchsia, light pink, and gold - were pulled from the carousel itself - from the brass poles and the brightly painted horses.  

The design elements I used favored a "circus" or "carnival" feel - from the starbust pattern and bracket shapes to the and vintage carnival fonts.

The party food was treats you might find a carnival or circus - lots of sweets, goodies, and indulgences! 

Project Details

- Decorated Carousel Horse, Tent, & #2 Sugar Cookies - Lori's Place (Etsy) http://www.etsy.com/shop/lorisplace

- Birthday Cake - Sweet E's Bakeshop http://sweetesbakeshop.com/

- Cupcakes, Mini Cupcakes, Chocolate Covered Oreos - Sweet E's Bakeshop Birthday Cake - Sweet E's Bakeshop http://sweetesbakeshop.com/

- French Macarons - 'Lette Macarons http://www.lettemacarons.com/

- Muslin Vintage Carousel Horse Favor Bags - paper moon by KAT http://www.etsy.com/shop/papermoonbyKAT

- Carousel Cupcake Stand (I painted it white) - Hearth Song http://www.hearthsong.com/product.asp?utm_source=google&utm_medium=comparisonshopping&utm_campaign=productsearch&r=frooglefeed&pcode=414490

- Cotton Candy & Old Fashioned Hot Fudge Sundae Bar - Soda Jerks http://www.sodajerksusa.com/

- Pinwheel centerpieces - made by me

- Birthday Banner & Signage -  designed and made by me with Cricut  

- Invitations - designed and made by me with Cricut

- Cupcake Toppers - designed and made by me

- Rice Krispie Ice Cream Treat Bars - made by me

- Pirate Booty Bags - from Etsy, (I printed the design on the bags)

Favorite Items

My favorite things about Liesl's party were:

- The Cotton Candy & Old Fashioned Hot Fudge Sundae Bar - it went along with the vintage carnival/carousel theme and the guests loved it!

- Pink Velvet Cupcakes with Glittered Gold Frosting - I had them custom made to match the party colors!

- The Pinwheel Centerpieces - these took longer to make than I had anticipated, but I loved the end result.  I used coordinating pink candies in the gold boxes to secure the pinwheels.

-The Carousel Cake - I loved everything about how this turned out, especially the edible gold balls.

- The Invitations - I had so much fun designing and creating these for the party.  This was the first time I used my cricut machine.

- The Food - PB & J sandwiches cut in the shape of carousel horses were oh-so-fun!

Advice

One lesson I learned during this party: doing an "off-site" party not at your home is waaay harder than i could have imagined.  Maybe it was because I also had a 3 month old on my hands as well, but it was tough!  The party venue only allowed us 45 minutes to set up the whole party - this was much different than my past parties where I had time to set up for a few days!  So, this time, I had to unload my car, unpack, set-up, decorate, and photograph it all in less than an hour.  It was very stressful, but in the end everything came together!