Mermaid Party Under the Sea Crafted Birthday Party

Description

A Mermaid Under the Sea Birthday Party that guests would experience from the moment they received the invitations.

Design Inspiration

Having a pool and a July birthday child made it an easy decision to have a Mermaid Under the Sea Party for my daughter turning 3.  I usually start brainstorming ideas in January via Pinterest and get organized by having 6 different boards just for the theme. I also do scouting trips to various craft stores to help me figure everything out down to the last detail. I start my inspiration with a color palette and decided on aquas, turquoises, silvers, and white with a little bit of greens and purples. Next up I created a PowerPoint presentation of every area inside and out that needs decorations and a spreadsheet of items and costs.  I then involve my husband who actually crafts some of the decorations for me. He says I am the “imagineer” and he is the union worker!

Decorating Style

Glittery and whimsical

Project Details

Before being a stay at home mommy I used to be a Marketing Manager for one of the largest crafting companies – so I was surrounded by crafts all the time, even though I had actually never crafted myself.  And being in marketing I always believed that the invitation was the “window” to setting the tone of the party.  I decided this year I would try to craft the invitation myself as it was difficult to express the exact look I wanted. I went with beautiful sequined craft paper, with vellum and ribbons and a rhinestone starfish slider – mailed in a silver padded envelope that looks like a tail fin.  I hand cut everything including the tail fins as I do not have a digital cutter. I love textures & layers and these invitations were actually my favorite part of the whole party!

I believe that your guests should “experience” the theme as much as possible from the moment they arrive. So to accomplish this I wanted the guests when they arrive to feel “Under the Sea” – at first I wanted to line my driveway with sprinklers so they would walk through a tunnel of water - but my husband said everyone would get wet! So I went with a whale sprinkler from and lining the driveway with Under the Sea characters and sayings. At the top of our driveway my husband created a “Mermaids this way” sign. And then at the top of the driveway I hung from the garage turquoise organza curtains and bubble bead crystal curtains. As my guest entered the pool area I had all beach theme music – such as Beach Boys, Jake and the Neverland Pirates and Jimmy Buffet music. Along with the music I had a bubble making machine blowing bubbles everywhere!

Upon entering the pool area there was a hand crafted wreath by my husband and a photo timeline of my daughter hanging from fish net. The yard was decorated with lanterns and tissue paper garland that I purchased. Also included in the outside decorations were two ribbon mobiles crafted by me and some very cool jellyfish lanterns created by one of my very good friends. Inside the house there were more tissue paper garlands and number 3’s decorated by my husband. I also crafted a fabric garland to cover up the fireplace (which I will never do again!).  For the table service area I added a treasure chest and a beautiful sequin fabric as a tablecloth. For the few tables we had set up we had real fish as centerpieces and we gave them to any of the children who wanted them when they left.

For the dessert table – we had amazing Sea Shell & Starfish Sugar Cookies. Unfortunately the two-tiered cake I ordered from a local vendor collapsed during delivery but my friend and sister were amazingly able to make it still look good as a one tier cake. I ordered the glittered number 3 cake topper and amazing Under the Sea birthday crown from Etsy. We also served some other real great desserts hand made by some of my good friends. For the guests to enjoyment we had Charlotte’s Under the Sea Candy Shoppe.  Everything from blue gumballs to sea foam cotton candy and salt water taffy to jelly bean, most of it purchased via Kara’s Party Store. All signage at the party was crafted by me, as was the ribbon garland back drop behind the dessert table.

For a kid’s activity we did Mystical Sand Art, which everyone did two sea creatures. Every little girl left with a starfish wand crafted by my husband! For favors we gave a little blue bucket with either Pirate Booty snacks or Gold Fish snacks; a sparkle notebook, bubbles, crayons, and beach ball, which I also put cute little sayings on each of them.

Favorite Items

I love the way her invitation turned out! Making a custom invite gives me the freedom to make it EXACTLY the way I want.  I love textures & layers and this glittery invitation really came out great. I also love the starfish wands that my husband create - he really is a handy guy!

Advice

When brainstorming for my daughters parties I always like to find things I can reuse in our everyday decorations or again in future parties. All of the containers for the dessert/candy bar we already had from our wedding candy bar. And everything silver or white from this year’s party I will use again next year for her Paris party!