Woo…where to start on this? I started planning for Riley’s party in like January…obsessed, much? It was a huge undertaking, but I had a lot of help and I am absolutely THRILLED with the way it turned out.
I was expecting my daughter to love princesses and pink and all that girly stuff…but she fell in love with Jesse from Toy Story 3 the first time she watched it. She has all the plush toys and plays with them everyday. Jesse and Bullseye are the two toys that I constantly have to pick up. While I secretly wanted a fruffy princess party, I’m glad that (as always) my little girl gave me a challenge and I was able to create a cowgirl theme that she loved (well, she’s three, so hopefully she appreciated it).
The one thing I’m not too keen about is the pictures. The only place I could put the table was in front of my blinds…So that made for some shadowy pictures and my editing skills are near what my illustrator skills are…but you get the main idea.
First off, I have to point out my awesome cake stands that my husband made. He made the middle one using a tutorial from Bee in Our Bonnet and he made the other two to look like mini tables. I love that I can just sand and repaint for any other party themes and they really add some flair to the table. Plus, they look amazing with the cake and cupcakes that Hilary made. The cake turned out AMAZING! It looks perfect and it was so delicious. She actually made the same coconut lemon curd cupcakes from our Mother’s Day Party because we’ve been craving them. The cake is a coconut lemon curd cake and it was heavenly. If there is one cake/cupcake you’re going to make this summer…make it this one!
I made the table runner and it’s the easiest thing ever. I sewed the red onto the sides of the cow print and glued the blue ribbon and suede fringe using fabric glue. Easy and cheap way to dress up a party!
For the dessert table, we also had kettle corn, cinnamon sugar popcorn, spicey pop corn, fruit with an easy cream cheese and marshmallow dip, sugar cookies…first from Albertsons and then from Sugarbelle (to make a long story short, USPS didn’t deliver the cookies until 2 hours into the party…so we ate both) and decorative cake pops. I say decorative because they weren’t as good as the cupcakes and I just added them for color.
The cookies by Sugarbelle were just perfect! I love how simple they are. I asked her not to do character cookies (I’m not into the literal translation of most things…it’s how I roll), but you can totally tell these are from Toy Story…LOVE LOVE them! Riley devoured these babies (okay, I may have helped).
The printables (cupcake toppers, thank you tags, banner, tent cards, etc) are a part of a kit I designed for the party. I think this party theme is really gender neutral, so it could be used as a cowboy or cowgirl party. The kit is $10 and the tags, toppers and banner are customized for your party (click image to purchase):
Another shout out goes to my girl from Bella Blossoms Boutique. She created these adorable hair bows just for Riley’s party (I gave them out as party favors). I created a new bow card for her (shown above) that matched the printables. If you order this set from me…make sure you contact her…she’ll use the same bow cards that I used and it’s just an extra touch to your party. She’ll also do any other type of theme that you want. She’s so nice to work with and her work is impeccable!
The one image I don’t have for you is Riley is her cowgirl skirt I made for her. She absolutely refused to wear it. Hopefully I’ll have some pictures next week with a tutorial. It is really cute and I’m bummed, but what do you do?
I also wanted to show you the party favor bags and the utensils table. I got the utensils from Garnish and I painted the tips. A little excessive, but I love the way they look. I also painted the berry baskets that I placed the cookies in.
So, I was exhausted and it was soooo much work, but it turned out great! What kind of themes are you planning for your summer birthdays? When do you start planning your events?
Rachelle says
OH MY FREAKING CUTE!!!!!! I love it!!!
Erin says
Thanks, Rachelle! It was fun and I’m so happy with it!
Ashleigh says
This is all sooooooo awesome! I’m so excited about your cake stands and the mini tables are ADORABLE! I want some now too! I love how you put a cake AND cupcakes on the stand!
Erin says
Thanks, Ashleigh! I’m so glad I found your tutorial…they were perfect for my vision 🙂