Birthday Party Prep: Fairy Party

One of my favorite seasons of the year is summer. Not only do I love warm weather, swimming pools and fresh produce, but I LOVE planning big and fun birthday parties for my kids. (Adeline’s birthday is in June and Elias’s is three weeks later in July.)

If you are a long-time reader, you have probably seen my party posts in the past (you can see all of them here). I realized that I generally never share much leading up to the parties, so thought today I could give a glimpse into the prep I have been doing for Adeline’s party in June.

We decided on a fairy theme in the fall. The great thing about deciding on a theme early is that it gives me many months to score deals of party items. (Click here to read more perks of planning way in advance.)

Fairy Accessories

For instance, I bought fairy wings and wands from The Dollar Store in October, which they had because of Halloween. Yesterday I cut off the tags on both accessories. It took less than 10 minutes, but I have learned that if I wait until the day of the party for these “little” things, it can get overwhelming.

After Easter, I bought two dozen “fairy” baskets that had little girls skirts attached to them. They were 90% off (just 60 cents a piece). Yesterday I sat out on our driveway and cut the yellow skirts off the baskets for all the little girls.

Of course, Adeline thought she should help.

Each girl will get a wand, wings and a skirt to wear for the party – the perfect fairy party favors! Plus, they will use the baskets to go on a fairy scavenger hunt.

The pink skirts (seen in the above photos) are going to be used as garland for our deck. I plan to sell all the plain baskets in our garage sale for 50 cents a piece, so hopefully they garland will end up costing me less than $2.

Flowers for Fairy Photo Backdrop

Throughout the weekend I also worked on assembling paper flowers from Michaels. I first saw big flowers like this at Paper Source and thought they would be amazing for a fairy photo backdrop for the party, but they were a bit pricey.

Two weeks later Michaels sent me some samples of their new Recollections Big Bloom line and I was elated. Not only are they just as beautiful as the ones at Paper Source, they are super affordable, especially when you combine with a coupon!

Assembling these flowers were the perfect weekend fringe hours project. I put them together whenever I was just sitting- at Elias’s soccer game, while watching tv, etc.

The flowers are a bit tedious, but they are so pretty that the time of putting them together is worth it. Each flower comes with three different size petals + a glittery center.

When I made one at Elias’s soccer game, Adeline and her little friend went back and forth holding the pretty flower. It was adorable. Adeline literally can’t stop touching them and asking when they rest are going to be made (I still have about six to make).

Invitations

I also shot the photos of Adeline for the party invitation. Chasing Fireflies graciously sent us a fairy costume and some amazing fairy products for the party. I literally shot the photos in 3 minutes – I know this because the timer was on for some pasta, and I shot these photos all before it went off! Thankfully, Adeline was agreeable and they turned out great.

Last night I ordered the invites from Shutterfly. I was just going to do an evite this year but I love paper invitations so much that I changed my mind last minute.

Yet to Do

Though I got a lot done this weekend, I still have a lot more to do! The big things on my list are putting together the games, a fairy house craft and a fairy scavenger hunt. I have everything planned to varying degrees in my head. I just need to execute them! Check out my Fairy Party Pinterest board to see some of my inspiration.

I think I have as much fun planning these parties as the kids have attending them. And the best part is, by spreading out the projects and spending, it doesn’t get overwhelming.