Drinks

Party Recap

Once upon a time, there lived a beautiful princess. A royal ball was held to celebrate her birthday!

This was the first time I've ever attempted to host a party of this magnitude, and, all in all, it turned out great!

Music played as the princesses arrived. First, they were given their choice of royal attire to wear (tutus & feather boas). They were then "whisked away" to the beauty bar, where they were able to choose from a selection of rings, necklaces, hair ribbons, and bracelets, as well as select their own lip gloss and nail polish. Some girls also chose to put on perfume and lotion. "Princess Merida" was there (a friend of the family), happy to paint the faces of all of the "brave" little princesses :)

Once they were beautified, the princesses spent time personalizing their own tiaras. The craft table also held their princess scepters.

When they were all ready, the royal party made their way to the horse and carriage for a photo that will be used as a party favor and thank you to the parents. The girls danced for a few minutes while last minute food preparations were made. And then we ate...a feast fit for little princesses!

After lunch (including the cake, ice cream, & singing 'Happy Birthday'), the princesses played a game of pin the tiara on the princess and danced at the royal ball. This was so cute to watch! My husband graciously ran the 'bubble machine' (I found a Disney princess hand-held bubble machine at Walmart that looks like Cinderella's carriage). The girls all loved chasing the bubbles and trying to pop them with their scepters!

When they had danced all they could, we set up chairs for the royal court and the birthday princess opened all of her gifts. When the last gift was opened and thank-you was said, I read a story to all of the princesses and handed out the favor bags.

We had planned for the party to be about 2 hours in length, and somehow we managed to stick pretty close to schedule! The girls had so much fun, and I received so many compliments from everyone who was there--including the dads and brothers of the kingdom. (Yes, I was amazed when my brothers told me they had a good time, lol!)

Most of my ideas and inspirations came from other moms on catch my party, pinterest, and etsy. Our party wasn't super fancy or over the top like many, but I hope it will help someone out there who is planning a party for their own precious princess :)

Idea

Party Highlights

  • What People Ate

    I love the idea of food card labels for children's parties! They add a unique touch to the food table, and it's makes people smile. When I was planning the menu, I scoured the internet to help me come up with cute names for the party food, but for the most part found very little. So these are the names I came up with on my own. Feel free to use them for your party, too! The Royal Menu: Jolly Jester’s Jell-O Jigglers; True Love’s (Chocolate) Kisses; Prince Charming’s Potato Chips; Snapdragon Garden Vegetables & Dream Come True Dip (The princess helped me with this name :); Enchanted Cheese & Crackers; Fairest of Them All Fruit Cups (green grapes, apples, strawberries, and blueberries); Her Majesty’s Gold Nuggets (chicken nugget tray); Princess and the Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwiches (cut out with cookie cutters; glass slippers were grape jelly, and gowns were strawberry. This was cute, but I don't know that I'd do it again. A lot of waste.); Royal Celebration Sandwiches (We ended up getting a meat & cheese tray with a separate condiment tray and let the adults and older girls make their own sandwiches.)

  • What People Drank

    Princess Skylar’s Sparkling Wishing Well Surprise (pink lemonade with strawberries floating in the lemonade). We also had bottles of water with personalized princess labels.

  • Funniest Moment

    Watching my husband with the bubble carriage and the girls chasing after all of the bubbles. Everyone had a smile of their faces watching them, lol.

  • Most Touching Moment

    Our princess truly was a princess during her party. While she was opening her gifts, she made sure to tell everyone thank you, but when she got to the gift from one of our elderly friends (who has been like an adopted grandma to her), she got up from her seat and walked around everyone to give her a hug and tell her thank you.

  • Best Dressed

    All of the princesses (of course!) And I may not have been the best dressed, but I did have a special shirt, custom from cafepress. It has a crown on the front with MOM written underneath.

  • Desserts

    Happily Ever After Cake & Cupcakes with ice cream. I made the cake myself (but purchased the topper from etsy.) The cupcakes were store bought, and I added the sprinkles to make them match with the cake. I dipped the ice cream ahead of time into cupcake wrappers so that everyone would have their own individual servings and I wouldn't be having to dip ice cream instead of enjoying this time of celebration!

  • Party Favors

    I wanted to have party favors for everyone who attended this special day. For the adults, each place setting had a bookmark that my husband and I made together. I found a free clipart image, sized it, colored it, printed, laminated, and added a pretty ribbon. Voila! For the older girls in attendance, I made a goody bag that consisted of a sparkly, feathery, flower pen, some yummy chocolates wrapped in "gold", a mini princess photo album, ring pop, and a frog prince charm from Hallmark. For the little princesses, we went all out :) They took home a tutu & boa set, lip gloss, nail polish, maribu rings, necklaces, bracelets, hair ribbons, a self-decorated tiara, froggy magnet, princess scepter, a fairytale princess book, mini princess photo album, princess crayons, and a homemade coloring book (as well as a reusable princess favor bag).

  • Activities / Games

    Dress-up, beauty bar, face painting, tiara making, horse & carriage photo booth (which they really loved), dancing and bubble chasing, and story time.

  • Budget

    Way too much, but it was worth it.

  • Now That It's Over, Ideas & Miscellaneous

    Game idea: Ring toss, with the target being a unicorn's horn. Another thing I wish I'd done differently...since the girls all knew my daughter from different places (and didn't know each other), I wish I would've had some sort of 'getting to know each other' game or activity to help them get acquainted with each other at the beginning of the party. Live and learn :)

Hand

Party Helpers

  • Items from Etsy

    Other

    www.etsy.com:
    -glass slipper (The Glitter Shoppe)
    -pink pillow (Amy305)
    -pink chalkboard (the cottage market)
    -cake topper (grata)
    -invitations (Bellezaeluce)
    -Birthday Princess t-shirt (The Tutu Fairy)
    -Butterfly door sign (Creative Party Crafts)
    -Pink princess scepters/wands (Anna Mae's Cottage)http://www.etsy.com

  • Items from Efavormart

    Other

    chair sashes from efavormart.comhttp://www.efavormart.com

  • Items from My Princess Party to Go

    Other

    tutushttp://www.myprincesspartytogo.com

  • Items from Shindigz

    Other

    -horse & carriage photo prop
    -pennants
    http://www.shindigz.com

  • Everything else!

    Other

    Here are some other places I shopped. If you don't find something you have a question about, feel free to ask :)

    -allposters.com (Princess parking poster. Found it later & cheaper on amazon.)
    -Birthday Express (Foil princess balloons, etc.)
    -Dollar General
    -Dollar Tree
    -Ebay (feather boas)
    -Factorydirectcraft.com (wooden flowers)
    -Gabriel Brothers (Princess perfume bottle)
    -Hobby Lobby (vases)
    -JoAnn's Fabrics (This--of all places--is actually where I found the party straws!)
    -Ollie's
    -Oriental Trading (tiaras & jewels)
    -Party City (pin the tiara on the princess)
    -TJ Maxx (mirror)
    -Vista Print
    -Walgreens
    -Walmart
    -wrapwithus.com (food place card holders)

  • Pinterest Inspirations

    Decorations

    http://pinterest.com/tracybrowning9/princess-birthday-party/

💬

2 comments

  • Princess Event Planning Company

    Princess Event Planning Company wrote:

    BEAUTIFUL JOB WELL DONE!!!!!

  • no photo

    Tracy B wrote:

    Thanks, Tiffany :)