Party Recap...

Zoë Reese is our first born child and I wanted her 1st birthday to be something special and memorable - - but fun! Carnival’s have always been fun for me so I thought; why not bring that theme in for Zoë’s party!

Crystal Lequang, from Amazáe Special Events helped me create the vision for Zoë’s 1st birthday party from beginning (design ideas & prep) to the end (coordinated the entire day). We brainstormed on more of a “vintage” carnival theme to bring in more of the toned down colors rather than the usual bright colors. I dressed Zoë in a pink tutu to fit the theme!

I started off with the invitation created by me...(My business partner, Marivic, and I are the owners of our custom-designed invitation company, Marizette Paperie). The z-card invitation consisted of a small pocket containing an “Admit One” ticket, as if you were going to an actual show.

Everything flourished from there! The colors from the invitation were our inspiration for the rest of the party. As guests entered, they were greeted by a “Welcome” sign that I designed and enlarged at Kinko’s with Zoë’s photo on it. On the table, consisted of a personal guest book along with a Polaroid camera accented with more feathers. I created a sign telling our guests to have fun with the camera and to take a photo of yourself to put in the book along with a message for Zoë. Then there was a table of gable boxes that I made labels for & personalized with each child’s name containing a box of Barnum’s Animal Crackers & a roll of tear off tickets to use to “pay” for each game you play. Another sign was made to let them know that the gable boxes were to be used as their “bag” to store all their prizes when playing the carnival games.

As you entered, you were greeted by all the carnival food and games you could imagine! I rented almost all games and food equipment from Fun Services). We had a cotton candy machine, popcorn machine, sno cone machine, hot dog steamer and 5 different games: Duck Pond, Tip the Clown, Alley Oops, Can Can, & Bean Bag Toss. I gathered some of my friends & family to “work” each booth…wearing bright red aprons with personalized pin buttons that I designed and had made from. To play a game, each child was to “pay” with their tickets and after playing, they were awarded with “winning tickets” so they could claim some prizes. What are games without prizes? I created an entire Prize Booth! All prizes were bought from Oriental Trading Company. I put them in different vases & canisters (all found at Michaels or TJ Maxx Home Goods). I labeled each prize container and wrapped it around with ribbon. I also made a display for the different stuffed animal prizes on just an ordinary cork board.

Guest tables were covered with specialty linens & wooden chairs – all from Classic Party Rentals. Centerpieces were put together with a combination of daisy flowers & feathers, jars of laffy taffy, and vintage photo frames with carnival artwork & Zoë’s pictures from birth to 1 year. Flowers were provided by Nicole Ha Designs.

For entertainment, I used “Hey! Balloon Lady!” which provided Balloon Creations & Face Painting. I also had a Caricature Artist which people loved!! She was from Magikal Entertainment. Lastly, I had a Parrot Show from Happy Birds. The kids were excited to see live animals at this party and I especially enjoyed that each child could take a picture or hold the birds at the end.

Finally, what’s a carnival without the desserts? The Cake, Cupcakes, and Raspberry Bars were deliciously made by Jen from Jen’s Cakes. My sister, Zoraida, & my cousin Dabbie, made the adorable looking sprinkled, caramel apples! All lollipops were purchased from Kendon Candies.

The children had so much fun and definitely a party that we will not forget! Fortunately, we had amazing photographs taken by Claudia Akers Photography so that when Zoë get’s older, she can see the photos and know how much she was loved!!