Lights, Camera, Birthday! A Hollywood Movie Party.

Lights, camera, birthday! We recently rolled out the red carpet (literally), to welcome guests to the premiere of our two sons’ Hollywood movie themed birthday party! It was such a fun theme, perfect for any age or gender & easy to pull off with a mixed age crowd! We are excited to take you “behind the scenes” & hope you enjoy the magic of the day, captured by Karina Rigtrup of A Fresh Take Photography.

Invitations: Our event kicked off with some awesome invitations designed by Anders Ruff Custom Designs. We loved the ticket style invitation & colorful “admit one” enclosure card which included all of the exciting details about the theater style lunch, trip to the dessert & concession tables & excursion to the local Regal Cinemas to see Thor 2.

Fun is in the details, so I was thrilled with the cute ticket stub return address labels Maureen designed for the envelopes. For a little extra pizzazz, we used black & white rugby striped paper sacks from Cakes & Kids as our envelopes. (P.S. If you are looking for an easy online option for printing, we LOVE Print My Picture Online. They can handle both small printing needs like invitations & large format needs like step and repeat backdrops!)

Our birthday “stars” loved hand-delivering their invites with custom movie reel favor boxes from Piggy Bank Parties, that we filled with printable wrapped treats (from Candy Galaxy), foreshadowing the excitement to come!

Now Celebrating: Our little guests arrived at Carver Cinemas and were greeted by the Paparazzi as they made their appearance on the red carpet. Our entryway was decorated with red aisle runners, movie night ropes attached to stanchions my husband made (thanks Hello My Sweet for the inspiration), and a cute home cinemas doormat from Oriental Trading Company flanked on each side by incredible Hollywood Walk of Fame stars from Creative Designs by Toni.

Guests were ushered to their VIP seats, marked with personalized star chair backers designed by Anders Ruff & embellished with glitter cardstock from American Crafts.

Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at the dining area for the 12-13 year old stars. Place settings consisted of colorfully layered plates, chargers & placemats, with ticket stub-wrapped napkins, vinyl accented acrylic tumblers (Ten23Designs & I Have A Favor) & mini gable box favors (Party On Designs), with ticket name tags tied up with twine! (We love the “now celebrating” gable box labels & straw party flags included in the printable package).

We added some Hollywood style to our VIP lounge with tin movie reels, faux movie marquee letters (laser cut wood & vinyl from Ten23Designs) & colorful centerpieces made from Blume boxes (Party On Designs) & printable movie themed picks from the Anders Ruff movie collection. There was a duplicate VIP lounge area for the 6 year-old guests to dine in style.

Concession Table: We definitely wanted to get two thumbs up from our house full of “critics,” and everybody knows that hungry guests aren’t happy guests. We prepared a smorgasbord of movie theater style nibbles that would delight both old and young. (We loved using laser cut wood film reels from Ten23Designs and a “now showing” sign & gold stars from Oriental Trading Co. on our backdrop.) There were hero hot dogs, big night out nachos, premier popcorn, sensational soda & amazing customized cotton candy from Soiree Event Design! And, what would a concessions stand be without blockbuster treats? Candy Galaxy has an amazing selection of movie theater sized boxes of candy that our movie stars got to choose from.

Dessert Table: After lunch, games & opening presents, it was time for the Hollywood dessert table. This was such a fun part of the event to decorate. From the gorgeous gold sequined tablecloth (Candy Crush Events) to the over-sized Carver Cinemas background sign (designed by Anders Ruff and printed by Print My Picture Online), to the movie reels used as cupcake stands & food label holders to the “must see taste” treats of the year, this table got rave reviews!

The 3 tiered cake by 4 Kids Cakes stole the show with two layers of chocolate cake & mint filling and a popcorn box topper made out of rice krispies! The details were phenomenal!

Speaking of cake… there were also delicious cupcakes made by 4 Kids Cakes, topped off with the most adorable movie themed fondant toppers by the one and only Edible Details. The custom cupcake wrappers Anders Ruff designed for us were spectacular!

Oreos were covered in chocolate to resemble Walk of Fame Stars (4 Kids Cakes) and were gobbled up before I had a chance to sample one! (You can call them a smash hit!)

Delicious marquee sugar cookies by Frog Prince Cake & Cookie Design definitely made the cut! Scrumptious and beautiful! And then there were these amazing movie themed cookies from Sweet Stacys. The boys couldn’t get over how H U G E they were. And the taste, definitely two thumbs waaaay up!

Extra beverages for our adult supporting cast were made available in cute milk bottles, embellished with coordinating beverage wraps from Anders Ruff, rugby striped straws (Cakes & Kids) & party flags.

Party Favors: There’s gotta be swag for red carpet stars, and our guests definitely did not go home empty handed. They filled up favor boxes from Piggy Bank Parties & also received popcorn containers from The Dollar Tree (2 for $1–great deal) filled with Hollywood themed goodies from Oriental Trading Co. Sunglasses, movie clapper key chains, “You’re a Star” lanyards & awesome personalized shirts from Stitch This went home with each guest.

Show Time: And now for the main event! We loaded up our VIP vehicles & journeyed to Regal Cinemas, where a manager was waiting to give the boys a behind-the-scenes look at theater operations before their movie premiere. They loved the VIP treatment and learning about how a theater works. And they loved seeing Thor 2! Our birthday stars had an amazing day!

*****

VENDOR CREDITS:

– Event Concept & Styling: Jen Carver, Banner Events
– Photographer: A Fresh Take Photography
– Printable Invitation & Printable Graphic Decor: Anders Ruff Custom Designs
– Printing (Small & Large Scale): Print My Picture Online
– Gold Sequin Tablecloth: Candy Crush Events
– Custom Applique T-Shirts: Stitch This
– Ribbon & Glittered Cardstock: American Crafts
– Custom Movie Reel Favor Boxes: Piggy Bank Parties
– Acrylic Tumblers: I Have a Favor
– Blume Boxes, Mini Gable Boxes: Party On Designs
– Paper Straws, Rugby Striped Bags, Popcorn Boxes: Cakes & Kids
– Hollywood Walk of Fame Vinyl Stars: Creative Designs by Toni
– Party Paper: Smashcake & Co
– Laser Cut Wood Movie Reels, Marquee Letters & Vinyl Accents: Ten23Designs
– Custom Cake, Cupcakes & Oreos: 4 Kids Cakes
– Custom Fondant Cupcake Toppers: Edible Details
– Custom Labeled Cotton Candy: Soiree Event Design
– Custom Marquee Sugar Cookies: Frog Prince Cake & Cookie Design
– Custom Movie Themed Sugar Cookies: Sweet Stacy’s
– Sixlets, Movie Theater Boxed Candy, Mini Hershey bars: Candy Galaxy
– Twine: The Twinery
– Red Aisle Runner, Doorway Rope, Movie Themed Props: Oriental Trading Company
– Tableware (Plates, forks, etc): Oriental Trading Company
– Stanchions: My sweet husband, Josh Carver (inspired by designs from Hello My Sweet)
– Backstage Tour: Regal Cinemas