Ready for another dose of BAKE SHOP party cuteness? This one has a creative Picnic & Berries inspired twist and is seriously bursting with so many fabulous details – including a darling Baker’s Hat Making Station, “Berry Fields” Eating Area, picnic basket centerpieces, and of course a party invitation straight from Blueberry Muffin and Strawberry Shortcake themselves!

The birthday girl’s mom – Zuesette of Marizette Paperie – designed all the paper elements with the help of her business partner and enlisted the help of Amazae Special Events to bring this fun theme to life… what an amazing job they did of incorporating the picnic, berries, & baking theme into every single possible detail – from the party activities & clever stationery wording to the signature drinks (Glimmerberry Juice!), favors, & food!

Read on for LOTS more “berry sweet” images + all the creative party details…

PARTY DETAILS, as told by Zuesette…

THEME

“For those who have children, you probably know how often they change their mind.  As a parent, you also know how long it takes to plan a detailed party!  For 4-5 months, I had ideas running through my head for an Under the Sea party because Zoë LOVED Little Mermaid.  As soon as she received a Strawberry Shortcake video from my sister, though – oh boy, there was no going back!  With only 3 months left to plan…  I called on Crystal Lequang from Amazae Special Events for design ideas, inspiration, and event coordination.

Crystal is absolutely talented and has a special eye for design!  She helped me put my scattered ideas all into one successful party. Crystal & her team’s ‘day-of’ event coordination couldn’t have run any smoother.  Her idea to use Strawberry Shortcake – literally as a dessert – and blossom it into a whole entire bake shop was fantastic!!  We also decided to use the guest eating space as a Picnic Area as an additional look. Crystal’s inspiration board truly came to life…

So…Zoë’s favorite character on Strawberry Shortcake was her best friend, Blueberry Muffin.  I used Blueberry Muffin as the main character and inspiration for the party but added Strawberry Shortcake because I know most of my friends & family would have no idea who Blueberry Muffin is.  I then used the main colors from Blueberry Muffin (different shades of blue, lavender, and the green from her stockings) with a twist of Strawberry Shortcake colors as accents here and there.

PAPER GOODS

All paper goods were designed by me, Zuesette and my business partner, Marivic from Marizette Paperie. When you have both our minds working at once, our ideas for the paper goods run wild!

OUTFIT

My favorite Etsy vendor for custom clothing! Phyllis from Lillian’s Closet is such a JOY to work with!  She worked with me for over a month to get her outfit JUST PERFECT and I couldn’t be happier.  She created her Blueberry Muffin shirt, her skirt, and even the cute little matching apron.  This outfit was the root for inspiration for the rest of the décor.

DECOR

Welcome Guest Table: I created a large sign to welcome guests to Zoë’s Bake Shop.  Instead of a guest book, we created a ‘Recipe Guest Box’ where the guests would choose a ‘Recipe’ { which was a card with Zoë’s picture from every month from 2years to 3years } and they would write their ‘food for thought’ birthday wish on their ingredient card of their choice.

The Welcome Guest Table also had the favors for the kids which was a ‘Picnic Fun Pack’.  I used a simple brown paper bag and filled it with personalized picnic goodies like bubbles, a bag of pretzels, Berry Now & Berry Later candy and a mini Frisbee.  I saw all of these on Oriental Trading but it came as a pack with assorted colors.  I then saw the SAME items at Party City and I was able to choose how many of each color I needed to match the theme!  I displayed all the packs in a picnic basket.

The adult favors that we displayed in the picnic area were homemade jams by a good friend, Karen.  She was able to whip up some tasty blueberry & strawberry jam and put them in containers from Specialty Bottle – of course after sterilizing them!  I used left over fabric and covered the top with a cute little label and tied it with twine – twine purchased from The Whimsical Muse.

Picnic Area:I went to Good Will almost every week to collect & purchase picnic baskets for the tables.  It saved me TONS of money!  All the items in the picnic basket were all purchased at the Dollar Tree.  All the cute little fabrics used in the baskets (and all around the party) were purchased from Fresh Sqeezed Fabrics. Her Etsy site was perfect for finding fabric that you can purchase as little as ∏ yard to fit the theme! The cute vases and flowers were provided by Linnae Asiel from Asiel Design.

My favorite handmade item from the party was the Glimmerberry Juice stand!  { Inspired by the Berrykins who magically turn the strawberries into Glimmerberries. Glimmerberry juice powers everything in Berry Bitty City! } I found out how handy-dandy my daughter’s day care/preschool owners were and I asked if they could build me a stand!  He purchased scraps of wood for only $5 and built it out of scratch.  You would have never guessed it was made from scraps!  It was pefect!

DESSERT TABLE 

Crystal and I originally went hunting night and day for a little vintage dresser.  Trying to keep costs to a minimal, we had no such luck.  Little did we know, Crystal had a perfect little white dresser that she had stored in her garage!  It inspired us to both use different pieces of furniture (like those little standing racks next to the dessert table) from our own homes to complete the dessert ensemble.  We also used PJ from Milk Glass Vintage Rental for those vintage crates.  You should check out all the items she has!  All really cool vintage and unique items for rent!

What would be a bake shop without all the delicious desserts?  Jen from Jen’s Cakes   never fails at creating the cutest personal cake for Zoë.  Just show her the invitation and she comes up with the perfect cake.  She also made the ‘Raspberry Torte Bars’ { White Chocolate Raspberry Bars}, ‘Strawberry Shortcake Tarts’ { Strawberry Mousse Tarts } & the ‘Lemon Meringue Tarts’ { Lemon Tarts }. { All named after the Strawberry Shortcake Characters! }

I bought all the little dolls that represented the dessert items from Target (well, most of them Zoë already had in her collection! } and displayed it next to our Dessert Signs.  Jen also provided most of the dessert stands and some were purchased at Home Goods.

The cute little muffin cake pops were made by Kristina Quilindrino from Sweet Escape by Tina. They tasted just as good and they looked!

 I also put fresh fruit in baskets and labeled each flag as a Berrykin.  The fresh fruit was just as big of a hit as the dessert!

The rest of the desserts were made by friends & family: 
’Orange Blossom Cookies’ Chocolate Chip Cookies & Jam Cookies {Zoe Morgan}
 Chocolate Covered Strawberries {Leslye Salfen}
 Cupcakes {Made by: Rosemarie Torio | Decorated by: Gail Castrence}
 Mini Blueberry & Cherry Pies {Alena Martes}
 All guests were given a Dessert Bakery Box to take desserts and enjoy at home!

ACTIVITIES 

The BerryBlue Market & Berry Kitchen: This idea came about because Strawberry Shortcake’s friends run different stores around their Berry Bitty City.  Zoë luckily already owned the cute little market and kitchen {and luckily it matched!! }.  We decorated it with signs {one using doilies} and we were so surprised how much the little kids LOVED to play in that area!

The Coloring Library: I made a custom coloring book with my daughter’s pictures as the actual coloring pages.  I purchased packages of little crayons from Oriental Trading and covered it with custom labels.  Filled in the vintage file holder were Strawberry Shortcake reading books and activity books for the kids to use too!

The Baker’s Hat Station: I was inspired by this cute idea that I found from Amy Atlas’ blog: so I decided to make a whole activity station out of it!  I purchased hats by the bulk and stickers by the bulk too!  I found a local bakery supply store and found a bunch of cute cupcake liners for them to use for the cupcake liner flowers.

THE BAKER’S PHOTO BOOTH

Quincy and Katie from Rock the Image Photography captured all the details from this party. They totally ROCKED it!!  As you can tell from the amazing photos, they didn’t miss a single thing!  For some reason, the only input my husband gave to this party was that he wanted a photo booth.  My initial thought – – you would never see a photobooth at a bakery OR a picnic area and… I was very hesitant.  But since it was my husband’s only request, we rented the photo booth from Rock The Image and I must admit… it was the HIT of the party!  I don’t think there was ever a time it was empty!  I decided to turn this booth into a Baker’s photo booth and included bakery props including a bakers hat, spatula, oven mitts, apron, etc.  Since this photo booth printed out pictures right away, I created a ‘RECIPE BOOK’ to include all the ‘Special Ingredients’ {the people in the photos} in Zoë’s life.

FOOD

When you get the same amount of compliments on the food as how much as the guests say they had fun at the party, you know the caterers did a superb job!!  I was THOROUGHLY impressed with how great the food tasted!  Grub Shack was so professional from beginning to end.  Food never ran out and it was kept hot and fresh throughout the party.  I was able to personalize my own menu and it consisted of Salad, Kahlua Pork Sliders, Chicken, Tri Tip, Baked Mac & Cheese, Grilled Cheese, Mashed Potatoes, & Special Corn.  Until now, guests are still raving about the yummy food!