This Farmer’s Market Party is downright delicious in every way! With all the beautiful desserts and fresh fruits, Lyndsey of LuLu’s harvested the perfect birthday celebration for her little Ede, who inspired this party with her naturally sweet personality.

PARTY HIGHLIGHTS to look out for:

• Greens Cupcake Planter with vibrant lettuce head & pea pod cupcake toppers
• Kid’s “market shopping” activity with the cutest felt fruit & veggie plushies!
• DIY Carrot Shaped Cupcakes + Fresh Market Stand inspired by this post
• “Plant a Seed” party favors (with hidden baby announcements!)
• Floral & gingham shabby chic printables

PARTY DETAILS, as told by Lyndsey…

This year, our youngest daughter, Ede, turned 3. She’s known in our family as a Gumdrop… because her personality is so sweet and she just melts your heart with cuteness! We wanted to throw a party that was fitting to the birthday girl, so we chose a breezy summer afternoon to open our Farmer’s Market. We created an atmosphere of delicious delight that left our Gumdrop {as well as our guests} longing for more sweet summer days!

Invitation

Every party starts with the invite, and this Farmer’s Market was no exception. We  designed a suite that was shabby and sweet to measure up to our “fresh picked and homegrown” guest of honor. We incorporated a traditional gingham with a chic floral pattern. And since there’s nothing sweeter at a Farmer’s Market than fresh strawberries, they took the center stage of the invite.

Birthday OutFit

Once we had the look of the party in mind, I wanted to find the perfect little outfit for Ede. I ordered the shabby bloomers from Reimagined Treasures on Etsy and immediately contacted Melissa from Oh Fiddlesticks!. I’ve worked with Melissa before, and when she heard my ideas for the party and saw the invite, she designed the most perfect tank! And to top it off, there was a tiny message on the back that hinted at our little secret! As a finishing touch for the birthday girl attire, I contacted Prop Shop Boutique, who designs the most amazing party hats, to design a posh piece to grace Ede’s pile of ringlet curls!

Dessert Table

Next to Ede, we wanted the focal point of the party to be the delicious sweets table, and we wanted it to truly resemble our local Farmer’s Market. Keeping that in mind, we separated the vintage wooden table into different areas, including a melon patch, planted greens, and a berries and cherries section, with the “Apple of My Eye Orchard” just off to the side. We placed a Farmer’s Market poster over the table and refurbished a hanging sign with a chalk board. A family friend painted several raw wooden signs to add a vintage feel to the different sections. We set out wooden crates, baskets, and berry boxes that we filled with fresh strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, and cherries. Each guest also picked up a cup of yummy fruit dip. Also in the “berries and cherries section” was a berry box full of large strawberry cookies and mini blueberry, raspberry, and blackberry cookies. Fresh strawberry lemonade sat out in mason jars for our guests enjoyment. And in the middle of the table, we had strawberry shortcake and blueberry yum-yum push pops.

• Greens Planter: One of my favorite details of this table was the “greens planter.” In a large wooden bowl, we planted our cupcakes in “dirt” (oreos) and topped them with the most darling fondant pea pods and lettuce heads from Edible Details. In addition, the planter held “parsnip and cabbage” cookies designed by Hayley’s Cakes and Cookies. The planter sat next to a beautiful vintage kitchen scale I ordered off of Etsy. Sitting on the scale was our seed packet favors, adorned with the custom seed packet sticker by LuLu’s. What our guests didn’t know was that there was a secret insert inside the seed packet that announced some very special news!! And surrounding this area were fresh greens for pops of color.
• Melon Patch: The “Melon Patch” had fresh melon kabobs (of course!) with fruit dip cups and a box of watermelon cookies by Kimmie’s Custom Cookies. We set jello filled mason jars at the front of the table, topped with a sweet slice of melon by Edible Details. And stacked on crates below the Melon Patch was a carrot bundt cake (drizzled with cream cheese icing) and Carrot Shaped Cupcakes from Carrie Sellman of HWTM.
• Apple Orchard: In the apple orchard, we had mason jars full of fresh apple cider, apple cake pops, home-made caramel apples, and favor jars of Memmie’s Homemade Apple Butter.

Menu Kids Table

The “real food” section, though not quite as pretty as the desserts, was just as tasty. For the adults, we served veggie wraps with turkey, homemade black bean salsa with salty potato chips, and individual cups of six-layer salad.

The kids section and entertainment was the biggest hit of the party! In order to keep down stress for the parents, we had a kids’ table set up. Each child had a seat and they found their name on a sign stuck in their cup of veggies that said, “Eat your veggies.” Also at their place setting was a Fresh Strawberry and PB sandwich with potato chips, all sitting in a berry box.

Activities

Since you can’t have a Farmer’s Market without going shopping, the kids went grocery shopping! This was by far my favorite part of the entire party. Each child received a shopping list and a brown paper sack from the “market attendant.” They then had to count out the items properly into their bags {perfect for a three year old!} The felt fruits and veggies were custom sewn by a family friend and were absolutely AMAZING!! The amount of detail put into these creations (including asparagus, carrots, apples, potatoes, strawberries, cabbage, and watermelon) was impeccable! And to top it off, we ordered white eggs (complete with a felt yolk) from Puggle Hollow that were just the cutest things, which filled egg cartons from Shop Sweet LuLu perfectly!

In addition to shopping at the Market, the kids also enjoyed bobbing for apples, potato sack races, and watermelon eating contests! All in all, it was an old-fashioned good time down at the Farmer’s Market. And everyone left with the sweet taste of the perfect little Fresh Picked and Homegrown birthday party!