CHEERS to new experiences! Last month, I designed a cocktail party for Fisher-Price^® that was hosted in a different sort of venue than I’m personally used to… right smack in the middle of their tradeshow booth. This was at the ABC Kids Expo in Las Vegas, so there were a decent amount of logistical hurdles to navigate due to the exhibition hall location & super tight party set-up window, but in the end we were really excited about how it turned out. I hope you like it too!

Best of all, our whole team was able to come, which made for an extra-fun trip (it was Vegas, after all!) – and this is also what actually made it possible to set up for the event in a little over an hour. Don’t think we weren’t still attempting to add more details as the first guests arrived though. For my fellow party stylists, you know how that goes. ;)

PARTY HIGHLIGHTS to look out for:

• Giant “Cocktail Glasses” made from paper towel holders, acrylic cake domes, & toy “cocktail skewers”
• 36″ Rainbow confetti balloons with colorful DIY geometric tassel garlands
• Toy-inspired cocktails, like the “Ritzy Rock-a-Stack” garnished with a candy ring straw
• Playful LED Letters on the food buffet as a nod to the Las Vegas location
• Big prop spoon filled with toy rings as “cereal” + Rock-a-Stack inspired framed graphics

The catering staff members at the tradeshow were very good sports with our special requests! They happily put on the matching aprons we made and helped dress up all the tray passed apps with the food picks we brought in, which definitely helped us with our time crunch. The bartenders humored all of my candy cocktail garnish requests too. ;)

TOYS + COCKTAILS + INNOVATION

From a design perspective, the key challenge for me with this event was figuring out how to thoughtfully merge the client’s (baby and child-oriented) products and new branding into a stylish, grown-up cocktail party, which also happened to be a celebration of this new branding and of the company’s concerted efforts to remain innovative and current. See… there’s much more to party styling than simply making things pretty. ;)

I tried to find a healthy mix of playful, stylish, and clever for the decor… the food buffet said “OPEN WIDE” in rainbow LED light letters, as a nod to what every parent says to their little ones at one time or another. ;) I also thought the LED letters tied in nicely with the Las Vegas location.

COCKTAIL TABLE CENTERPIECES

The key elements of the party ended up being 2 styles of centerpieces, both of which were fashioned from some of the most iconic Fisher-Price toys, like the Rock-a-Stack and Baby’s First Blocks:

1) Giant “cocktail glass” centerpieces made from paper towel holders, acrylic cake domes, and “toy” fruit skewers. (DIY tutorial coming soon)

2) A cluster of 5 “cocktail glasses” made out of various toy parts, acrylic glasses, and candy, with 36″ confetti balloons coming out of them.

Unfortunately, we were super rushed with the tight set-up window and somehow didn’t take any pics of centerpiece design #2… despite the fact that there were 6 cocktail tables of them! I was pretty dang sad about this fact when I realized it, but you live and learn. I do at least have an “in progress” pic that I’ll share in a separate behind the scenes post though. :)

OTHER DECOR ELEMENTS:

• Giant 36″ Rainbow Confetti Balloons (I ordered a custom color mix from Shop Sweet Lulu)
• Rainbow Geometric Paper Tassels and Garlands (kudos to Jacque for sewing gazillions of these!!)
• A mix of brightly colored + acrylic food trays and risers
• Cube wall shelves used as display risers for the LED lights and big cocktail glass centerpieces
• 4×6 Signs designed to match the Fisher-Price “Best Possible Start” theme & branding
• Rainbow Popcorn party favors (brightly colored popcorn that we mixed in with freshly made Caramel Corn and Kettle Corn)
• Chipboard CHEERS letters that we spray painted to match the theme
• White leather cocktail tables with custom-designed “rainbow shape” inserts
• DIY foam shaped food picks + servers decked out with matching aprons ;)