Welcome to the main event celebrating Nadia’s birthday with a Fabulous & Bright Girly Circus Party by mom, Tiffany of Taste{Full}! Creative and budget friendly DIY elements like the “ticket cake” and teal paper elephant backdrop steal the show! :)

PARTY HIGHLIGHTS to look out for:

• Pink Polka Dot Smash Cake + a matching pink tutu dressed elephant topper!
• Chocolate ice cream cone cake pops, caramel apples & a ferris wheel of popcorn cups!
• Mason jar centerpieces with lollipops, gum balls & carnival tickets
• Clown Noses (clowning around encouraged!)
• Painted mason jar party favors filled with animal crackers

PARTY DETAILS, as told by Tiffany…

Decorations

The “main event” was the snack/dessert bars.  The backdrops for the snack buffets were hand drawn elephant silhouettes embellished with pom pom fringe and scrap paper.  I made a frame out of ruffled streamers and used the party color scheme of aqua, red, and pink.  The decorations consisted of a handmade “ticket cake,” elephant bookends used to highlight the ferris wheel cupcake holder, gumballs in mason jars with a whirly pop as a centerpiece, an old fashioned popcorn machine, lots of pink, red and white polka dot, and sky blue balloons, a frame filled with Nadia’s “month by month” photos, and an adorable circus directional sign.

The paper products were designed by my sister-in-law and included a vintage-y pink and blue “Happy Birthday Nadia” banner as well as a beautiful red and white CIRCUS banner with elephants on either end and attached by hot pink ribbon.  We also had festive food labels.  I also used red and white popcorn boxes, made treat cones out of invitations, and pink and white boxes for the pink popcorn.  I also used tickets on the favors, wrapped the silverware with twine and tickets, and used tickets on the party hats.

Food

• Fair food: peanuts, pretzels, popcorn (4 kinds!), caramel apples animal crackers, ice-cream cake pops, nachos, hot dogs, sausages, etc.

Activities

Consisted of a professional face painter, “jungle toss” and “carnival toss” games.  There was also a bubble station and there were lots of fun prizes!

Diy Elements

I made the ticket cake, the “cowpoke” banners on the tables, the table backdrops, painted the high chair, made the favors (painted baby food jar lids, wrapped with twine, tickets, and scrapbook paper), made the party hats–including Nadia’s party hat made with cardstock, a pom, and a tulle pom glued to the side, and made the pink “polka dot” cake with the elephant on top. I also made the stands that held the pink and white popcorn boxes by gluing gorgeous plates found at Michael’s to glass candlesticks (didn’t even have to paint them!) found at the Dollar Tree.  I also painted some of the trays white (found Target’s dollar section), and lined them with fun and coordinating scrapbook paper.

• My Favorite Parts of the Party: It was SO windy that I didn’t get to use my fabulous ruffled streamers, but I did get to use them around the elephant silhouettes which were one of my favorite DIYs!  I loved the ticket cake, the elephant bookends (didn’t get a great photo of them but you can see them in the background), the ferris wheel cupcake holder perched on top of the red/white polka dot box, the paper products, the birthday girl’s dress which featured a parade and a little light brown girl sitting on an elephant (I like to pretend it’s Nadia ;)  I also loved her party hat.  I LOVED the high chair/cake cutting setting with all the bright balloons and the adorable elephant in a tutu on the cake.  I loved the games also–especially the jungle toss game.  I guess I could go on and on.  I loved it all!! :)  I loved that I was able to pull this together without a professional party planner and use budget items/resources.  I hope you love it too!!
• What Makes my Party Original: The classic + girly circus theme.  When researching I saw a lot of super girly pastel pink and yellow circus parties or classic red, white, and blue…but nothing that combined classic red and white, with fun aqua, and girly pink (not that it doesn’t exist!).  Also, the fact that this was a budget party.  As a SAHM who also LOVES party planning and all things pretty I love it when I see parties featured that are obtainable and don’t have a loooong list of vendors I could never afford.  I have so many friends who feel the same way!  Also that it features an African American/Interracial family.  I love looking at amazing party planning blogs like yours and seeing diversity in who’s featured.  I still remember years ago seeing  a pink candy party with an adorable little African American girl named Kimora on HWTM!  It just stuck because she looked like my daughters (not born yet!) may look one day.
• Shopping Resources: The dollar tree was my best friend!  I got all of the popcorn buckets (that I used for the chips and the treat cones), the buckets for the prizes and bubbles, the blue buckets that held the red and white popcorn boxes, the red and white popcorn boxes, most of the prizes, and lots of more general crafting supplies.  I got the two adorable games from the Land of Nod.  I bought the Ferris Wheel cupcake holder from Zulily.  I used Hey-yo-you for the chevron treat bags (had to add chevron to the party!), the peanut bags, and the red/white striped cupcake holders.  I got all of the crates from AC Moore and the natural trays as well.  I got the white trays from Target.  The pink and white popcorn boxes were from Oriental Trading company.  The gumballs were from OTC as well.  The mason jars were all from Wal-Mart.  The lollipops were from iParty (though I later saw them for .50 cents less at the Dollar Tree (see, it is my best friend!).  I got a lot of general crafting stuff from Hobby Lobby.  (LOVE that store as well for parties).