This Gone Fishing Birthday Party by Lauren of Lauren Haddox Designs for her sons, William and Stewart, is REEL cute! With playful “fishing” activities, a real boat, and an awesome vintage “Bait Shop” dessert table, this party is quite the catch of the day! I love the little burlap fish & bobber paper lanterns – so creative!

PARTY HIGHLIGHTS to look out for:

• Amazing “Bait Shop” Dessert Table with fish netting, life preservers, & vintage fishing signs
• “Go Fish” activity with a real boat for the little fishermen to sit in while catching burlap fish!
• Cute bobber garlands + paper lanterns and fish cookie favors!
• Adorable photo timeline on a wooden palette and life preserver + tackle box cookies

PARTY DETAILS, as told by Lauren…

Are you ready to reel in some fun??!! I had a blast working on my boys’ birthday party this year. I think one of the main reasons I enjoyed it so much is because I teamed up with Angela of Angela Marie Events to collaborate on the styling. She brought so many creative ideas to the table and brought my printable collection to life. She constructed the bait shop and I stood back in awe as we transformed my living room into an old school – coke-sippin – sit on the dock of the bay – bait shop! The bait shop was stocked with everything to reel in the big one… worm buckets and nightcrawlers (gummy worms), rod and reels (chocolate covered pretzels), life vests (gummy rings), fishing line (twizzlers), cork cake pops and more. The cookies and cakes were made by the talented Kim of Silly Gilly Desserts… amazing, as always!! The cork cake balls and pretzel rods were made by Brittany of The Sweetest Things. We used a combination of old wood, metal boxes, lots of decor from Hobby Lobby, fishing nets and fishing poles to make the bait shop complete.

Overhead, I had blue tissue fringe and tissue garland draped from the ceiling with honeycomb balls to look like water. And I painted white lanterns half red to look like corks (Pinterest inspired).

I designed a sign for The Snack Shack where all the food was served… catfish from Matherne’s Deli, potato salad, crunchy coleslaw and plenty of 25 cent snacks I have not eaten in years. Ding dongs are not quite as good as I remember them being. :) We had glass bottled coke, pepsi and fanta and had another drink station with brackish water (iced tea), salt water (blue lemonade) and fresh water… and, of course, mason jars and striped straws for all the sipping.

The kids were able to grab a pole and “Go Fish” in the boat or get dirty in Willy’s Worm Dig. For the fishing game, I painted the fish on burlap, stuff them and hot glued magnets to the fish and the cork on the fishing line. Fishing poles were made from twigs, twine and a cork. I put a box of live worms in the worm dig to make it fun for the kids. :)

The day was absolutely gorgeous… blue skies and not too hot. :) My boys’ loved every minute of their party. HUGE thank you to Katherine Landry Photography for capturing all the details of their special day!

Angela, Katherine, Kim and Brittany, I could not have done it with you!! Thanks so much for sharing your talent!!!