Let’s Plan a Party: Woodland Fairy Birthday
This post is kind of a reverse on the usual style – instead of featuring ideas, I’m hoping that you guys wouldn’t mind sending some over this way!
I’m helping some friends put together a first birthday party for their daughter on short notice, and mom is looking for a Tinkerbell-inspired “Woodland Fairy” theme. The party will be in a backyard setting and there will be both adults and kids ranging from 1-8.
I designed a digital invite for her yesterday that shows the general look & feel we’re imagining for the party (address info has been changed). If you have any fun ideas for themed activities for the kids, decorations, desserts, shopping resources for fairy themed decorations, etc – please let me know… I’m pressed for time these next few weeks and any help would be greatly appreciated!
Also – the birthday girl’s dad is a photographer, so we should be able to capture the end results and post them after the part to help inspire future “fairy party” hostesses!
40 Comments
Comments are closed.
I featured this Woodland Fairy Party on Peppers and Pollywogs, which is full of inspiration:
http://www.simplelovelyblog.com/2008/09/woodland-fairy-party-recap.html
More Ideas;
http://www.pepperspollywogs.com/blog/index.php/fairy-party-for-kids/
http://www.pepperspollywogs.com/blog/index.php/guest-party-blogger-lauren-meanders-flower-fairy-party/
Have Fun Planning!
Lisa @ Peppers and Pollywogs
Those colors are gorgeous together! A great starting off point! I’m thinking twinkle lights EVERYWHERE for sure!
What about as an activity they could make fairy wands and/or headpieces/crowns? They could use actual sticks from the back yard and decorate them with craft materials provided … I know that might be hard with a one year old — but if some of the other guests are older children that might be a fun activity … or you could just provide them for the kids. When I think Woodland Fairy I think Peter Pan and the Lost boys .. you could try going that route? Good luck!
I love this idea for a theme! Perhaps you will consider using lanterns as part of your decor since TinkerBell was often featured in/around one in the Peter Pan movie. I agree with the twinkle lights suggestion above. I am a huge TinkerBell fan (child at heart?), so I would love to see how this idea comes together. For desserts, you might want to do mini-desserts (or “fairy bites”) along the lines of mini brownie bites, cupcakes, cheesecakes (for the adults), cheese and crackers, etc. with lots of sprinkles and serving elements in your theme colors. And, of course, you must have a good supply of “pixie dust” on hand for the party guests! Good luck!
I love the paper lantern Idea. Hanging from the trees would be very fairy like, making tu-tu’s or fairy outfits would be a fun activity to!
I love this e-invite you did. Can you post the how-to on doing pretty e-invites like this? As for ideas, may be you can get some very cheap and pretty crowns from this website:
I’m thinking of lollipop star (pink and green barley sugar for sure on a long lollipop stick)
The big wings you can buy in the little girls dress up play sections (about $4ish) at Michaels and the like are adorable on the backs of chairs, in trees, hanging from ceiling, etc.
Or make the birthday girl’s highchair special and have it be the one with wings.
More later,
A
I blogged about a fairy party I found here:
http://meandmyinsanity.blogspot.com/2008/09/party-all-time.html
Follow the link to the original site to see more fairy ideas, but I LOVE the table setting with the leaf plates, flower cups, and toadstool seats (you could always make those pink to go with your color scheme). It has me thinking fairies for my daughter in a year or two.
Oh, in my previous comment, I forgot to mention that giving out Tinkerbell Jewelry will be a great party favors. Check these necklace out:
make fairies: make a body, then fashion wings out of wire. use some colored panty-hose stretched over the form. use spray adhesive and fairy dust (glitter) to add some whimsy. add fairies to wire stems for floral/centerpiece elements or anywere else you need a little sparkle.
You absolutely must incorporate twinkle lights and fairy dust (like other commenters have mentioned)! I’m also a huge fan of paper lanterns – how pretty would white lanterns look if hung all over a tree’s branches (with little glow lights inside)?!
As for decorations, how about gathering sticks from outside, spraying them with adhesive (or spray-painting them gold before spraying with adhesive), and rolling them in glitter? You could gather bunches of the sparkly sticks and place in tall glass vases (and keeping them on the outskirts of the party area since there will be little ones around).
For seating – and this is a tad elaborate/labor intensive – I think short tree trunk stumps would be so cute if positioned in a circle or around a rustic wooden table.
I can’t wait to see pictures!
Some great ideas here:
http://www.teacakesandteddybears.com/FairyPrincessTea.htm
* Make wand cookies as decor. Star shaped cookies decorated, tied of with long ribbons and a wand.
* If kids are young, coloring crafts are easier but older girls can make their own flower head wreaths.
* Build a fairy house (see site) and don’t forget to bring treats for the fairies. Read a fairy book
after building it and serve treats outdoors.
* Make a fairy canopy outside with natural flowers, branches, etc. for the kids where they can eat.
Decorate chairs and/or tables using White Tulle with accents of Pretty Pink flowers and Green Ivy. Or instead of flowers and ivy. Hang wings on the chairs.
For the tables center pieces, , make topiaries using green and pink pretty flowers.
As everyone else has stated you must must have fairy lights and fairy dust.
The party favors could be tiaras and fairy wings. I dont think the girls should pick sticks from ground but you can purchase some at an art store and sand them down and have the girl decorate them with glitter, buttons, feathers and sequins (make sure you glue a star to the top like Glinda the good witch). boys can make a harry potter wizard wand
You could bake cookies (cupcakes? rice krispy treats?) in advance and have the girls decorate them with icing and sprinkles and other edible things. and serve fairy punch (my cousin had sumthing similar at her baby shower…not sure ut it tasted like sherbert soda and fruit punch)
Have a dance of the sugar plum fairy impromptu dance off (or just let them dance in their fairy wings)
pin the wings on the tinkerbell game (pin the tail on the donkey)
I love the invitation! I’m planning my 8 month old’s 1st birthday already and I was thinking a fairy theme as well!
I definitely think fairy dust is a must, along with sparkly lights, and paper lanterns, wind chymes, torches.
For the kids dining area, I would suggest making their chairs into fairies (put wings on the back).
Centerpieces for tables could be tree branches painted then hang dragonflies, and butterflies on the branch along with flowers.
Just some notes I had brainstormed.
Ahh, we just did a Cinderella themed party, this idea would work equally as well for a Tinkerbell party. Use star shaped sugar cookies on 12″ narrow dowels. We cut our cookies out a little thicker than usual, the dowel was pushed into the edge of the cookie so the star stood up on the dowel. Then it was baked as usual. The cookies where then frosted and a pretty ribbon (a filmy organza type ribbon would be beautiful) tied around the dowel. We made quite a few of these and put them in vases (the kind that have the top belled out) added a wide ribbon around the vase and used them as table centers as well. Your ribbons and frosting can be in your theme colors. Because your theme is Tinkerbell I would also add a little bell to each of the bows tied around the dowels. For your favors you can use small bite sized sugar cookies packaged up in small frosted plastic gift bags (B08 BSF36 @ Ribbons and Favors) fold over the top of the bag, punch a couple of holes horizontally about 1″ apart and thread your party theme ribbon through them and tie off in a pretty bow – in our case we used the wands as their favor. You can even add a tinkerbell sticker to the front of the favor bags. If you are pressed for time I’ll bet you could take the dowels precut to your favorite bakery and have them do the decorated cookies for you, on the dowel and off the dowel, and then you would just have to add the ribbon, bells, favor bags and a food safe barrier if needed in each of your bags. What a fun theme and perfectly suited for a 1 year birthday, and those wings would be a cute additions as well.
Pink and Lime Green Table cloths
Tinkerbell Magic Wands to pass out as favors:
Tinkerbell Headbands to pass out as favors:
Tinkerbell Cupcake Toppers for a Cupcake Tower:
Tinkebell Pinata’s – can be used at Table Toppers or Centerpieces or hung from trees:
You can use these pink plum blossom branches to place in glass cylinder vases as centerpieces:
http://www.save-on-crafts.com/blossom.html
I also like the idea of passing out fairy wings to the kids.
I really like the bowers/ bed tents. One that is perfect for the theme can be found here , or you can use this as inspiration to spruce up a less expensive one found at your local home supply store. This could be used as a play place for the kids, or it could cover the food table (bonus: keep the insect off the food). Post-party, it would make a great addition to the growing fairy’s bedroom (maybe in another year or two).
Using your invitation as inspiration, I would decorate the trees in the backyard with hot pink paper flowers (or carnations). Centerpieces could be branches in vases decorated the same way or, if you could find something similar, you could arrange pink flowers in carved wooden vessels like the kind Pottery Barn used to sell.
I love the previous ideas about star cookies on dowels. You could also decorate cupcakes (or a cake) with fairy wands. (Oriental Trading’s website). I’d also use star sprinkles or “fairy dust” sugar to decorate cakes. Oriental Trading also has “decorate your own fairy wings” that would make a great activity for the older kids.
I would decorate with tulle (white or the theme colors) and ribbon streamers. Twinkle lights and paper lanterns were also great suggestions.
Another possible activity for the kids would be a fairy search. You could buy or make fairies and hide them like an Easter egg hunt. HearthSong toys has these great “elfin doors” that would be magical for this. http://www.hearthsong.com/?section_id=0&bc=1005&pgc=2436&cmvalue=HS|0|Normal%20Search%20Result|P1
Another possible decoration idea (that would also work in a fairy search) is to create mini fairy themes in display glass: http://www.potterybarn.com/shop/accessories-decor/
I would buy mini jingle bells and make them into bracelets or tie them on the kids’ shoes so they would “make fairy noise” while they were celebrating at the party.
This is just adorable! Please take at look at , McKenna’s 2nd birthday Nov. 2007, or , Ashton’s 4th birthday Feb. 2008, same theme. They have a lot of great ideas.
I am floored by all these fantastic ideas! Thanks so much everyone!! :)
When is this party so we can see how the extravaganza turns out??? I’m so excited! I am having a fairy party for my daughter’s 1st birthday in jan.
Hi Ali –
The party is next Saturday, December 6th, so the pictures should be up before Christmas! :)
Do it yourself fairy wings:
https://www.youtube.com/user/ThreadBanger
Seems pretty simple and cheap!!
Can’t wait to see the pics!
I posted some ideas on my blog. I wish I had a girl so I could actually have a fairy party!
http://designformommies.blogspot.com/2008/11/fairy-party.html
hey, quick question, did you design the invitation yourself or did you find it somewhere online?
I love the invite, and would love to use it for my little one’s birthday. please let me know where I can find it!
i love jewelry & nayyiara –
Regarding the invitation, I actually designed it myself, so it’s not available online – sorry :(
I’m actually working on creating some downloadable versions of both the invitation and the birthday signs but they won’t be ready for a while – the font issue makes things tricky. Keep you posted!
Thanks so much Jenn! Will be on a look out for the downloadable versions. Looking forward to see the pics of the party. Hope it went well.
There are lots of party ideas that we could prepare for our kid’s birthday party. Tinkerbell birthday party is one those party ideas that our kids would surely love.
is there any way that you’d be willing to share or work with me to provide the same invitation/signage for another fairy party? thanks!
Also interested in the invitation!!! So cute. What happened to the pics…I’m sure the party was a hit!
I know this was months ago, but I just stumbled upon it in my search for ideas for my daughter’s fairy party. I adore the invitations, you mentioned you were trying to make them available, did that ever work out? What about pictures of the party, I would love to see them!
Love the party ideas. My daughter is having a fairy party next month and I can’t wait to “use” some of your beautiful ideas. Where did you get the fairy silhouette on the invite.- I would like to make a T-shirt with it.
I absolutely love the party ideas. I’m planning a Fairy/ Tinkerbell party for my daughter @ the end of the month. I also adore the invitations. Have you made them available to purchase? Thanks.
Thanks for helping me!!!
Ladies, Help!!!!! I am looking for a place to purchase mushroom decor for a table I am doing for a pixie party. Any help would be great!!!! Thanks in advance
Hi Marcia –
You might be able to find some good resources/inspiration here:
https://www.hwtm.com/2009/09/woodland-forest-party-theme-part-1-woodsy-elements-toadstools/
and here’s a cute toadstool appetizer idea:
and mushroom-shaped meringues recipe:
http://www.joyofbaking.com/MeringueMushrooms.html
Good luck! :)