Shannon of Bottle Pop Party Co. was equipped with balloons, cars and candy + free printables from Sarah of Confetti Sunshine for her daughter Macy’s 8th Birthday Parade inspired by the classic Thanksgiving tradition! A couple years back, I took a different spin on the parade for my Macy’s First Birthday ;)… but I’m definitely going to keep this in mind a few years down the road for a more “grown up” & girly approach!

PARTY HIGHLIGHTS to look out for:

• Convertible cars filled with candy gum balls and drummer topped cupcakes
• A popcorn bar with caramel, butter & cotton candy varieties
• Fringe wrapped gable boxes, glittery DIY party hats & a confetti filled photo booth!

PARTY DETAILS, as told by Shannon…

I’d like to submit a photoshoot that I just did with a parade theme! I had wanted to do an old fashioned parade themed party but gave it a twist by naming it Macy’s 8th Annual Birthday Parade as a play off the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. I invited some of my neighbor girls over to model and rewarded them with sugar highs!

Since popcorn is one of the quintessential parade snacks, I set up a little popcorn bar featuring cotton candy, caramel and butter flavored popcorn. LIttle bowls of “fixin’s” were purple M&M’s, red and teal gummy bears, Mike & Ike’s and sugar sprinkles. But since it was a birthday, of course we needed some sweets! Although I love crazy detailed desserts as much as the next girl, I know that lots of us are on budgets and have to stretch store bought desserts to look the best they can. Sugar cookies and cupcakes were paired with lollipops and gum balls and all were purchased at my favorite place, Target. The girls drank it all down with fruit punch in cute little bottles with the mandatory stripey straw (also from Target!)

I worked with Sara from Confetti Sunshine to make the cutest printables in fun prints like houndstooth and bunting. She designed the adorable invitation as well as the Popcorn Bar sign and drink wraps. Sara’s shop also provided the juice bottles, cupcake wrappers and old fashioned popcorn bags. She’s a one-stop shop!

I also went right to Tara from One Stylish Party to get my hands on some fringed favor boxes. I love the cute little detail the fringe adds to an otherwise plain kraft gable box.

I got creative in making some custom DIY party hats. I took some yarn wrapped wire and made headband shapes. I then attached glittered party noisemakers with hot glue and trimmed them with some pink tulle.

I used one of my favorite background techniques lately to create the giant parade background photo.  By ordering an “engineer print” from Staples, you can get a huge photo blown up for only a few dollars! Sure, they only make them in black and white but for the right photo, it can make a big impact.

The girls got all hopped up on sugar then got silly in my DIY Photo Booth, complete with a confetti background and some cool props.