
Rainbow Hot Air Balloon Birthday Party
UM…ya. I am pretty my dying over this ridiculously adorable Hot Air Balloon Birthday Party! Created by talented interior designer/graphic designer Paige of Paiges of Style – in celebration of her daughter Quinne’s first birthday – the level of creativity here is just above and beyond!
The bright, happy colors, the way-too-cute treats (every single one is so creative and can you even believe the level of detail on those cake pops?!), the oodles of DIY details – including a fabulous ruffled burlap backdrop, colorful rainbow ribbon garland, homemade “hot air balloon” table centerpieces, & more – the In-N-Out Burger menu, the matching ruffled rainbow bloomer on the birthday girl … what’s not to love?! As always, Paige tied everything together with coordinating paper details that adorned everything from the french fries to the crayon containers. And guess what…this entire printable paper package is available in her etsy shoppe!
Read on for more happy, colorful photos + all the creative details, vendor resources/credits, & links to DIY tutorials…
PARTY DETAILS, as told by Paige…
“When I started thinking about Quinne’s first birthday, I knew I wanted it to be fun, colorful and be a play on the fact that her first year “had flown by.” I have two girls 16 months apart so Quinne’s first year had been quite a roller coaster!
I love the rainbow color palette but I wanted to incorporate hot pink since she is, after all, a girl! I had so much fun mixing the vintage hot air balloon with more modern chevron stripes and rustic burlap.
INVITATION
I think the invitation is so important and sets the stage for the event. I wanted to include a photo of Quinne but didn’t want it on the invite so I used a photo of her on the envelope liner, our friends loved it! See the tutorial here.
GREETING THE GUESTS
To greet the guests, my husband and his mom made a rainbow balloon arch using a tutorial found on Design Mom. Next, the kids got to pick a party hat with their favorite trim and sign Quinne’s hot air balloon book. Just like Charley’s monkey party, I had our guests sign a children’s book that matches the theme of the party and asked them to predict what Quinne will be when she grows up!
DESSERT TABLE & TREATS
I decided to focus mostly on the dessert table. The colorful chandelier was the starting point and I knew it needed to be grounded with a burlap background. I made both of the exposed layer cakes over a few days before the party… talk about lots of food coloring! Quinne absolutely loved her cake, she even took a break from chowing down to give it a hug – so sweet! (And don’t worry, she didn’t eat the whole thing.) I topped the cake with a darling fondant hot air balloon from Sugar and Stripes Co.
The #1 favorite of our guests were the hot air balloon cake pops. Kris with kCreative Cake Pops exceeded my expectations with the detail on these cake pops. I couldn’t believe the gorgeous colors were and how much they really looked like hot air balloons! Another one of my favorite desserts on the table were the beautiful macaron towers by Baked. Nanci made my vision come to life with the colorful macarons and each color was a different flavor – yum! Nanci also made the gorgeous sugar cookies and red velvet cupcakes, were such a hit. I made the rainbow jello in mason jars (again, over the course of a few days) and used twine to tie colorful mini spoons on the jars.
FOOD
To take the stress of prepping & serving food during the party, I sent my husband out to pick up burgers and fries from In N Out Burger just before the party started. Our guests LOVED it and it was inexpensive and so easy! Of course, I have to label and repackage everything, so I bought striped candy bags from In the Clear to rewrap the burgers and made paper cones to display the fries in. I displayed the food and drinks on an old door I found on the street in my neighborhood (!) and added the concessions stand banner. I spent about $8 to make the rainbow fabric garland that hung behind the food. I love a custom label so I wrapped the water bottles in custom labels that I sell in my etsy shoppe.
TABLES
We set up kids-height tables for the kids to eat at and lined the tables with homemade hot air balloons. I spray painted strawberry baskets brown and used twine to tie a helium filled balloon to the basket.
ACTIVITIES
For activities, we hired a family friend who is a professional balloon twister (aka makes balloon animals) at Downtown Disney. The kids LOVED him and all waited in line for their turn. I also had a custom hot air balloon pinata made by Whack. Now it hangs in our playroom and looks so fun! One of my best friends painted the kids faces and we set up our little bounce house. I designed custom coloring pages for the kids. One of my favorite things at the party was the crayons I separated and placed into tomato paste cans with custom labels.
CLOTHES
I’ve always got to color coordinate our clothes for the party. I spotted this fabric and knew it was absolutely perfect for our party. I sewed each girl a dress (the morning of the party – crazy I know!) and had custom bloomers made for Quinne by BloominBloomers. And my brave husband sported a matching necktie while I pinned on a flower in the same fabric.”

- Party Design & Styling: Paiges of Style
- Stationery Details: Paiges of Style – available for purchase right here
- Photography: Carly Taylor Photography and edited by Paiges of Style
- Cake Pops: kCreative Cake Pops
- Macaron Tower, Hot Air Balloon Cookies & Cupcakes: Baked
- Fondant Balloon Cake Topper: Sugar and Stripes Co
- Custom Hot Air Balloon Pinata: Whack
40 Comments
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Wow! I love how she took a popular trend theme and really made it her own. This is probably one of my favorite rainbow parties to date! The addition of the chevron (where on earth did she find that fabric!?!) is fantastic and I simply adore those ruffled bloomers!!!
https://thisnestisbest.com/2011/08/23/rainbow-dessert-table-2/
Outstanding work Paige, fascinating details!!
Totally love + adore. Serious sweetness, creativity and charm. Insane over the rainbow chandy. The family pic with the little ladies in the basket is the cutest. Ever.
Paige has outdone herself, time and time again. . . so impressed! love every last detail and especially how happy all the lil guests look :)
Everything looks amazing!!! I’m not surprised though. It was to be expected coming from Paige… Every detail is beautiful, but gotta say the basket and giant balloon setup for the family photo is my fave! Congrats on another amazing party!
beyond out of control looooove love love love this party! i adore chevron!
This party is GREAT! Love the mushy baby. The hot air balloon cake pops are over the top!
Those cake pops are over the top! What an amazing birthday!
Thank you so much for the feature Jenn! And you’re sweet comments made me blush! XO
This party is GORGEOUS!!! I love that ruffled burlap backdrop, the cake is beyond cute, and those little ruffles on the birthday girls bloomers are soooo cute! My favorite detail is the photo-lined envelopes… such a fabulous detail. Great job, Paige!
I am in love with this party! The bright colors are amazing! Paige is sooo creative! I have purchased from her before!
Love the colors! I wish I had known about Baked for macaroons just a couple months ago. I tried making some as “pretty patties” for my son’s SpongeBob birthday and mine sure didn’t turn out as nicely. Those are hard work! Love the lemonade jar too. :)
LOVE. What amazing style and detail. The bloomers are killing me!
OHHHHH HOLY COW!!!!! Favorite details…..EVERYTHING LOL Too hard to pick….seriously, Paige!!! You are amazing!!!!
This is my favorite party by Paige so far (although I have loved all of them)! The invitation is amazing, as well as the paper printables, Quinne’s bloomers, the dessert table, and that rainbow chandelier! I can’t wait to see what you come up with next, Paige. :)
Nancy (Above) Seriously took the words out of my mouth….. I LOVED everything. I mean, the chandelier is awesome, the rainbow jello jars are soo cute, cookies and cake pops were simply perfect, the bloomers ADORABLE, and the food choice (In n Out) genius! A++++++ :)
The gorgeous chandelier !!!! I need one.
Paige is AHH-MAZING. I cannot stop staring at these photos. Every detail is perfect. Picking a favorite party detail is tough –I’m not going to be biased and pick the cake pops ;). I would definitely have to pick the girls’ clothes and Mom & Dad’s matching accessories. Not only am I IN LOVE with the rainbow chevron fabric, but I love the execution of Quinne’s apron-like dress and I noticed the polka dot fabric that lines the inside of it . And to think that Paige sewed all of this the morning of –nuts! Bravo, Paige. Beautiful job.
Your colors are second to none.. fantastic!
What is in the layered jars? Jello? I can’t figure out what the white part would be? Thanks.
Seriously how do you make the rainbow jello…I love it!
I am wondering the samething, please!!
OMG this party is to DIE FOR!!!! I am in love with EVERYTHING!! Paige you did such an amazing job!!!
Such an amazing party – too many favorites to choose just one! The invitation was gorgeous with it’s genius photo envelope liner. The beautifully colorful dessert table – so yummy! Can’t wait to see Paige’s next party on HWTM!!!
Absolutely beautiful. So colorful!
This is the cutest party!!
These photos are amazing…..wonderful party, so colorful!
GoGoGoodie.com
beautiful photos and party!!!
GoGoGoodie.com
Wonderful! I want a party like this.
Hi Paige, I just found your link through Pinterest. I’m from Australia and am just blown away by your rainbow party. I’ve been pinning heaps of rainbow party ideas for my daughter and this definitely exceeds them all. Really unique ideas. Thank you so much for your inspirational efforts from across the world! (and you’re crazy to be sewing the morning of the party!!! that’s what we do as Mums though isn’t it!) Can I ask you where you got your chandelier from too (selfish I know!) xx
Oh I LUV this entire theme. I was especially moved by the family photo and the one dad and baby took together! that is so cherishable. Thanks for giving us tips on how to re-create this theme!
I almost cried when I saw this party Idea. My DD is turning 1 next year, I didn’t have anything on mind until now! This is perfect! every detail, the colors, treats! And love that you tell us where to get things and DIY stuff! So doing it!!!! Thank you! Just one more thing! I really would like to know how to do that rainbow jelly in the jar :-D
What about favors?
So cute! I want it all! I would be curious though what the grand total of this kind of party would be? Seems like a lot of work and money went into it! I guess that’s why it looks so good!
I am really really LOVING all of these details and pictures!! What a great idea, and how beautifully it came out!
Do you remember where you got those plastic balloon bunches that went on top of the cupcakes, by chance?
Love it! We’ve recently had a hot air balloon party and a rainbow unicorn party, but never thought of a rainbow hot air balloon party! I wrote up both on my blog. Great cakes!
I was wondering where you got the mason jars for the jello
oh my gosh everything is so cute and colorful. What is the rainbow food in the jar with the spoon attached?? I can’t read the sign!
Lovely!
This is absolutely brilliant!
It just screams… FUN!!!
Love it~
Cat