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.”