Get ready for a magical underwater world of sparkly mermaids, giant bubbles, and ocean-inspired desserts!

Christina from Dolce Designs Studio transformed her living room into a fabulous underwater oasis for her daughter’s Under the Sea birthday party with a “Princess Mermaid” twist! Shimmery fabrics and ocean blue ribbons covered the walls, while a cool “Seahorse Guard Gate” held watch over playful themed desserts like smiling starfish cookies, ocean wave cake pops, and an amazing, sugar-coral-topped Under the Sea cake. A darling mermaid princess invitation set the tone for this sparkly, bubbly birthday celebration…and it looks like the real “mermaid princess” and her friends had an absolute blast!

PARTY DETAILS, as told by Christina…

I never imagined my little firecracker who’s spent many hours in the ER and urgent care for jumping from high places, falling down a flight of stairs (more than once), hanging from chandeliers, flying down the hill on a scooter without knowing how to stop and crashing- all before the age of 4 would actually be interested in princesses’. Imagine my shock when out of her mouth came the request of a princess mermaid party with “fishes mommy”!

It didn’t take long for me to say yes as I recognized this could be my one and only chance of seeing her “embrace” her princess side! How could I say no, after all, this was the kid who spent hundreds of hours in the car with me for the sake of carpool on many, many Dolce Designs buying excursions at peak traffic times. This was simple, my way of saying, “thank you road buddy – cheers to taking you Under the Sea for a day where it’s all about you!”

I quickly hit the design board with fellow mom, Adrienne of Cherish Paperie, to come up with a sweet mermaid invite. The one rule I had – nothing Disney’s Ariel. We had a blast and wow, did we have fun pinning and sharing, pinning and sharing and pinning and sharing some more! At this point, I was so into it I decided we were going to go for it and really knock it out of the park for Tessa. Adrienne blew my mind with the invite and it was time to let Zaid (the other half of Dolce) know that the party was taking on its own personality! Poor Zaid had no idea what my request the week prior to come help/hang out on Tessa’s birthday weekend really meant but he quickly caught the wave with me! As it has happened many times under the roof of Dolce Designs – I show him some stuff, talk for 15 minutes and WOW – look what happens! He grabbed the concept and rode that wave all the way in with me to make this a memorable day for my sweetie.

We took her love of the “fishes” and transformed the living room of my home into an underwater oasis. The walls were covered with sea green and turquoise blue satins and sheers by our fab Dolce team. Fabric seaweed was hung throughout the room and if you looked closely you’d see the “fishes” swimming about! A perfect place for the mermaid from Send in the Clowns to come and visit and the very popular bubble show from Bubble Mania to be performed!

The kids had long bench seating to watch the entertainment all while being enamored by the amazing under the sea dessert table behind the entertainment. The table’s backdrop was a stunning ribbon wall of ocean blues’ made by us. The table was draped in a gorgeous La Tavola sequined linen, New York Midnight Blue, truly creating an under the water illusion. The gate guards of the sea, the sea horses, stood guard protecting the cake from little hands! The dessert table – I quote, “Seriously, mommy, seriously…do you see my cake? I don’t want to eat it, I don’t want anyone to eat it!” (She eventually changed her mind!)

Cupcakes Couture also swam away with the concept! CC has done every birthday party of Tessa’s, and know her dynamic little personality well. They helped make the things that were special to her (and a little bit to me). The colors in the sugar corals, the star fish cookies, the mermaid cupcakes, the ocean wave cake pops… again, how about that cake! A quick few conversations, sharing the style sheets and amazing results all while they were having one of their busiest weekends ever (so I found out after the fact).

The kids and adults all stayed refreshed at the Mermaid’s watering hole where the children were served Ocean Blue Bubbly and the adults had their own version of bubbly!

The best moments of the day were captured over and over again for my husband and me while watching Tessa beaming with joy as each friend arrived, each bubble was blown, each song was sang and only crumbs remained but her smile still stayed the same, in fact, I think she’s still smiling. Most importantly is that at the age of 4 she has repeatedly, and very genuinely, expressed her gratitude and appreciation for her day under the sea at our nightly “today I’m thankful for….” prayers.

Last but certainly not least, many many kudos to Desi for the fab photos and capturing the spirit of the day… so fun!