birthday inspiration – P Squared Events

Young, wild and Three

Happy 3rd birthday, crazy girl! Little Sophie turned three recently and we had a micro celebration for her, given the circumstances.

As it was September in the Pacific Northwest, we felt an outdoor birthday party would be perfect, considering the government restrictions on gatherings right now. Turns out, the forest fires kept us from breathing safely outside too! So we had to cut our guest count dramatically. Didn’t mean we wouldn’t bake and decorate our hearts out!

I’ve had my eye on this dream catcher theme for quite a while now. And although it may seem a bit like an older girl theme, I couldn’t contain myself.

Found this amazing dreamcatcher on Amazon! It was the perfect size, and the perfect price.

Cake had a handmade fondant dream catcher! The mold kept me in the shape, but then I added some extra cuts and holes to make it more interesting. Also adding some edible gold leaf because we are EXTRA.

You can find this dreamcatcher fondant mold here, and the edible gold leaf here.

Cake pops for the win. Every time.

You’ll see me using these acrylic riser stands all the time, because they can match just about any dessert set-up.

Also added some mini brownies wrapped in this adorable parchment paper.

Custom dress made by La-Z Bee Embroidery!

The macrame backdrop really brought this theme home, you can find it here. And the birdcage decor piece, here.

Enjoy!

A Harry Potter Halloween Birthday

Phew, this year, I mean… am I right? 2020 has taken us all for a crazy spin.

I for one was feeling sorry for the folks having birthdays in March-April, and how bad it would be to not get a chance to celebrate…. because obviously my kids in September and October could have the blowout party they want! Welp! Not so much.

So maybe because of that I felt the need to overcompensate in decor this year, and I’m not regretting it!

We are big Potter fans here, and with my son reading through the books, and his birthday so close to Halloween… it seemed like the perfect match!

We only had a handful of kids come to play outside and celebrate how we could! Masks and sanitizer everywhere. But that also meant less baking for me, so I’m not complaining.

Can anyone put a value on a bucket of dry ice at a Halloween party? It was immensely popular.

I loved this cake! The rectangle bottom was actually a dummy cake because I didn’t want to have 3 tons of cake leftover… but it was fondant and buttercream for decoration.

Paul got to help with making wax seals for the invitations! He was stoked.

Enjoy!

Shabby Chic Baby Shower

Now here is a baby shower for that momma who knows the trends. This adorable shower was brought together for a special mom-to-be, and took place at a local wine tasting room!

Everything about this space was perfect. There was wine, and wine… kidding. But the wine was a plus! The lighting was great, there was a perfect wall that fit our dessert table perfectly! And a large family-style farm table right in the middle of the room. Www.greatwineusa.com

We had most of our staple dessert options available on this table, including the famous macarons, cake pops and mini cherry cheesecake. My favorite thing about these desserts were that they combined together in shapes and colors to make the perfect distribution on the table! Not too much, not too little.

These cake pops were a specific request from the mom-to-be. She had seen this style online and loved the simplicity to it! I do too actually, I’m hoping to create a new post with how to make these shortly.

Hope you like it!

Ice Cream Party!

Our little baby Sophie is 2!! We were so excited to celebrate with her this weekend.

This also means mama gets to go all out on the decor and sweets. So who is really having the best time here?

One day, she will decide what her party themes are, but for now, I get to take advantage and do the decor I’m hoping for!

Cue the Ice Cream Shoppe theme. I think this is such a cute set-up!

From sprinkle bottle favors, to cute ice-cream shaped cakepops, we enjoyed every minute of bringing this theme to life.

For this cake, we had a vanilla cake with buttercream confetti frosting. We used the Wilton frosting mold to make the stripes on the bottom layer, and threw sprinkles everywhere! You can find a big Jug of sprinkles here.

For the topper, we used a 3-inch styrofoam ball (cut with a little flat bottom so it stayed in place), and covered it with melted white chocolate. The cool thing about it was that the chocolate didn’t need to be perfectly smooth like I’d normally hope for a cake pop! Bumpy was ok, and even helped with the ice cream look.

I put down the styrofoam ball on a sheet of wax paper, and let the chocolate drip down from it. It created the perfect “melted ice cream” look I was going for. Top that with some sprinkles and a waffle cone, and voilá!

And these cake pops, OMG. I can show you a tutorial on how to make these, just send me a message and I’ll send it to you! You can find the mini cones here.

The cupcakes were so simple. Just a vanilla cake with buttercream frosting. But add a chocolate sauce and a wafer cookie and Bam! Ice-cream themed.

Birthday girl took it upon herself to taste test a tiny bite of EVERY french macaron. It’s her party. So she gets to do things like that. Sorry for everyone else who had to enjoy a partially eaten macaron.

These super cute ice cream balloons can be found HERE.

Hope you enjoyed this sweet birthday!

You could put this party together too! Here are some of the products I bought to make this party extra special:

Let’s Be Mermaids

I love this theme! Do I say that to every theme? But I really really do love the mermaid idea. It’s such a cute party theme, versatile, and quirky. So many possibilities.

I remember watching the Little Mermaid over and over again as a kid (I can neither confirm or deny watching it as an adult) and pretending to be Ariel in the bathtub. Who’s with me? 🙂

I also wanted to share with you fine folks this 20% coupon for Beau-Coup. They have the cutest part items and favors. Use this code to redeem your discount!

This was such a fun cake to make! We had lots of conversations, the client and I, on all the details this cake needed to be absolutely perfect. The funny part was that the birthday girl really wanted a Little Mermaid Birthday party. But my client shares my views about being super character-specific. I’m not a huge fan of your usual party-store themes with all the matching paper plates and balloons. There is so much more potential out there to make something amazing and unique! And if you can’t come up with anything, hit me up. I’m overflowing with ideas.

So she decided to go with a more generic mermaid theme, but asked that I add a small Ariel to the cake just so the birthday girl is happy. 🙂 I think this is the best of both worlds!

The scales on the cake were made with this fondant, my go-to option every single time.

To add to the whimsical mermaid vibe, we made these cute cupcakes with the perfect mermaid fins.

And to break out of my comfort zone a bit, I was asked to make a french macaron in the shape of a shell! *gasp* I’ve never tried to make anything other than the piped circle of the traditional macaron, so I was a bit scared of this one. But I’d say it turned out pretty cute, what do you guys think?

We tried to tone down the gold on this party as well; so we used more silver details and I think it went super well with the lavender and teal scheme!

So freaking CUTE!!

Here are a few links to complete the look of this party:

Cake Stands

Unique Mermaid dolls

Coral Reef Decor

Under the Sea Backdrop

Top 10 Birthday Themes for Girls

Now look… I’m not one to compartmentalize between genders. I’m a firm believer that a girl can do anything a boy can and vice-versa! But you’ll have to agree with me that some themes work better for girls than they do for boys, generally speaking! And this post is highlighting some of our favorites.

10. Hello Kitty

Cuteness overload! I love this theme because it’s so delicate and simple. And so recognizable around the world.

9. Mermaid

Because if we can choose, we will always choose to be a mermaid. We used these fondant molds for the fins and shells, perfect!

8. Peppa Pig

I can’t say I’m a huge fan of the cartoon… but the theme itself was asked by one of our favorite clients, and combining it with a backyard picnic was everything amazing!

7. Vintage Tea Party

As delicate as they come, I love the pastel colors, large paper flowers and sunshine for this event!

6. Colorful Garden Party

And look! There’s Priscilla, Queen of the Desserts in full action.

We bought our big paper flowers here, and they were so worth it!

5. Shabby Chic

The neutral tones and hushed pinks in this theme are my absolute favorite.

4. Princess

Fit for a princess, let’s set the bar high for the next upcoming birthdays!

The table cloth really made this theme pop, you can find it here.

3. Minnie Mouse

By far our most impressive post on Pinterest, this one takes the cake for the most exposure. It was all things delicate and girly, and it swept our hearts away, true Disney style.

2. A Close 2nd… Unicorn Theme