Emilia's Third Birthday Party

/

Hi! It’s been a week since Emilia’s Birthday Party and I have so many beautiful images to share. My incredibly talented friend, Caroline Guinn, snapped a few photos (unasked! - gosh she’s the best) while attending and I’m so thankful she did. I had THE most phone putting together this party. While I executed the details, the vision was all Emilia’s. Since around Halloween she has told us that she wants to have a “tea party with dress ups” for her birthday. So that is exactly what we did.

Invitations were this suite from Paperless Post and I just changed the text. I just love Paperless Post - I think their electronic invitations look so classy and they have a ton of options.

DECOR

The though thing about a January birthday is it is far too cold to do much anything outside. We kept her party small (16 total girls), and I rented two of these children's tables. Do you die for the kids Chivari chairs or what? I rented those too (via Kelly Rentals), but you can purchase them here. FYI - if you have or use those kids tables, this tablecloth is the perfect length and won't drag on the floor too much like many other linen options. The striped paper runner was a great pop on the table and helped keep my tablecloth clean. All of the plates, hats, banner, chandelier, and napkins were from one of my favorite party brands - meri meri. Seriously they have the cutest stuff! I did my first real solo-run making a balloon banner with this starter kit and this pack and this pack of balloons from amazon and honestly am very proud of myself! It wasn’t too hard at all! It made for a wonderful backdrop behind the table where the girls had tea. Em helped me pick flowers and we decided to do rainbow to match the balloons down the table. It was fun finding a flower for each color! I ordered this 10 piece pack of vintage looking bud vases and was very pleased with the quality. Will def be using for future tablescapes. Highlight of all of this decorating was watching Emilia LOVE setting the table with me. Like mother like daughter.

tablecloth (similar) / tiered server (similar) / marble pedestal / glass cake stand (similar) / heart bowl / banner / lamp shades / candlesticks (similar) / chandelier / mirror / drapes are custom / rug (similar) / plates / napkins

FOOD

Her party was midmorning so we served finger sandwiches (pimento cheese, cream cheese, and pbjs) along with chicken biscuits and fruit from chick fil a. It’s not a party without chick fil a, am I right?! I had a few little shortbreads out too to keep it you know - English. Ha! I find when hosting parties I can either commit to the food or the decor, but not both. And especially for kids parties - who cares?! They don’t care if you make rainbow fruit skewers (although those would have ben real cute). Just get the dang fruit platter and dump it in a bowl. We always get our birthday cakes and cupcakes from Stein’s Bakery here in Dallas. They do such a nice job and don’t use fondant! (I HATE the taste of fondant). We got a small 6” cake for Em to blow out her candles (she was ADAMENT she have a “pink cake with roses”), but the I did cupcakes for everyone to eat and we ate her smaller cake the next day on her actual birthday for our family celebration. Blowing out candles is like super gross, no? And I hate slicing and serving cake to people is this was a win-win. I totally forgot to put on these cute cupcake toppers! Whoops! I linked some similar tiered serving trays and cake stands up in caption, but I also always have great luck at Home Goods for those kinds of pieces.

SHOP THIS POST

ACTIVITIES

When Emilia told me she also wanted to have dress ups at her party I first thought she meant have her friends wear their dress up clothes. But, oh no, she wanted to let everyone actually dress up in costumes while at the party. I thought it was going to be a giant cluster, but it actually turned out to be a pretty great way to entertain 15 three year olds. (Hot tip - if you need to purchase a gift for a three year old girl, a dress up costume is the way to go.). We also had a face painter and a balloon artist at the party for the first hour. I used this company who is actually a husband and wife couple (she, the face painter, he the balloon artist) and they have been doing it for 20+ years! They were tasteful and quick and so great with the girls. Will definitely use them again in the future. We moved the furniture around in the living room to make room for Em’s vanity and hung all her dress up clothes on a rolling rack. Brought in a mirror and arranged her tiaras and jewelry. It turned out so well!

PARTY FAVORS

I knew as soon as we had the theme set that I wanted to give out personalized tea cups to all the girls for party favors. I found this darling shop on Etsy and messaged her and she was a BREEZE to work with. This is the main set I went off of. She changed a few colors for me on the cups to match the theme and had them shipped to me in plenty of time. Truly cannot rave about her enough! She also has these cute birthday party tea sets which would make a great gift! The girls all loved finding their nape for their place setting and drinking tea (lemonade) out of their tea cup.

PARTY PICS

I had an absolute blast preparing and exciting and partying for our sweet Emilia Sue. She is such a happy, bubbly, girl girl and this party totally reflected that. My favorite part of the whole thing was watching how much she loved to set up the party. Like mommy like daughter. You can watch this Reel here of her setting up for her big day. I love her so darn much and can’t wait to plan many more parties together. Emmie Sue, we love you!

SHOP THIS POST

The Disclaimer

Due to the 2022 of it all, I sent out the below reminder to those invited to make sure our party was kept safe. Had it not been 25 degrees, I likely would have moved the whole thing outside, but thus the crux of a January birthday.

“Hi friends! Despite these wild times, Emilia’s party is still on for Saturday morning! While she is SO excited about it, we would all feel terribly if her event caused anyone to become sick. So if your child, you, or anyone in your home is or has been ill this week (with ANY type of sickness), we kindly ask that you stay home. We will make sure you receive your party favor if you’re unable to come! Love y’all. Just want to stay safe so we can all get back to normal as soon as possible. XO, Katie”