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6 Tips for Throwing a Fabulous Bunny Themed Party

March 26, 2016
Birthdays , Celebrating

Juliet’s only request when asked what kind of party she wanted was that there should be pink, cupcakes and lollipops. So with that simple request this year, I delayed her celebration a bit to the week before Easter to throw her a Hoppy bunny birthday which was perfect ‘cuz this 3 year old just LOVES to jump around these days! And of course, I made sure to include pink, cupcakes and lollipops!

The invites were customized on Paperless Post, my go to online invitation source for stylish evites. I love how they let you customize everything from the backgrounds to the stamps and wording!

I’m not a poet but I came up with this original invite wording for the occasion. “Some bunny is turning 3, so hop on over to celebrate me, dress to impress for pics w/Easter bunny, what’ll you find in the egg hunt, money? Sweet treats and bunny bites too, but it’s not a party without YOU! xoxo, Juliet” I feel the invite is super important for setting the tone and getting guests excited for the event. I hoped this floral invite not only hinted at the springy, Easter theme but got them anticipating the dressy egg hunt too.

After having taken her Easter photos last year and having been challenged by my husband with the question of what I’m going to do with these print outs, I came up with the idea of putting them to use by displaying them at a future bunny themed birthday party! With that in mind, I immediately went shopping the day after Easter to snag all the party decor at 80-90%off. (I have to work within a budget, ya know)! From there, I scoured the web to find the perfect crafty, DIY, and fashion details buying everything at wholesale prices, and scoring amazing finds from the Target dollar bins. After having waited months to see it all come together, you can imagine my excitement finally getting to set it all up!

It was so exciting to finally have all the details out of my head start to come alive during setup.

In any party space you may come across items that are not allowed to be removed. Don’t fret. Creatively cover them up! There was a random framed photo of a strange man in this party space so I used wrapping paper to hide him and applied a cutout cardboard ‘3’ (also gift wrapped) and some wholesale bunny balloons. The balloon arch was easy for me to make despite never having made one before – just used packing tape!

Here are my top 6 ideas for throwing a bunny or Easter themed party.

Get Pun-ny, Bunny. For a kids party I say it’s OK to get a little cheesy with the puns. Phrases like, “hoppy birthday,” “thanks for hopping on by,” You’re Egg-stra special,” We’re so egg-cited to see you soon,” are handy for invitations and thank you notes. I also plastered such sayings onto the birthday banner, around the water bottles and Reeses Pieces bunny tubes (which I found at a local drug store for a little over a dollar each). They have the same decorative effect as cake pops for a fraction of the price!2. Post Easter or bunny themed photos of the guest of honor. We all like to marvel how much kids have grown during a birthday party so why not post pictures within the party’s theme? Last year for Juliet’s party animal themed party, I posted photos of Juliet holding various stuffed animals and labeled them each with a matching decorative title (‘lamb’, ‘puppy’ or whatever she was holding in the pic). This year, I posted photos from her past Easter shoot, 1 year earlier.3. Bunny cut outs. There are so many ways to incorporate a decorative bunny as part of the party’s decor. I used enlarged bunny felts, bunny shaped-sandwiches, and bunny footprints leading up to the party’s entrance. For more ideas, check out my Pinterest board!4. Offer bunny – themed entertainment for the kids. There was a coloring and sticker station, bunny book reading area, bunny game, a bunny and easter egg decorating area, bunny stuffed animals to play with and an Easter bunny to take pictures with at our party for instance. All were toddler-friendly activities that parents could help out with or not! (Note how easily a borrowed Bugs Bunny costume can easily be converted into an Easter bunny with a simple felt add-on)?5. Encourage Easter animal adoption! A fun way for me to greet each guest at the door was to welcome them with the opportunity to adopt a pet of their choice. Cabbage Patch Kid Style, they were given a certificate of adoption after getting to name their new pet.

6. Host an Easter egg hunt! Juliet helped me fill a whopping 200 Easter eggs. (Child labor laws don’t apply in my home)! And the kids really seemed to have fun with this. I loved it as a parent because the public Easter egg hunts in NYC are always overcrowded which means long lines, toddlers getting trampled, and the big kids getting to the eggs before the little ones have a fair chance at finding them. Our private rooftop park gave them the exclusive opportunity to enjoy a leisurely hunt (ehem during a light drizzly snow day the day before Spring)!

The Easter eggs were filled with everything from egg-shaped chocolates to toys to coins and googly-eyed bunny stickers!

The lucky kids who found a golden egg or super-sized egg were prized with one of the bunny-shaped balloons to take home from the party!

I think I smiled ear to ear the whole time being surrounded by all these cuties!

I liken planning this party to giving birth. It took 10 months of research, planning, buying, and preparing, and then intense laboring culminating in estatic celebration with post-op type recovery and bed rest in the end. Phew! I don’t think I’ve ever worked so hard on any one event, simply because I’m a one-mom production company. But come load-in and setup, I did have a little help from friends! Thanks Roniescia, Janell, Stacie and even John and Juliet! Read on about my tips for setting up a stylish kids’ Easter table (not pictured here) and follow me @stylishlystella on Instagram and Twitter for all the preview pics and recap videos! That’s a wrap folks! ‘Til next year!!

Please leave a comment and share what you liked most about this party so far and Happy Easter to you all!

Photos are a mix from Image Ready, Gotham Love and friends’.

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Fab Fetes – How to create a White Party in 8 Easy Steps

September 4, 2015
Fab Kids Parties

White parties have a certain elegance and excitement surrounding them. They signal summertime, celebrations and …P.Diddy. And what’s cooler than P.Diddy? I’ve waited years for P.Diddy’s white party invite but strangely, have yet to receive one so I decided it was time to host one! I figured it would be a great chance to use all the white decor I already had lying around the house. You know, the stuff my husband nags me about not using enough of i.e.cake plates, platters and other frivolous items that he doesn’t understand. But other than trying to prove him wrong, I just wanted to bring people together and enjoy the last bit of summer. Anyone who knows me I love finding a reason (any reason) to celebrate. Extending and celebrating summer sounded like a good enough reason to celebrate as any!

I thought it would be cute to anniversary last year’s white themed play date in the park and invite moms and their kids. Every mom appreciates a fun reason to dress-up and meet up elsewhere other than the usual park / playground. This time though, the event would be more formalized, with a dinner spread and even florals and candles. (gettin’ fancy here!)

Here’s how to create a white party of your own:

1). Ask guests to dress in all-white! The stricter you are with this requirement, The better the pictures and the better the ice-breaking.

Juliet would remind you not to forget to accessorize!

2). Feature white furniture and/or table linens (white gift wrap, contact paper, plastic table covers, sheets, drapes and blankets all work too!)

3). Serve white beverages (We had sake, white wine, sparkling cider, white grape juice, and water)

The branded waters were repurposed sheets of party circles meant as cupcake toppers, designed by That Party Chick.

4). Serve white foods and snacks. I served sushi rolls, Japanese chicken and udon noodles, pork dumplings, cheese and crackers, white dip for veggies, and hummus with veggie chips, and popcorn). Kids’ white snacks included Mum Mums and Trader’s Joe’s cereal bars (both of which had white packaging and were served upright in clear vases).

Other non-white foods like the edamame and seaweed salad were served on white platters that showcased the Rocksbox promo code ‘FabGabBlog’ which all my guests were entitled to for a free month jewelry subscription.

5). Have white desserts (For this party, I presented white frosted cupcakes, marshamellows, powdered sugar doughnut holes, white rock candy swizzle sticks, white yogurt covered raisins, animal crackers and white macaron puffs).

The white rock candy swizzle sticks were a hit amongst the kids! But who doesn’t love these??

6). White decor -Besides my white ruffle linen, I brought down pillar candles and 3 silk hydrangea vases from my living room along with some white baroque frames and set them along the white marble communal table that was already at the rooftop terrace.

7). Create a white photo backdrop – I set up a simple white banner backdrop with some cardstock and a strip of fuzzy white yarn found on clearance at Michael’s. You could also hang white: balloons, Chinese lanterns, drape, crepe paper …the list goes on…

These besties were hamming it up for us!

For fun, I had some photo props for guests to use if they liked.

Get toddlers grouped together for a photo by sitting them atop a bench that is just high enough for them to not want to try and jump off. I learned this terrific tip from my professional photographer friend who took half these photos for us, Gotham Love!

8). For kids’ entertainment, I had asked parents to bring a silent toy or two that their kids wouldn’t mind sharing. And I had a bubble maker and white blown – up balloons for them to play catch on – site for the kids. But music (if the venue would have allowed) and games would have been great additional add-ons. For our party, the WHITE noise of the waterfall and children’s laughter in the background was our music.

For the parents, I thought that a confessional round where each guest reveals a white lie they recently told would be fun too – maybe next time!