We are over here today...

You can find us over at The Handmade Hullabaloo today, with a tutorial for the fun party hats we made for our Elmo Extravaganza.

Would love you to drop by and say hello!

The Inspired Occasion

In the press - Herald Sun newspaper

Yesterday we were asked to participate in an article the Herald Sun newspaper was putting together on children's birthday parties. They requested we put together a dessert station and be ready to be interviewed and photographed - all within about 4 hours! 

Well - we do work well under pressure...!

The article was published this morning and we are featured on page 5, as well as a small banner on the front page! Very exciting! You can check it out here...

Although, exciting and flattering as it is, we do have to make a clarification regarding the interview. 

There is quite a large focus in the article regarding parents spending large amounts of money on their children's parties. While yes, big budgets for parties are great and certainly allow us to pull together a truly lavish affair; this type of party isn't for everyone. 

We will work with our clients to put together an occasion that reflects not only their budget, but also their tastes, their inspirations and their personalities. Sometimes a home made cake and some hand crafted decorations make the best parties.

In our opinion, it isn't the budget that makes a wonderful party; it's the care and thought put into it. And that doesn't cost a whole lot!

The Inspired Occasion

Part 3 - An Elmo extravaganza (the desserts!)

Thank you all so much for the lovely feedback on Part 1 and Part 2 of our Elmo extravaganza that we posted earlier in the week. Finally, tonight the dessert station!

We wanted the dessert station to be the centrepiece for the room, a focal point and obviously have a presence in such a large room. We started off by designing a set up that would use the stage area, as well as the floor below. The backdrop was hand-made to replicate the background of the original invitation.

The top level of the dessert station included two wonderful cakes from Fantasy Cakes. The client's son's are born only a few weeks apart, so each had a cake. One wonderful Elmo and then a divine Cookie Monster tied in with the theme perfectly.

On either side of the table we included some more goldfish bowls filled with gum balls, large oversized balloons (from Candy Soirees) and these two very impressive Elmo air-walker balloons. These balloons were HUGE and the birthday boys loved being able to take them home at the end of the day!

The bottom layer of the dessert station was filled with all sorts of wonderful treats... Elmo cupcakes, cake pops, jelly cups, popcorn, fruit cups, Cookie Monster cookies and of course, an array of lollies!

Alex also made these gorgeous Elmo cookies that were included in the tote bags that each child received. The tote bags also had some Sesame Street stickers, a packet of Elmo memory cards and we topped them up with plenty of lollies as well.

This photo is one of my favourites from the party - it's the birthday boy and the whole family, singing Happy Birthday! Love how happy they all look!

This party was so much fun to put together and we do have to say thank you to our fabulous suppliers at Candy Soirees and Fantasy Cakes. We also have to say thank you to our wonderful team, who always put in 110% to ensure our events go off without a hitch.

Hope you enjoyed our little Elmo extravaganza!

The Inspired Occasion

Part 2 - An Elmo extravaganza

If you popped by our blog yesterday, you will have seen Part 1 of our Elmo Extravaganza that we put together for a lovely client earlier this month. If you missed it, you can catch up here. Now for Part 2 - the kids table.

Our venue was really large and with 30 kids, we thought we would take advantage of the space and fill it with a long table centred down the middle of the room.

At each child's place there was an Elmo blower and a decorated party hat. We have a tutorial coming up on the Handmade Hullabaloo in the next week or so for the party hats, so look out for it there!

As a reference to Elmo's goldfish Dorothy, we used large gold fish bowls as centrepieces. Filled with coloured gum balls, a selection of Elmo pinwheels (which each child took home at the end) and a large oversized balloon (from Candy Soirees), they looked so bright and colourful and the kids loved them.

Tomorrow we will share the final instalment - the dessert station!

The Inspired Occasion

Part 1 - An Elmo extravaganza

We have shown a few sneak peeks of this party on our Facebook page, but thought it was about time that we shared it here on our blog, in full. Although as the party was HUGE, we will share it over a couple of posts, or seriously - you will be here reading all night!

This party was for a gorgeous little boys first birthday party. The client wanted all the traditional birthday things; lots of balloons, party hats, blowers, lollies and of course, cake. She also requested an Elmo/Sesame Street theme, as it is her little boys favourite.

While we do tend to like to do things a bit handmade and different here, we were not ones to shy away from a challenge. With inspiration from the fabulous team at Southern Belle, who put together this wonderful Elmo party last year, we took the theme and totally ran with it!

The venue was a large community hall, with 30 odd children and over 60 adults, we knew a big space would be required. It also allowed lots of space for the kids to run around and play with the wonderful entertainer that we arranged. She literally took them all to Sesame Street, with music, games, singing and balloons - perfect for all ages!

We also set up a number of activity stations including play dough, craft and blocks. This worked really well as there was a mix of ages at the party and it catered for everyone.

To decorate the space, we used a combination of almost 300 balloons, wall friezes and banners. Each of the adults tables included a balloon centre piece and was dressed in a colour coordinated table cloth.

Tomorrow night we will share the kids table, and then the dessert table. For now - here is a sneak peek to tide you over...

The Inspired Occasion