Sparkle & Shine...It's Birthday Time!~Decorations

So let's be honest...I took LOTS of pictures for about 36 hours around Elyse's 2nd birthday. Which means that you're going to see LOTS of pictures from her party but I'll split it up just for the sake of everyone's sanity! 

 

We had the party on Friday night at our house...which is a little tiny for 35+ people!  However, it was a TON of fun and Elyse was so blessed to have so many friends & family in attendance--especially with such crazy weather! 

 

Up first...the decor & theme.  Having a December baby, I wanted a theme this year that went completely away from anything Christmas.  However, I wasn't quite ready to jump into the whole "character" theme party.  And so after lots of Pinterest perusing, I decided on a generic..."Sparkle & Shine, It's Birthday Time!"  With decorations in shiny gold, pink, and purple...girly all around! 

 

And it all completely started to form in my head when I happened on some fabulous invitations on Etsy...Allie @ BirchTreeDesigns worked with me to personalize everything to be exactly what I had imagined and I couldn't have been happier!  I think I almost cried when I got the proof because I was so in love with them.  And in the days of print-your-own invites, I was pleased as punch that she would print them and mail them to me! 

Invitation Front

 

Invitation Back

This year we decided to transform our eating area into birthday central and it worked so well.  We removed anything that was over the top Christmas and replaced it all with birthday decor.  The only thing remotely Christmasy were the ornaments I hung from the ceiling to add some height to the tablescape. 

I fell in love with the DIY tissue garland, and decided I could definitely do that myself.  You can find a fabulous tutorial here, and I followed it pretty much to the letter.  With the plain purple tissue, gold metallic tissue, and pink mylar tissue it looked perfect with the rest of the decor.  

I also wanted some funky vases, so I had my mom save a few wine bottles and followed this idea for spraypainting them.  Super simple and super cheap.  I have big plans to paint a bunch more to change up the decor above my cabinets after all the Christmas decor comes down. 

 

The wine bottles were also easy because I just dropped in some funky stems from Hobby Lobby to create the arrangement...and then pulled them out after the party was over. 

I had big plans to make a #2 out of a bunch of the pictures of Elyse from the last year, but since I was going to be doing it last minute I just decided to fill our huge window with all the pictures.  I love how it filled the space and also created a great backdrop for pictures!  Not gonna lie, they may stay up until June---just like her snowflake monthly pictures did last year!   

 

 

 

Elyse's daddy picked out the gigantic #2 balloon @ Party City and I do have to admit that I loved having it around.  It was the perfect backdrop for the adorably decorated high chair that Elyse of course didn't ever even sit in!   

 

 

I found a great article about preserving the special-ness (is that a word?) of December birthdays and loved the idea of hanging balloons on the Christmas tree.  The tree was pretty far from where the majority of the party happened, but it was still a fun touch!

 On Friday we finally got the table all set up.  Sugar cookies made by my dear friend Andrea, #2 cake by StarCakes--a local bakery that I LOVE!, and then two of Elyse's favorite fruits--grapes & Halos (aka Cuties aka oranges).

LOVED the cake!

 



Elyse is definitely more of a cookie girl...so we went that direction instead of lots of cake!

 And last but not least...the weather was less than ideal on Friday evening and our front walkway was SUPER slick.  So Hubby decided that everyone should come through the garage...and even though I kind of spoiled the surprise, he created a pink-lined walkway for everyone to enter through.  It was the perfect start to a perfect party... 

Come back later this week for some pretty stinkin' cute pictures of the birthday girl & all her loot!