Tag: candy station

Party Inspiration – Carnival Theme

Party Inspiration – Carnival Theme

Posted on by Rebecca

The Carnival theme has to be one of my all time favourite themes. The colours, the design elements, the food, you can really go absolutely wild with this one!

I was lucky enough to help Meg, from mommalikeme, plan this wonderland for Oli’s 6th birthday and the end result was absolutely breathtaking ! It was held at our favourite family friendly venue, Killarney Country Club, and again the team were absolutely accommodating, you’ll remember that I held Yusuf’s 3rd birthday there too.

 

My Favourite Elements?

The eye-catching colour scheme – Red, Turquoise and Gold, I adore this combination.

The magical three-tiered masterpiece of a cake

The cute hot dog cart, complete with hot dogs and candy floss

The slush puppy machine – what a huge hit!

The gold elephants set atop the ticket and popcorn pedestal

The insanely creative backdrop created from paper flower fans and material

 

Now over to Meg to give you all the finer details:

Venue – Set amongst the lush and picturesque surrounds of the Killarney Country Club, throwing the party here was a no-brainer. We set up outside the grandiose Gazebo Room (and could have moved inside should the weather have turned). With a well-equipped play area – a jungle gym and slide, a sandpit, roundabout and putt-putt course, the kids were never bored! KCC bent over backwards to accommodate my every whim (like arriving before 7am on the morning of the party to get the Slush machine going!) and graciously hosting Oli’s 6th birthday celebration and all of our guests. If you’re looking for a venue in Johannesburg, with a difference, this is it.

 

Photography – What a blessing it is to have a birthday party captured for you – otherwise I would have walked away with the one and only photo I took before I chatted to friends and family and got to enjoy the moment. My most favourite photographer, Corinna, from Corinna Tannian Photography was there to capture all the details and happy moments. Besides from being one of the nicest people I know, she is such fun, and extraordinarily talented. If you’re looking for a mini photography shoot for your party setup – chat to me, we’ve come up with some special and affordable photography packages. Corinna is your lady!

Cake – Cara, from Aristocakes, arrived to deliver the cake before the birthday boy arrived. When he walked up to have a look at his candy table, he immediately spotted the cake (how could you not miss four tiers of sugary perfection?!). His jaw dropped and he literally gasped, speechless. It’s exactly the kind of reaction you hope for once hours and hours of work have gone into baking and creating a masterpiece like this. Every detail right down to the little blonde-haired, brown-eyed magician was impeccable. Besides from being a piece of edible art, the ‘art’ tasted incredible – best chocolate cake! I cannot recommend Cara highly enough.

Candy table – We filled apothecary jars with red strawberry liquorice, turquoise chocolate beans, red jelly beans and whole peanuts all from Party Spot – the best one-stop party shop in Johannesburg. As always, we made my kids’ favourite party treat – red jellies – and adorned them with caramel popcorn. Easiest way to tie in a theme? Add iced sugar cookies! Allyson from Sprinkles made the cutest Carnival-themed cookies, from iced hotdogs, to ellies balancing on balls, popcorn boxes, tickets and Oli’s name, this disappeared faster than a magic act! We accented the table with a golden ferris wheel loaded with caramel popcorn, and flanked the four-tired masterpiece of a cake with golden elephants balancing on upturned popcorn barrels. I absolutely loved the red rock candy from Party Lady that we added to the table – their online shop has some amazing products! Vicky, from Bake My Day, made the most gorgeous cherry-red toffee apples and dipped Oreo’s with turquoise ‘frosting’ to look like mini ring doughnuts – how cute are they?! I absolutely adore doing candy stations at parties, I think having it as a focal point is the perfect way to accent a theme – but my biggest piece of advice is to have scoops on hand for the jars and take-home packets so you’re not left with mounds of sugary sweets and your guests can help themselves.

Catering – What’s a Carnival without hotdogs and cotton candy? For that matter – slushie drinks, soft giant pretzels and a popcorn bar! KCC served up some gourmet mini chicken and beef burgers to add to the spread, which we topped off with some airfried-on-site chicken pops that were gobbled up as fast as we could airfry them! How handy was it that I could bring along my Philips XXL Airfryer to whip up hot chicken pops just in time for some hungry guests?!

Water bottles – Once again I used Kidz Cardz for the customised water bottles. These ‘Carnival Quenchers’ were a hit with the busy little carnival attendees in between rounds of putt-putt, fun and games! Kidz Cardz also designed the fabulous personalised individual popcorn packets that went to school for Oli’s birthday ring (round two after the hospital stay) – there’s nothing Elizna can’t do!

Party packs – Where would I be without TOWER Kids? You might remember I used them for Sophie’s party too (link) as the take home gift, and they were so popular, I used them again! We used a variety of five different elephant-themed educational art kits for each of the kids to take home – that ranged from sand art, to scratch and sticker, dot-a-picture, mosaic by numbers and foam art – happy kids and happy adults!

Décor – The first thing I thought of when we started planning this party was how much I needed a Carnival Cart! Sue and the team at ProDecor made all my dreams come true and delivered the most phenomenal cart, hay bales, giant red marquee arrow, crates, sign, and suitcase – making styling this party a cinch! The cart looked amazing with our fabulous black letter board from Curated South Africa – the perfect accent! I wanted to do the candy table up against the big black board as it’s a lovely shaded area (can’t have a melting cake and puddle-like jellies), but I wanted to create something of a backdrop. We, or rather my husband, devised a setup to suspend the striped red and white ‘curtains’ from the ceiling and hang the backdrop of fans I’d made, with a hint of black board peeking through creating a magical carnival-like effect. I bought various paper fans (some that had to come all the way from England with Grandpa and Ouma) and attached them onto plastic mesh fencing in a triangle formation, and adored them with glittering golden circles. The final result was quite striking I think – a great and relatively cheap space filler. With wooden crates and white plinths, I created various levels for focal points – the most important thing to know about setting up candy tables. An upturned crate became the perfect element to showcase deliciously sticky toffee apples on and house ‘O L I in marquee lights. I had a fabulous crushed red velvet table runner made by Bush Lily, as well as red and turquoise bunting to finish off the area. Golden lions on crates, red and white striped table runners, popcorn barrels and a pyramid of cans decorated the benches where the adults could relax.

Signage – Laura from Toogela Creative designed all the signage at the party – from the directional arrows and ‘Welcome to the Carnival’ to the Concession Stand, Step Right up for some Tasty Treats and Thanks for Poppin’ by and more! Toogela can do pretty much whatever your heart desires, so go check them out! Ambari did all the printing for me – vinyl mounted on board so that we can reuse the signage should anyone else need a Carnival party styled for them!

Activities – As per Oli’s stipulations, we just had to have a repeat performance by his all-time favourite magician, Stevie and his Big Red Box of Magic from The Wow Factory. Oli genuinely believes he can do magic by reciting Stevie’s magic words – “wiggle your fingers, wiggle your thumbs, that’s the way the magic comes”! The kids watched and whooped with rapt attention, hanging onto Stevie’s every word. If you’re looking for a magic act, Stevie is it! My fabulous friend Sam (from Sam and Tam link) generously lent us her jumping castle – always a hit at parties, thank you from the bottom of my heart, you’re always so willing to share and help where you can. Since it was a carnival, we just had to have some themed games – we made a pyramid out of big tins and had the kids knock them down with a bean bag and then a ring toss! There was also the fabulous Boom Blast Stix from Prima Toys that Oli was so thrilled to finally show his friends, and it had them in fits of giggles.

List of suppliers/stockists:

Venue – Killarney Country Club www.killarneycountryclub.co.za

Cake – Aristocakes – Cara Brynard

Magician – The Wow Factory

Photography – Corinna Tannian Photography

Apothecary jars, vases etc. – Mr Price Home, Home Stuff at Brightwater Commons

Sweets – Party Spot & Party Lady

Décor items – Pro Decor, sewing by Bush Lily, So Where 2 Events, Party Spot and Westpak

Balloons – Party Spot

Sugar Cookies – Sprinkles

Toffee Apples & Dipped Oreos – Bake My Day

Catering – Killarney Country Club and Fournos Bakery

Party packs – TOWER Kids

Water bottles & personalised popcorn packets for class party – Kidz Cardz

Jumping Castle – Lopes Bouncy House: sam@pinkdustevents.co.za

Black Letterboard – Curated South Africa

Design elements – Toogela Creative

Printing – Ambari: Preven ambarip@telkomsa.net or 083 381 7470

XXL Airfryer – Philips Home South Africa

Party Inspiration – Let’s be Mermaids

Party Inspiration – Let’s be Mermaids

Posted on by Rebecca

Booking are officially open for our party business ! Megan from Mommalikeme and I have started to take bookings for events, following on from our passion which we started working on during University days.  In case you haven’t seen it by now, I’ll be featuring Soph’s beautiful Mermaid party that Megan threw a few months ago. Still one of my favourite parties this year. This under sea adventure has been featured on a few global party pages, including Kara’s Party Ideas and Catch my Party.

My favourite features?

The sequined blue table cloth

The gold accent details like the spray-painted starfish, seahorses and mermaid busts.

The handmade “Jellyfish” hanging from the ceiling

The incredible 3 tiered masterpiece of a cake

The gorgeous colour scheme

 

 

Its actually quite hard to choose there is so much detail, so for now, over to over to Megan :

Whilst some might shudder at the thought of planning a party of such magnitude, there is nothing that excites me more. Conceptualising every detail has brought me such joy, cemented by the absolute awe in which I could see on Soph’s face when she arrived at her party on 21st April. Mermaids (like unicorns) are a huge trend on the party circuit this year, cropping up already last year when I started planning this party – I hope this party brings you some inspiration!

I love creating, and love doing as much of the party DIY as I can, this year, par for the coconut ice, I delegated all the baking, allowing myself more time to focus on the creative concept, even down to the invitation itself. There’s loads of mermaid inspiration out there, the best place is to always start with your theme, is the colour selection. I went with pink, turquoise, purple and gold.

Venue – Choosing the wrong venue is a deal breaker for me.  Tembali Party Park was everything I wanted in a venue and more. Top of my priority list when it came to finding the right venue was a beautiful, sheltered area where the candy buffet and food could be, that also had to be in close proximity to the area where the children would be playing. I wanted a venue where the area I’d be using could compliment my theme. I searched high and low to find the right fit (there will be an entire post on party venues in Johannesburg coming from In these Stilettos and I), and after many referrals and a site visit, I finally decided on Tembali. The staff were incredible. Brenda, Jane and her team went above and beyond to ensure the day ran smoothly and assisted wherever I needed a hand. Refreshing fruit platters, topping up with cookies and cake pops, cleaning coffee mugs – nothing was too much. One of the fabulous things about the venue is that it is fully enclosed. There’s a ginormous play area with slides and tunnels, cricket nets, a shaded sandpit, bike track, zip-line and also a jumping castle or waterslide for hire.

Photography – What an absolute treat it was to have my favourite photographer, Corinna, from Corinna Tannian Photography there to capture every detail and all the happy moments that we’ll treasure forever. If you’re obsessed with detail, you’ve met your match in Corinna!

Cake – What’s a party without a cake, right? My jaw literally dropped when I saw Cara’s masterpiece when I arrived to set up at Tembali. I’d come across Aristocakes on Instagram as fate would have it, and I’m forever grateful for Cara’s love and enthusiasm that went into this beautiful creation. We discussed a few details I wanted included, but other than that, Cara was given the creative freedom over the end result. Three glorious tiers of delicious vanilla sponge sandwiched alternatively with a chocolate buttercream and strawberry filling, a true piece de resistance if ever there was one!

Cake pops – I met Jaysheela at a party workshop last year, a love for party planning drew us together and we stayed in touch. She’s one of those beautiful, gentle souls that you’re instantly drawn to, and boy can she bake! She made the most divine mouthful-sized coconut cream cake pops covered with turquoise and purple chocolate in keeping with the theme.

Sugar Cookies – How exquisite are these iced sugar cookies that Allyson from Sprinkles made for the party? The table looked amazing adorned with the delicate mermaid tails and star fish and were a huge hit with the kids, all vying for one of these iced delicacies.

Candy table – Wonderland Sweets, the ‘Aladdin’s Cave’ of sweet shops is by far my favourite in Johannesburg – where else would I have found ocean-themed jellies to hide in the ‘mermaid cove’ treasure hunt? The golden dipped almonds looked like real gold nuggets! I filled the various apothecary jars with strawberry mallows, purple cotton candy, purple rock candy to resemble coral, pink edible pearls and turquoise jellybeans, of which the last two came from Party Spot. Jellies – always the biggest hit at my kids’ parties – true to the theme, I made turquoise jelly cups topped with delicate edible pearls. Golden-iced doughnuts – courtesy of our local Pick ‘n Pay and purple, pink and turquoise layered coconut ice finished off the table.

Catering – Catering for a 10h00 party, when you need to start setting up at 08h00, was not something I was about to handle on my own, so instead I ordered a variety of delicious pastries and mini quiches from Fournos and balanced this out with a couple of delicious fresh fruit platters that we assembled with the help of trusty Woolworths.

Water bottles – Kidz Cardz – Have you ever seen a cuter customised water bottle? Kidz Cardz designed the beautiful water bottles for our thirsty mermaids and mermen, and they were so popular they went long before any of the juice did, happy parents!

Party packs – Tower Kids – I like to send the kids home with something they can generally have fun with – we have an entire cupboard at home stuffed with half-filled carboard boxes and those coloured buckets laden with junk, which my kids happen to love, but given the choice, I went with some amazing sea-themed art and craft kits from Tower Kids. I think the parents were equally as happy as the kids with this take-home gift in lieu of more sugar!

Mermaid crown – Lexi Loves Bows – My lovely friend Candice from Lexi Loves Bows custom-made Soph a mermaid crown out of felt, which was beautiful and light for her little head. Soph absolutely loved it.

Balloons – The Variety Shop – This party I decided to try my hand at a balloon garland – so much easier than you may think – and bought the beautiful balloons from one of my favourite party stockist stores, The Variety Shop. According to my three-year-old, you just have to have balloons at a party, and she was right, they helped set the scene beautifully, with some confetti filled balloons floating around like bubbles.

Décor – Always take into consideration the space where you’ll be needing to setup. The pink backdrop you see? It’s covering a wrought-iron pot plant shelf that happened to be bolted into the wall! So, Plan B had me visiting Builders Warehouse to cut a sheet of 4mm Pine, a fun afternoon painting, and enlisting the help of a wonderful friend and her husband to patiently bringing my ‘Let’s be mermaids’ dreams into fruition. Thank you, Annie. I like to have my children’s names on all their party tables – these wooden letters from Typo have been on three of Soph’s tables now, with the addition this year of the shells, pearls and sequins. Finishing off the table was the beautiful floor-grazing turquoise satin and sequined material I bought from Chamdor, on a 50%-off sale! Plastic sea creatures, white ceramic mermaids and seahorses all got a golden coating, while turquoise starfish and strands of pearls tied up the look. I knew the paper-lantern jellyfish would look amazing hanging from the roof trusses (another plus on Tembali in my books!) but I didn’t take into account how many burns I’d get in the process using a hot glue-gun! A couple fingers later, I decided to abandon the glue-gun in favour of normal contact glue – success! I bought all the various lace, velvet, sparkly and satin ribbon from Chamdor and glued the strands into the inside of the paper lanterns – the end result was extremely effective I think.

Activities – With the weather cooling down I decided to hire the jumping castle instead of the water slide, and also opted to hire a face painter too. Through a personal recommendation I came across Monique from Never Grow Up and she was absolutely phenomenal. She has the patience of a saint working with little kids and their requests and I’d definitely recommend her services. For a craft activity I bought little wooden treasure chests from Party Spot that the kids got to decorate themselves with crystal stickers and then fill with ‘treasure’ – including a candy bracelet – to take home. We did a treasure hunt in ‘Mermaid Cove’ where the kids could dig for the hidden treasures in the sandpit (think Ocean-themed jellies, crystal bracelets, bubbles and under the sea themed sticker packs). For the final fun activity, we also had a ‘Mermaid hair don’t care’ station where the kids could have their hair sprayed with a variety of jewel-coloured glitter hair sprays that I bought from my favourite hair salon – Shear Madness.

There are so many amazing people that I need to thank for helping me bring this party to life! My amazing husband for always going along with my hair-brained schemes and supporting my passion, always. Tembali – for going above and beyond on the day. Aristocakes – for your incredible, incredible cake. Corinna Tannian Photography – for being as much of a stickler for detail as me and for your love and time. Jaysheela Kanjee – for the divine cake pops. Wonderland Sweets – Bee, for your heavenly candy. Sprinkles – for your exquisite cookies. Kidz Cardz – for the one of a kind water bottles. Tower Kids – for supplementing the sugar-high with your beautiful art and craft kits.

Everyone has their one go to person – mine is Becki (you’ll know her from In these Stilettos) – my bestie from University days and we just so happen to share, amongst many things, a love for parties – thank heavens for her. To be able to bounce ideas off constantly and have her helping me with everything on the actual day.

We’ve always wanted to get into party planning together, and have finally decided that this is the year we take it seriously. The sheer scale of these types of parties would scare off most people, but that is something that we thrive on as it fuels our passion even more. Having creatively planned and executed a number of parties to date, Becki’s youngest, Yusuf, and Oli’s birthdays are coming up and the planning is already underway, we are more than happy to take the party stress off your hands.

List of suppliers/stockists:

Venue – Tembali Party Park, Chartwell

Cake – Aristocakes – Cara Brynard

Photography – Corinna Tannian Photography

Material and Ribbons – Chamdor Faktry Sales, Deco Park.

Apothecary jars, vases etc. – Mr Price Home, Home Stuff at Brightwater Commons

Décor items – China World Hillfox, The Variety Shop, Party Spot, Sheet Street, Mr Price Home

Balloons – The Variety Shop, Boskruin

Treasure chests – Party Spot

Sugar Cookies – Sprinkles

Cake pops – Jaysheela Kanjee (083 634 4404)

Catering – Fournos & Woolworths

Party packs – Tower Kids

Sweets – Wonderland Sweets, Party Spot & Party Lady

Water bottles – Kidz Cardz

Face painting – Never Give Up

Mermaid crown – Lexi Loves Bows

Glitter Hair Spray – Shear Madness Hair Design

 

Remember if you would like a party featured you can send submissions to inthesestilettos@gmail.com OR if you would like to work with us on party design for your little ones you can send an email as well!