Little Gentelman "Rat Pack" Birthday Party

This party was thrown for my little guy, Grayson. We thought it would be fun to take a sophisticated 1960's Rat Pack gentleman theme and give it whimsical features fit for a first birthday. 

The bubble pipe we used through out the party was a perfect example of this! For the dessert table we created a tufted leather backdrop to fit over the TV space in our entertainment center. (A DIY tutorial can be found oun our blog for making this backdrop http://honeycomb-events.blogspot.com/2012/01/diy-tufted-leather-board.html). The patterns, houndstooth and plaid, were carried throughout including the cupcake wrappers, decorated cookies, adorable printables and custom made bow ties.

Upon arrival the little guests went to the "grooming station" and were fitted with a bow tie. Then they grabbed a sign with "Rules of a Gentelman" and acted them out while posing for the camera. It was great to see how boys and girls alike loved dressing up in bow ties and acting sophisticated! We also created a drinks station where guests were encouraged to mix up fun concoctions like Shirley Temples and Roy Rogers. Kids and adults alike had a great time sipping drinks out of brandy glasses and paper straws, feeling very dapper! We also wrapped vintage soda bottles with custom labels, paper straws, and a party label.  

The dessert table was fashioned after a gentlemen's conservatory, with built in bookshelves and leather tufted backdrop. We hand painted the beautiful sign too. We topped off each candle holder with a bow tie and a scrumptious cupcake. Guests helped themselves to spectacularly detailed bow tie and bubble pipe cookies. We wrapped brownies in craft paper and twine for an old-fashioned feel. And of course cake pops, can't forget these treats striped in chocolate plaids. Did you notice that the tablecloth is a pipe pattern? No detail is overlooked.

The favors had customized labels sewn onto muslin bags and included a bubble pipe and vintage candies. We had a fantastic time throwing this party and hope you will enjoy it also!

Check out our printables for this party on Etsy, and you too can have a little gentleman birthday bash!

Lavishly Luxe

Hello Kitty cake pops are all the rage, nothing new there. We were happy to provide them for a client who wanted them for her birthday celebration at the fabulous New Parish in Oakland. But how do we reinvent the wheel? We've done Hello Kitty before, to rave reviews no less. How do we make this Hello Kitty theme feel special, unique, fresh? When all else fails, go glam, and go glam hard. Our client loves pink and gold, and surprisingly it's a great color combination. The quiet, feminine undertones of pink mixed with the bold, opulence, and glitter of gold gave us a new creation that was more than just a sum of it's parts.

The tissue balls gave the table some nice height and visual interest. They're easy to make, once you get the hang of it. Chocolate covered strawberries were requested by the client, and fit nicely with the rest of the table.

The Hello Kitty cake pops were front and center in our tasting cups. The chocolate covered pringles are always a crowd favorite. There's something about the crunch mixed with the salty/sweet tastes that are irresistible. Several other treats in pink and gold added to the luxe appeal.

This overhead view shows the great gold leaf patterned paper along with the custom made table runner.

This table, more so than others, displayed the intricate details and layering of custom printables. There's nothing like a lot of elbow grease to make a small table feel like a million bucks.

The House of Minnie Mouse

One of our biggest challenges to date. Transform a backyard into a Disney paradise. Our client wanted a very large assortment of goodies for her daughter's 3rd birthday party. We needed three full size tables just to accommodate all the desserts.

The head table featured our zebra cupcakes, rice krispie pops, enormous Mickey and Minnie cookies, chocolate dipped Mickey oreos, chocolate drizzled popcorn and fudge dipped caramel pretzels. Let the sugar coma commence!

Look at those cookies! Jennifer painstakingly created these sugar cookies. That frosting is flawless. Also, check out the pop out ears on the food labels, adorable.

The second table featured our candy confections. More of the incredibly popular and delicious popcorn and fudge covered, caramel pretzels. Our cake pops are always a show stopper. I'm not sure what you would call these, but incredible works of art, is a start. Jennifer raised the bar with the Mickey and Minnie versions.

Our client also wanted other cereals turned into marshmallow pops, like cocoa puffs and Lucky charms.

All the children loved our candy buffet. More licorice, gummi bears, and jelly beans than they could handle.

The third table polished off the wonderful decadance. What better way to finish off a party than with milk and cookies. Each child got their own bottle of milk with decorated straw. 

We added balloons in the theme colors of black, white, and red and theme patterns, polka dot and zebra print to fence posts as well as create these custom table centerpieces.

A Dog Gone Good Time

A good friend of ours was throwing a birthday party for her daughter. She wanted it to feature their beloved yellow lab, Pedro. We weren't able to be there in person, but sent along a printables collection designed especially for them.

Cupcake toppers and wrappers. Jeff drew a picture of Pedro and used it as one of the party logos.

Favor tags with every guests name.

Tents, labels, and patterned papers. Collection available on Etsy.

The real Pedro and his digital likeness.

We had an itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny, yellow bumble bee small party!

For Arden's 3rd birthday Jennifer had a stroke of genius, let's do a tiny party! A tiny party? Yes, we'll have the same things that every party has, only miniature. Mini signs, mini decorations, mini foods, games, invitations, you get the picture. As usual, we have a secondary theme that's a little off-shoot from our primary. We also featured bees, because they're tiny and adorable, like Arden!

Tiny pendant welcome sign. We quickly learned that in order for this theme to pay off, we have to put in a lot of detail. This sign took over six hours to put together. Did it pay off? You have to look very closely for the answer.

Tiny party hats being modeled by Arden's cousins, Trinity and Genesis. Adorable and only took eight hours to put together, totally worth it.

Guests played mini games a la "Minute to Win It".

There's no scale here, but the invitations are really small, take our word for it. They're like the size of a quarter. Slight exaggeration, but the best thing was they kept getting tinier. Open up one envelope and you get another, even smaller one. Take that Russian dolls.

Cupcakes, you guessed it. What else for a tiny party?

Tom Thumb milkshake! We served an array of finger foods like finger sandwiches, baby veggies, keish, bruschetta, crab cakes, and more served on tiny plates with cocktail napkins.

Sneak Peek

Your first view at our Japanese party. This is a close-up of our dessert table. What do you think? Mouth watering, right?

{From Jennifer } How it all began...

An obsession with paper is what I have. Everytime a friend of mine had a bridal shower, baby shower or kids birthday party I quickly volunteered to make the invitation. I also made birthday and thank you cards ahead of time so I would always have some on hand. No slick graphic design going on at this point, that would come later. These are some of my early designs.