Party Like a Princess *~*~*~*~*

Pin It Now! "Mom, I want a PRINCESS party!" Chances are, any of you out there who have a daughter will likely hear that phrase at least once in your lifetime...and this happened to me just this past year.  My daughter, at age 5, is most definitely going through the "girly girl" stage, so a princess themed birthday party was going to be PERFECT!

Again, I always start with the INVITATION to help set the theme. This time, my daughter had a specific request...she wanted her invite to include a castle, flowers and a pretty dress.  I *think* I pulled it off :o)

It reads:
"Once upon a time, in a beautiful land a few miles away...
the kingdom was summoned
to celebrate Princess Ally's 5th Birthday!


You are invited to a royal celebration in honor of
Ally XXX

The grand festivities will take place on:
August 14, 2011
at 12:00 p.m.
 ~ A noble feast will be served ~


The XXX(last name) Castle is located at:
XXX (address)


Please RSVP with Queen Amy if you plan to attend this royal gala...
the castle needs to plan for your arrival

Email: XXX  Phone: XXX

This theme was a fun one when it came to DECOR...the posibilities were endless!  That being said, neither my daughter, or I, are big Disney Princess fans, so we were going for more of a general princess type of theme...think castles, jewels, etc.

We had a lot of fun turning our driveway/entrance into a whimsical castle-type entrance...including a ribbon tree (we just cut long pieces of pink tulle and tied them to random branches on the tree)...it looks really pretty blowing in the wind. We also cut out a castle out of poster board to put "Ally's Castle" on it and I also found a princess crown stamp to add a little extra touch to it.

Inside, we had some simple touches here and there, like taking an extra mirror we had and writing "Mirror Mirror on the Wall" with lipstick on it. On the food table, I added some "royal jewels" that I found in the craft section of Michaels (that my daughter then used for projects after the party...so they did not go to waste ;o).

In my opinion, every princess needs a throne ;o), so I took a white tablecloth and used it as a chair cover and bought a roll of wide hot pink ribbon that I then used as a chair tie. I added a couple safety pins to the back and...voila, a throne! The "royal staff" (i.e. wand) that is laying on the chair I found in the dollar bins at Target.

I think that my daughter's DRESS and ACCESSORIES were just as much part of the decor as everything else.  I was really excited when I found this Hello Kitty tutu type dress at Macy's on sale (again, major bargain hunter here ;o)...it was perfect! Her outfit was topped off with a crown, necklace and clip on earring set that I found at Claires.  We completely lucked out that I found the castle balloons at our local dollar store, it fit the theme perfectly!

The CAKE was simple, but I felt fit the theme well.  It was very easy to make and decorate...which was the best part! After icing the cake, I used a toothpick to make the markings on the cake in a basketweave pattern. I then used some pearl sugar beads and put them in each of the intersections to dress it up a bit. I put some white piped icing around the edge and then to finish it off, I placed the crown and wand on top (both bought from a party supply store).  Simple as that!

Some other "EXTRAS" that we had were disposable plastic pedestal "wine glasses" (that we served either juice, water or milk in for the kids ;o) that I found at the dollar store (I wanted for the kids to feel like they were being 'fancy'). We also gave each of the kids a light up ring pop that also fit with the theme.

The only photo the I had of the glasses from the party was pretty blurry for some reason, so I also found a pic online and posted a pic so you could get a better look.  I believe that they were 5 glasses for $1.

In the end, our little princess was happy, so I think that our "Royal Ball" was a big success!