This is now my favorite pary I've ever styled! And it's most likely the last birthday party thrown for Jaya :( I'm still in disbelief that she's 16! Don't blink mamas, it seriously goes by SO fast!
She's been talking on and off about a sweet sixteenth birthday party since she was about 11 I believe. She wanted something big where she could wear a pretty fancy dress. As her birthday started approaching, I knew a big party at a hall wasn't really her "thing." If you know Jaya, she's pretty quiet, has her close group of friends and is a little shy. She actually reminds me a lot of myself when I was younger. She loves boho style decor so I thought something like this with her best friends and close family would be perfect! And she agreed, that's exactly what she wanted, and then she sent me photos from Pinterest (like I didn't already start a board, haha!).
We held the party in our backyard/patio. We contemplated having it two different outdoor places but ultimately decided having it at home would be more convenient. I'm glad we did because I ended up having to reschedule the party from one weekend to the next because that pesky virus finally got me! And, the forecast for the original date was rain and the day we rescheduled to was 76 degrees which was perfect!
So on to the decor...color scheme had to include pinks and blushes of course...I love pink, she loves pink...it's a no brainer! Then I added some neutral type colors (I actually based them off of the balloons) and a pop of rust just to give the decor a little more umph. I even took two of the balloons to Home depot with me to coordinate the paint color for the arches.
Speaking of arches, they are the same ones I made for Tru's first birthday decor that can be seen here. I actually keep forgetting to blog his party and so I'll most likely do that before his next one lol. We're headed into prime busy time with Christmas coming up--family stuff and it's the busiest time for content creation, my own and sponsored campaigns.
The arches were a DIY that I love because now they can be used for years to come. I used insulation foam board from Home Depot. It's 8" tall which is a pretty good height to make varying sizes. Demarcus drew the arches (because I'm terrible at drawing lines and making things even) and then cut them with an exacto knife. They were painted blue for Tru's party so I just painted right over them. It's a smooth foam board material and very easy to paint. The smaller arch you see was also a DIY. It was a chalkboard from Hobby Lobby that I painted and added sticky shelves from Amazon to hold little succulents that were favors for her friends.
The balloons came from Balloon and Bash. Natalie is the sweetest and put these custom colored balloons together for me. They are excellent quality and she even showed me how to tie them so my cuticles wouldn't get destroyed (like they have during past balloon garland creating) and a new way of putting the garland together which was easy and I loved the result!
I absolutely loved the addition of the Happy Birthday LED sign! I wanted something more custom or that said Sweet Sixteen but I didn't want to pay an arm and a leg. Jaya and I decided on one that just said Happy Birthday which was a great idea in the end because it can be used for anyone's birthday!
Cake and cookies came from my favorite Alana from Cake and Crumb. She did an amazing job piping the macrame on the cake. The cake and cookies were beautiful, I just wish I hadn't left the cake in the car while running errands, it started to melt a tad. (Pro tip: don't leave a your cake in the car for long đ„Ž). Still held up well and looked gorgeous on the table though.
For the guest tables I used table tops from IKEA on top of 3 large rattan baskets for a boho look. I added a rug from At Home stores, and a mixture of pillows from IKEA, World Market , Home Sense (the pretty macrame floor pillows) and ones straight off of my couch.
I also used woven place mats I already had along with cheesecloth napkins, matching runner, and pretty gold flatware from EFavormart, and scalloped plates from Ellie and Piper. I printed menus from a file I bought from a shop on Etsy and the color matched the rust colored pillows perfectly!
Most of the florals came from hobby Lobby. I found that they had the best assortment, especially boho looking ones out of all of the craft stores. Some of the other little arrangements that I disassembled and added to bouquets came from Marshall's/TJ Maxx.
I thought adding an over the table rod would be so pretty with more florals and string lights. We have string lights lining around the patio area but I found these pretty blush colored scalloped ones at Target back in the spring time and knew they'd be perfect. The rod definitely elevated the look of the table đ
I loved this set up so much I hope I get to style something similar for something else in the future. Maybe even for myself, haha!
As far as food and entertainment, my mom's amazing neighbor who was a chef made a delicious assortment of Mexican food (one of my favorites). We had pretty white jumpy house booked that I was going to add a balloon garland to but with the reschedule of the party it wasn't available any longer. So as a last minute idea, I bought this adorable mini photo printer that connects wirelessly to your phone and prints little photos that are sticky. I set up a small photo booth backdrop and the kids had at it with the selfies! Highly recommend!
It was such a beautiful party, and Jaya looked absolutely stunning if I do say so myself! She had a great time with her friends and I'm glad basically everything worked out.
If I missed the details or links for anything send me a message, always happy to help.
XO,
Kara