Woodland Fairy Birthday Party

With much inspiration from the fabulous Kate Landers, and after collecting images for months on Pinterest, I recently hosted a Woodland Fairy Birthday Party for my two oldest daughters, who share a birthday.  At 6 and 3, they are fully immersed in the magic of childhood, in which fairies play a major role.  They truly believe.  

What fun we had transforming our new backyard into a woodland forest ready for 35 fairy guests! Fairy doors adorned live oaks; glittery fairies and pouffy poms hung from branches; toadstools and gnome homes decorated the gardens.

 

Most girls came in fairy attire, but those who didn't were gifted with wings and skirts.  While everyone waited to have their fairy faces painted by the fabulous Alicia of DoodleArts, they concocted their own pixie dust and decorated their own fairy houses.  I had pre-glued ribbon and flowers on the lids of the pixie dust bottles, leaving the children to fill with their chosen mix of sand and glitter.

Then, the fairy treasure hunt began.   Each girl was given a hand-stamped treasure bag and a list of treasures to find -- under trees, in nests, behind fairy doors.   Ample duplicate treasures were available to ensure that every girl would leave with a full bag.

via

The girls sat down to child-size tables layered with chocolate brown felt, green moss, and fresh red and pink flowers.  We scattered fairy dust and tiny jewels in the moss to make everything extra sparkly.  We used simple pink and red paper plates and mason jars topped with daisy lids and pretty paper straws. The pink chiavari chairs were my favorite touch!

Two buffet tables were filled with fairy foods: homemade toadstool cupcakes, mushroom meringues, beautiful hand-decorated sugar cookies, rainbow fruit wands, pretzel twigs, strawberries coated with pink candy melt and sanding sugar, a trail mix bar (with gnome-made granola, fairy feathers, chocolate drops, sunflower seeds, pink fairy pillows, pink acorns, and chipmunk chips), pixie punch, and more.  Wood slices were used as serving trees; I wrapped cans in sheet moss to create woodland cake stands. Glittery jeweled butterflies and dragonflies hovered throughout the display.

Each girl was given a fairy hand kite to take home.  Making these in advance was a fun mother-daughter project: Using inexpensive wooden rings, we applied a handmade beeswax polish (recipe from the very talented Amber Dusick here) and tied a variety of satin and grosgrain ribbons, ensuring that the ribbon lengths didn’t represent any a safety hazard for the littlest guests!

The party was a great success, resulting in happy (and tired) little fairies.  The magic of childhood survives another year.

Even our littlest fairy had a good time.  :)

I was so fortunate to receive excellent service from all of my party supply vendors, especially those I found via etsy and pinterest --- Kori Clark at Paper and Pigtails is terrific to work with and sent me personalized files in record time; Fairy Finery took pity on my last-minute quest to find comfortable and beautiful fairy dresses for my sensory-challenged daughter and expedited my order (the dresses were even more gorgeous in person!); Dazzling Expressions, Cakes and Kids, and The TomKat Studio all sent high-quality products with a super-fast turnaround; Nikki Berry was so generous to share her PDF of the fairy treasure hunt cards; and Chari at One Classy Cookie delivered super yummy, exquisitely lovely cookies that everyone loved.  So, thank you, thank you, for helping make this party a success!

Sources/Vendors:

Invitations and table cards: Paper and Pigtails 

Fairy Dresses and Wings: Fairy Finery

Toddler Fairy Outfit: Chasing Fireflies

Handstamped muslin fairy bags: Dazzling Expressions

Fairy Treasure Hunt Cards: Nikki Berry

Wooden Rings for HandKites: Woodworks, Ltd.

Cookies: One Classy Cookie

Fondant Cupcake Toppers: Cakes and Kids

Daisy cut mason jar lids + paper straws: The TomKat Studio

Fabric, moss, ribbon, fairy houses, and fairy treasures: JoAnn’s

Pixie Dust Bottles: Hobby Lobby

Wood slices: Michael’s

Pink Chiavari Chairs and Table Rentals: Marquee Rents

Shared with Between Naps on the Porch, Savvy Southern Style, Six Sisters Stuff, Fidlers Under One Roof, Celebrations at Home, and Tip Junkie.


This party was featured on Between Naps on the Porch and Design Dazzle!


(Are you new to the cul-de-sac?  I blog about nesting, nurturing, reading, traveling, and most of all, celebrating life with my family! If you like what you see, please consider joining the conversation by following.  I'm trying to get this blog off the ground and would love to get to know you! :)