This very intimate birthday party for a five year old girl needed to pack a lot of punch on a small scale.  The beach was the perfect backdrop but every little detail had to count since we didn’t require a lot of area for our setup with only 8 little Mermaid guests.  We took advantage of the guest count by splurging on amazing party favors and creating some fun crafted accents.

One of those accents were the teacups themselves.  A trip to the thrift store resulted in a set of 8 porcelain cups.  A coat of plaster of Paris and an application of crushed seashells yielded adorable vessels for the Mermaid “tea”.  The tea itself was one of those silly little details that was thought about, mulled over, tossed around but could not be nailed down.  It really all came down to the COLOR of the tea (because of course these things are of utmost importance to five year old girls!).  Finally I made the decision FOR our little Mermaid (sort of).  I purchased Invisible Kool-Aid and told her she could wait until just before the party to let me know what color tea Mermaids like to drink.  Armed with every variety of food coloring under the sun (even the fluorescents!) the obvious choice ended up being blue (”just like the ocean“…of course!).   

The over-sized strawberry cupcakes were topped with strawberry cream cheese frosting and candy coated chocolate seashells and served on large scallop shells embellished with a beaded edging. 

As the Mermaids splashed in the waves, each place at the table was set with a rolled up Mermaid Tail Towel Beach Cover-Up from Kiki’s Things.  Could you DIE over how cute they are???  They can be worn up high under the arms as a full body cover-up or around the waist more like a skirt cover-up.  Each tail has a loop to wear around the wrist, as well as hook-and-eye to “bustle” it so it doesn’t get tripped over!  She even gave us a discount for purchasing several at one time.

The centerpiece was supposed to be a large fish bowl filled with several goldfish nestled amongst grass and seashells.  Sadly, as I picked up the bowl it shattered in my hand.  The fish weren’t in the bowl of water yet, so they were unharmed.  Unfortunately the same could not be said for one of my fingers…but, the show must go on, so we improvised with what we had to create a suitable centerpiece.  No one was the wiser (although for days I obsessed about the perfection that could have been…). 

The girls were also adorned with seashell necklaces, candy bracelets and big sparkly rings, befitting of a Mermaid’s treasure trove.   There was plenty of built-in entertainment as the girls splashed in the water and buried each other in the sand on one of the last beach days of the year.  It really was a precious little party.  One adorable party guest said, “I never knew I could feel like a REAL mermaid!”

**LOTS more photos from this Mermaid Tea Party, as well as other Mix Mingle Glow events can be viewed on our Facebook Fan page!  Become a fan and qualify for a chance to win a $100 gift card to Target, Crate & Barrel, Williams Sonoma and more!

I have a little Disorder called “I get an idea in my head and try desperately to find someone who has what I am looking for, only no one does so I have to make it myself“.  The truth is, if I DID find it, I probably wouldn’t want it anyway, since I have another Disorder called “Every idea must be unique“.  These are long names for a serious afflictions common to many an Event Planner.  You too?  I feel ya, girl.

So when the challenge was to create a birthday party on the beach with a girly theme, one of my trusty assistants pitched me the idea of something Mermaid-y.  I LOVED it immediately, mostly because I had, at one time, tucked some clever ideas in my brain with a Mermaid vibe to them and also because I hadn’t seen much done with this party “theme” (see Disorder #2, above).   With a Mermaid’s Tea Party on the books, the first order of business is always the invitations.  Enter Disorder #1.  While I have the privilege of knowing MANY a talented graphic artist, invitation designer and arteeest extraordinaire *,  I really wasn’t finding what I was looking for, nor did I really know for sure myself what I wanted.  (You ever have those “I’ll know it when I see it” moments?).  The party was for a little girl’s 5th birthday, but I didn’t want a kitschy, cartoonish Mermaid look to the party.  Something that ALLUDED to the theme without screaming it outright.  Finally, with time running out, I decided we would design the invitations in-house.  Oh, the lengths Mix Mingle Glow is willing to go to to make the event PERFECT-O!

I found a photo online of a mermaid tail made for dolls and enlarged it to the size we needed, creating a template from it.  We found a very pretty swirly-sparkly green scrapbooking paper at Michael’s to use as our tail.  On the reverse side the party details were printed in coral (also using the scanned template) and a few blue rhinestone “water bubbles” made it complete!  The color combination of blue and green with splashes of coral was set and the invitations were pretty darned cute!  Unfortunately, we soon discovered that the size and shape of the tales were not going to make it easy to find envelopes that fit nicely, so we opted for a fun cello bag filled with blue excelsior and tied with a pretty bow.  Super fun and who doesn’t get excited about this party immediately upon seeing their invitation, I ask you?? 

I am really liking details that give HINTS about a party’s theme.  A plain piece of paper tied to a seed pack and wrapped in burlap would be a darling Garden Party invitation.  Scan a cereal box and use it as the backdrop for a Sleep Over invitation…..{{gasp!  I REEEEALLY love that one and just came up with it this very second!  Somebody use it and send me pictures QUICK!}}.

* If you are not the DIY type, check out my invitation posse’: TomKat Studio, Polkadots & Pirates, The Purple Pug, Paper & Cake, and Alpine Creative…you tell ‘em I sent you!  They are all rockin’, talented, hard workin’ women who will take VERY good care of you!

Up next:  More Mermaid Party