Princess Unicorn Birthday Party

*Originally written on March 29, 2017

K turned 5 this year (pause while I go cry out all my mommy hormones)!! When they tell you kids grow up fast, it's hard to grasp really how fast. As cliché as it sounds, it seems like only just yesterday I was cradling her in my arms and now she's a mini pre-teen. Thankfully she still likes holding my hands and giving me lots of hugs and kisses, I'll take them for as long as she'll give them to me.

We don't do parties every year for K, we've been saving them for milestones. So I knew for her 5th birthday I wanted to throw her a special party. As I mentioned in her birthday outfit post she said she wanted a "Princess Unicorn" party. It's not a realm I'm familiar with being that I generally prefer neutrals, understated and not overly girl things but I was up for the challenge. Now was the time to think over-the-top, I mean could it be any other way for a Princess Unicorn? The other challenge I was facing was the popularity of unicorn parties. I wanted K's party to be unique to her and was determined to make it different. Thankfully I had Toni from Confetti and Bows help me with planning the party and she really elevated the "Princess" status in this unicorn party!

My cousin had just moved into her new condo and it had the coolest party room with black walls and gold designs. Knowing that unicorn parties are generally light and pretty, I loved how the black walls would give the theme some contrast and a bold element. From there I added pastel rainbow colours, iridescent elements and accents of mixed metals for some shine and sparkle. Overall I wanted it all to feel non-uniformed in design but cohesive linked together with all the elements.

I knew that I wanted the sweet table to be the focal point of the party but again I wanted it to be different, so instead of putting the cake in the centre I opted to do an asymmetrical table. Unicorns are free-spirited similar to K and they don't always go by what's expected so I thought this would be a fun twist. I also wanted to incorporate the secondary theme of rainbows, clouds and stars. For the backdrop I made felt puffy clouds and Doris from Love Lettering created the laser-cut wood "Kali is Five" lettering and painted them in rose gold. Toni and I had a craft day and DIY'ed the rainbow table skirt from pastel streamers and iridescent cellophane. Added sparkly stars on top for some extra dimension.

On the sweet table was everything K dreams about eating even though most days she's pretty good at avoiding the sweets and having fruit instead. The main unicorn cake was her favourite strawberry vanilla. The mini cakes were Earl Grey flavoured, a treat for the adults. Along with the cakes, The Purple Cupcake created whimsical and fun donuts, cloud pavlovas, unicorn macarons and star, cloud and rainbow-shaped sugar cookies. Normally that would probably be enough but we also had delicious organic, all-natural cotton candy from Fancy Pufs. And to top that off, I also made confetti popcorn and unicorn bark because you know, it's a unicorn party! Toni's collection of cake stands was amazing, so many different colours, styles, heights and sizes! She had this acrylic riser that was perfect for showcasing the unicorn cake, a big sparkly disco ball and acrylic trays full of fun sprinkles to make our sweet table dreams come true.

For these glass milk jars, I bedazzled them with jewels and pom pom stirrers to make them extra fancy for the kids. There really is no other way to drink your strawberry milk when you're a princess unicorn. I have a simple DIY tutorial for these jars coming in a future post.

Toni also put together the prettiest kids table with their very own pink sequins linen. She also DIY'ed the geometric table runner and pom-pom arrangements. The kids were suppose to eat at this table but they ended up decorating the plates instead and turned it into an art table which I loved. I probably would have done the same since the paper plates that Toni carries are so cute and fun!

For the photo booth we wanted it to be kid friendly. Toni DIY'ed a large balloon backdrop and we kept it low to the ground so the kids could stand in front of it easily. Doris created a custom set of unicorn birthday themed Posecards for K and also came up with "MagiKali 5" which I loved! I ended up using that on the graphics for the water bottles and loot bags. The really cute unicorn graphic I customized from Creative Market. I love their creative assets so much I became an affiliate. Their assets are really easy to use and being able to customize them is perfect for little details that you want to create yourself. I'll also be sharing a separate post later on for what was in the loot bags and how I (and my amazing family who were voluntold lol) made the unicorn headbands for each of K's friends.

They say it takes a village to raise a child, well it also takes a village to plan a princess unicorn party. I really do love styling and planning parties, lets me do something different creatively than what I normally do. And I know my friends and family tease me about how "crazy" they are, I can't plan a party and not care about the details. Maybe it's because I've been in the wedding industry for years and have been exposed to so much pretty and fun, I wanted to make sure I spoiled my little unicorn as much as I could (...within reason! G is probably shaking his head reading this lol) for her milestone 5th birthday.