Selected as Party of the Day on June 23rd!

A Magical Mermaid Birthday Party

Krista O By Krista O  in Birthday

Drinks

Party Recap

Turning 5 is a magical milestone! To celebrate my daughter's 5th birthday, we threw her a magical mermaid birthday party, full of girly and glam details, at a local indoor aquatics center. Jen Carver of Banner Events has been teaming up with me on the planning and styling of my daughter's birthday parties for a few years now. This party was especially fun to plan together with so many sparkly, glittered decorations and details, gorgeous sea-inspired desserts, beautiful costumes and accessories, and thoughtful party favors. You'll love re-living the party with us as you check out the photos from Lauren Oliver Photography.

The overall look and feel of our mermaid party was inspired by this gorgeous invitation by Err Designs. We loved the ethereal quality of the mermaid and the beautiful color palette. Guests were invited to join Kamryn under the sea!

A mermaid party definitely needs some mermaids. Thanks to Chasing Fireflies, our guest of honor was transformed into a beautiful mermaid. She felt like a princess wearing The Ultimate Collection Disney Princess Ariel Costume for Girls. She had so much fun posing with friends in front of an oversized oyster shell prop filled with pink gossamer, and a white 36″ balloon “pearl” from Shindigz. They loved wearing their mermaid tutus (look at those cute tails!) and waving their starfish wands–an easy DIY project using ribbon wands from Oriental Trading Company with starfish glued on top. Kamryn loved being the center of attention, especially seated on a gold chiavari chair from Events Wholesale.

Designing the mermaid inspired dessert table was a lot of fun. We wanted it to mimic the gorgeous iridescent scaled look of a mermaid's tail. To achieve this, we hung iridescent floral sheeting from Shindigz to serve as our sparkly backdrop. It comes in 3' x 5' yard rolls and is really easy to hang. To pay tribute to the guest of honor, we commissioned Lauren from Ten23 Designs to create a custom gold glittered laser cut wood name sign. It was beautiful! Made of light-weight wood, it was easily hung on our backdrop using clear fishing line. To give our backdrop a slight under-the-sea look, we blew up a variety of latex balloons from Oriental Trading Company (purple polka dot, pink, gold metallic, diamond clear and a Mardis Gras mix) to create a "bubble" balloon garland. The garland is easier than you think to create. Simply blow up your balloon mix, being sure to inflate some more and some less. Attach the balloons in random color and size order to fishing line by tying them directly to the line. Use strong clear packing tape to hang the garland from your backdrop.

The table was outfitted in a white petal taffeta tablecloth and accented with an aqua colored mermaid scales fabric table runner from CV Linens. To add a glam under-the-sea feel to the table, Jen strung lengths of white pearls (Oriental Trading) on faux pink coral and scattered gold-spray painted natural bleached Philippine starfish (Oriental Trading) around cake stands and platters filled with mouth-watering desserts.
We commissioned Christina, of 4 Kids Cakes, to design the beautiful 3-tiered mermaid inspired cake, complete with a pink ombre ruffled bottom tier and multi-colored scale top tier. For an incredible finished look, a 6" mermaid tail was crafted as the cake topper! It was a definite show stopper!

With many guests to feed, cupcakes were wrapped in purple cupcake wrappers from Bella Cupcake Couture and topped with beautiful personalized printable cupcake toppers from Err Designs.

Bella's Bakery and Bowtique designed the most exquisite mermaid cake pops. Just look at the detailing! I don't think we've seen more beautiful cake pops. We displayed these on a bed of brown sugar sand.

Custom sugar cookies were designed and beautifully prepared by The Sugar Canvas Boutique Bakery. Colleen made several gorgeous cookie designs for our event. Featured on the dessert table are the 3-D oyster shell cookies with edible candy pearl and the under-the-sea cookie vignette including seashell, sand dollar, mermaid tail, mermaid and seahorse cookies.

Nearby, a snack and party favors table was decorated with giant paper mache shells (Shindigz). A simple display of sea shell bowls from Oriental Trading were filled with munchies, while glass apothecary jars housed pink and purple salt water taffy and large shimmer white “pearl” gumballs, also from Oriental Trading. Paper mache treasure chests were filled with imitation seashell bracelets from Shindigz and a fun variety of treasure from Oriental Trading (gold coins, pearl beaded necklaces, mermaid characters, taffy and lollipops).

A gorgeous table was designed for our party guests. Beautiful tablecloths were sewn from sequined turquoise mermaid scales fabric and topped with a lilac wave satin table runner. Centerpieces consisted of blue Mason jars filled with pink roses and gilded paper mache 5s to represent Kamryn’s celebratory age. Additionally, the center of the table was sprinkled with more pearl bead accented faux coral, gold flecked mercury votive holders and candles, sand dollars and gold seashells (all from Oriental Trading Company).

The place settings were our absolutely favorite element of this party. Lovely shell plates were layered on fancy gold chargers and a pink satin napkin. Plastic square bottles from our shop were affixed with “Magical Sea Water” labels from Err Designs’ printable collection. We filled them with pink lemonade and added a turquoise paper straw topped with an adorable “happy birthday” straw flag. Gold treasure boxes were filled with strands of pearl beads and a delicious seashell cookie from The Sugar Canvas Boutique Bakery. Gold plastic cutlery from Shindigz completed the look.

Vendor Credits:
Krista O'Byrne of Hoopla Events & Jennifer Carver of Banner Events: Event Planning & Styling
Hoopla Events Etsy Shop: Square plastic bottles, turquoise paper straws
Lauren Oliver Photography: Photography
Err Designs: Printable invitation and coordinating printable package
Oriental Trading Company: Natural bleached Philippine Starfish, Genuine Sand Dollars with Basket, White Spool of Pearls, Gold Flecked Mercury Votive Holders, White Battery-Operated Votive Candles, Mint Green Ribbon Wands, Seashell Punch Bowl, Pink and Purple Salt Water Taffy, Hot Pink Mini Twist Lollipops, Shiny Gold Coins, Pearl Beaded Necklaces, Mermaid Characters, Larger Shimmer White Gumballs, Paper Mache Treasure Chests, Purple Polka Dot Latex Balloons, Pink Latex Balloons, Gold Metallic Latex Balloons, Diamond Clear Latex Balloons, Mardi Gras Purple, Gold & Green Balloons
Events Wholesale: Gold Chiavari chairs
Shindigz: Iridescent Floral sheeting, Oyster Shell Prop, Imitation Seashell Bracelets, White Paper Dinner Plates, Candy Pink Beverage Napkins, Gold Plastic Cutlery, Giant Shells, Pink Gossamer, White 36" balloon
Ten23 Designs: Custom gold glittered laser cut wood name sign
Chasing Fireflies: The Ultimate Collection Disney Princess Ariel Costume for Girls, Girl's Mermaid Tutu
4 Kids Cakes: Mermaid Cake
Bella's Bakery and Bowtique: Cake pops
The Sugar Canvas Boutique Bakery: Custom Sugar Cookies
Bella Cupcake Couture: Cupcake wrappers

Hand

Party Helpers

💬

2 comments

  • no photo

    Alethia W wrote:

    This is nice. Where did u get the starfish?

  • no photo

    Tracy D wrote:

    How did you make the shell with the Pearl it's super cute