Paper Plane 2nd Birthday

Every 2 year old boy loves planes, don’t they?! Well my son Louis loves them! And this is where my inspiration for our paper plane birthday party came from. I had seen many retro and vintage plane themed parties, however, I wanted to do something that I hadn’t seen done before. I knew I wanted something that had a more simplistic and contemporary feel, which is where the idea of a ‘paper plane’ came about with an underlying theme of traveling on planes
For our big guests it was all about the food and drinks –there was one pimped out grazing table loaded with lots of yummy treats to fill up their bellies – and I didn’t forget our small guests, because hey it was a 2 year old’s party after all! For the wee little guests I made sure there was a play area set up with an indoor slide and cardboard plane to zoom around in
With the help of some custom blackboard plaques from Shartruese I was able to label areas around our apartment and create zones that tied in with our underlying theme of traveling on planes. ‘Check in’ at the front door, ‘Baggage Claim’ for our present table, ‘Jet Fuel’ and ‘Inflight Refreshment’ at our drink station, ‘Passport Photos’ for our photo booth set up, ‘VIP Lounge’ for our additional seating nook, and ‘In Case of Emergency’ plaque used on our indoor slide.
Additionally, our custom garland kit from Parties Made Pretty, helped transform our living room and set the scene for our sky-high flying, two year old Pilot! There were a total of 217 balloons almost all of which were used to create our balloon garland of clouds. …don’t worry I didn’t blow them up the old fashioned way! I just may have passed out doing it – I hired an electric pump from our local party store, quite possibly the best decision I had made!
I put together one epic grazing table filled with delicious market produce, but it just wasn’t going to be a paper plane themed party if I didn’t have some plane food right?!
With some custom made stickers and labels by Print and Party and some crafty D.I.Y work from myself I was able to create some inflight snacks. For our ‘lunch service’ chicken wraps and beetroot quinoa salad was served. The ‘Inflight Service’ stickers I used to make the paper bands to hold the chicken wraps together and placed the stickers on little plastic salad containers. I also made up small pretzel bags using ‘Inflight Snack’ stickers. For dessert I had trays of ice cream cups and custom ‘Inflight Treat’ chocolates. To drink there was bottled water with ‘Inflight Refreshment’ labels. Small ‘Inflight Refreshment’ stickers were used on paper coffee cups for our ‘tea and coffee service’. I also had ‘Inflight Service’ stickers to make up cutlery bags with napkins and forks…and what lunch service on a plane would be complete without some serving trays with divided compartments?! Yep we had those too just like on a real plane!
I absolutely love to organise a party! I come alive throughout the whole process, and being one of those crazy organised people I could share 101 tips, but I’ll try and leave out the OCD ones and share a few I think would be most helpful:
1. Leave plenty of time for planning
It’s a no brainer – don’t leave it to the last minute! I just might give myself a heart attack if I don’t start planning months in advance (especially as a full time working Mama) I started the process nice and early and slowly chipped away planning small elements at a time, which means it doesn’t become such an overwhelming task.
2. Timing
By opting for a party between 2 - 6pm means you don’t need to serve a full lunch or dinner to your guests – you would think with my European background I wouldn’t be scared of putting together a feast. Don’t’ get me wrong I love to cook, but cooking for a heard of people…well, hell no! I know my limits! I would completely crumble under the pressure. This brings me to my next tip…
3. Choose easy foods
You don’t need to be stuck behind a stove slaving in the kitchen, choose foods that will be O.K to sit out…a grazing table is such a great idea because besides minimal prep work, there is hardly any clean up! Because if you’ve done it right – your guests will do this part for you by hoovering down all the scrumdidilimtious treats!
4. Set up what you can
I start taking out items that I need and set them aside as early as a week in advance. Certainly the day before I set up everything, decorations, glasses, plates – I even set out what I and Louis are going to wear so everything is ready to go. The last thing I want to do on the day is search the house for a utensil that Louis has probably hidden in his toy box!! I want to make sure I have everything I need (it helps me sleep better at night knowing most of the work is done).
5. Get toddler control
It would be near impossible for me to successfully pull off any event without the help of my hubby to keep Louis under control during game time. To have your husband, friend or family member be responsible for the daily routine of feeding, changing and keeping your little one entertained means you can concentrate your focus on what needs to get done aaaand get it done on time…because let’s face it there is always that one family member that ring-a-ding-dings the doorbell before the actual start time of the party! I’m sure we all have one of those! So making sure you have everything organised well before they are meant to arrive…which means you don’t greet your guests looking like a hot mess!
Vendors:
Printables and Chocolate Bars: Print and Party | Custom Plaques and Cupcake Toppers: Shartruese | Balloon Garland Kit: Parties Made Pretty | Pilot Peg Doll: Bun and Friend | Paper Plane Backdrop: Collections by KNB |Greenery Backdrop: Adelaide Flower House | Birthday Cake and Petite Cakes: From The Wild | Cake Topper: Love From Seventeen From My Little Chief | Cardboard Plane: Flatout Frankie | Pilot Hat Photo Booth Prop: Perfectinonate | Indoor slide: Jupiduu from Monkeynmoo