Our small 1st birthday quickly turned into a bigger party than we had expected. I started thinking of a theme a couple of months ago because I was so excited about her first birthday party. I did a couple of searches and liked the idea of a bright happy flamingo theme birthday party.
Where to find low price party decorations
Around Easter time I went to the 99Cent Only Store to look for summer decorations hoping I would find flamingos. A lot of the items included leaves, pineapple, and Flamingos. I had a feeling I would find items there since flamingo had become popular last year. At this store I was able to acquire, dessert and regular flamingo plates as well as pink plates to mix in. Found cute flamingo hanging decorations, pineapple candy holders, flamingo straws, pineapple napkins, flamingo toothpicks, pineapple toothpicks, pineapples decorations, flamingo lollipops, lose leaves, table clothes, and even photo booth props.
I didn’t want to miss any cute flamingo theme items so I also went to the Dollar Tree and got reusable flamingo trays, inflatable, and decorative flamingos.
The table cloth above is from Marshall’s. I really love the colors and plan to use it again for summer parties.
Flamingo Ball Pit
Since most of the children attending are babies I chose to have a flamingo theme ball pit they could play in. I bought an inflatable flamingo pool and balls for a ball pit separately (600 balls total). I think the kids enjoyed it.
Ribbon Backdrop
For a backdrop, I chose to have different colored hanging pieces of fabric. I bought 2 1/2 yards of 4 different colored fabrics. I cut the fabric in 1-inch strips and knotted them at the top on a long piece of twine. The process was pretty easy because I chose to pull the fabric apart every inch instead of cutting them individually with scissors. I was fine with jagged edges but if you want something neater, I would recommend buying 1 inch ribbons instead.
Balloon Garlands
We made a balloon garland to go along with the flamingo ball pit area. This was easy to do once I got the hang of how to wrap the balloons to create the garland.
There was also a 9-foot balloon garland that we made to go above the main table where we had snacks. In total, we used 22 balloons of pink, hot pink and pearlized pink (tied together with fishing line). We also used 3 yellow, hot pink and green balloons that were a smaller size for the garland by the flamingo.
Flamingo Piñata
My sister was nice enough to get a flamingo piñata for the party. She said, “how can you have a party for her without a piñata?” Which I completely agreed with! We didn’t fill in with candy because the kids were too young but now I know Amazon also has pinatas!
Smash Cake
The smash cake I made had a small hombre effect. This is easy to make. I used Wilton’s food coloring to create three different shades of pink with vanilla frosting. I put the darkest pink at the bottom/side, slightly lighter shade in the middle and really light pink at the top/side and top of the cake. You then go over all the colors with an icing smoother and it blends them together. I made the smash cake the night before to make things less chaotic in the morning. I bought a cake decorating turntable that came with everything I needed to decorate my cakes (revolving cake turntable decorating tips, icing bags, icing spatula, and more).
Flamingo Cake
I was very happy with the way the flamingo cake out. I bought the flamingo cake topper on Etsy because I knew I didn’t want to build the neck and tail on my own. After that, all I had to do was figure out how to make feathers (paint strokes) with Wilton’s chocolate.
I will be very honest and say that I had a practice cake that I made a couple of weeks before the party. I completely forgot to put butter and flour on the pan and the cake stuck to it!! It was awful! It was so hard to put frosting on the cake because the crumbs would get everywhere, not to mention parts had fallen off the cake when I tried pulling it off. So when I added the “feathers” the cake just wanted to lean away from the chocolate feathers.
I got discouraged by the result. I mean wouldn’t you? My husband encouraged me to give it a shot and bake her birthday cake because he thought it would make it special which I wanted to do. So here is my final result for my baby girls party! I made the feathers the night before and kept them in the fridge over night. I was told it also tastes good, I had to do multiple cake tastes after the party to confirm.
The party turned out great! I am already excited to plan the next one! Do you have a special birthday coming up? Is there a theme that you had that you recommend for the future?
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Flamingo Party Supplies
