Anika’s Pastel Playdate: A 3rd Birthday To Remember

Child-Party-Fit 🥳

One thing I advocate for in almost every party that I handle is what I call “child-party-fit”. I’m shamelessly borrowing from the startup world’s widely-used concept of “product-market-fit”, which involves that point where your startup gains traction (through users) because you’re solving a real, urgent need. The product and the market simply “fits”.

Applying that same lens from an event stylist’s POV, it’s often overlooked how important it is that you create events that are not just pretty for the guests, but that’s relevant for the celebrating family. Parties are just much more powerful whenever they’re designed to celebrate a little one’s personality and interests.

Anika’s playful and adorable personality really shone at her party! Mommy Julie is sure lucky to have this doll at her home everyday 😄

Oh, and thank you to Cocoon Studio for these amazing photos!

A Modern Design Philosophy

I was so happy with how these large letters turned for Anika. At a point when Party Magic was just beginning, 3-feet block letters were all the rage (remember those?). I felt that the whole trend had overextended itself too much, and for years I was resolute in not using this design object.

The Anika block letters are a much more modern take: with a foot of extra height, white base color, and color-blocked balloon fillings.

I also believe that every design choice comes from a deeper, underlying philosophy. With Annika, I wanted to express my philosophy of:

• An unstructured, fluid aesthetic
• A free-flowing program
• An event focused on activities

All of these beliefs are imbibed and translated into a design output that fully expresses it.

Gone are those boxy, rectangular-shaped stage designs. For the better part of Party Magic’s beginnings, In its place are stairs, arches, a swimming pool, organic balloon garlands, and white tropical trees!

The venue, White Space, which I’d have to say is currently one of my top venue choices, was the PERFECT choice for Anika’s Playdate Party. Its clean look really provided the perfect setting for Anika’s pastel elements to shine.

Janna of Pabys Creates Events is seen here offering elixir (cotton candy!) to Anika. Look at the sparkle of excitement on her face!

Pabys Creates Events by the way is fantastic at these unique, activity-focused, fun-filled concepts. Janna is the most people-person person I’ve ever met, but where she excels the most is through her interactions with children.

Another one of my favorite design elements is the kiddie table. Instead of your typical low table, we constructed 2 white, long wooden tables and paired them with pastel peacock chairs. I placed white lace lighting fixtures on top and embellished it with pastel dried flowers. The result was such a fresh take on the usual kiddie table!

Since Anika was one of the first birthday parties that was held right after the pandemic, we created self-service game booths, where guests could play and take the prizes for themselves:

Supporting the laid-back atmosphere, there was no host in the party, and seating was composed of minimal round tables mixed with varying lounge-type seating.

I’m always grateful to our clients, moms who entrust their most important moments to Party Magic. Thank you Mommy Julie!

Here’s to doing things differently 🥂

Love,

Michelle