Woodland Fairy Garden Birthday Party

A few weeks ago we celebrated our little lady's birthday and for the first time in 3 years it didn't rain us out, so we were able to make it fun outside with a full Woodland Fairy Garden Party!

Since fairies are super popular I was SURE there'd be tons of ready-to-buy themed party supplies. When I started looking I was shocked that there was next to nothing out there. Weird right?  This time I put in a lot less work, time & money and didn't have to DIY myself out of my mind.  I think it was my favorite one to date too!

In previous years I went ALL out for her parties and did all kinds of decorations, favors and games that took a lot of time and effort to put together.  Looking back at all these previous parties from the past, I don't know where I found the time or energy:  

  

Even these, which were much less DIY or cost-intensive, exhaust me to look at now.  They still took a lot of planning & prep, which I just didn't feel like doing this time:

 

Instead, I decided to mainly shop my house for stuff I already had and make only a few basic items.  I had several baskets and tabletop items made from twigs & faux moss I've used as home decor over the years.  They were perfect for adding a woodland feel to our table.  

I bought some butterfly paper products and a few little fairy, bird and butterflies to decorate them: 

The big birthday present from us (that also served as ideal party decor) was this fairy garden.  We made it in a shallow pot so it can be brought inside in the winter to enjoy and stay green all year round:

We picked a special fairy friend and got her all sorts of garden goodies (scored on sale since it's end of the summer) so she could flit about as desired.  The doors on the fairy cottage open & close so our fairy friend can enjoy being inside and out:

It needed to have some floral stepping stones, mossy rocks and a few woodland friends too:

Our go-to local bakery, Sorella's, did an amazing job making this beautiful fairy house cake for us too and everything on it was edible and delicious (no yuck-flavored fondant here!):

I also whipped up some quick edible mushroom houses too with marshmallows & strawberries on skewers and a quick stroke of food marker details.  Super cute and tasty, but next to no skills or time required:

My kids love having a themed piñata for parties, but I'd had a hard time finding anything right (or less than $10) in stores, so I literally threw this fairy house one together the night before the party.  I'll post a tutorial for it soon:)  

I used supplies I had on hand (including a cardboard box from a recent package and streamer remnants from past parties) and it worked great.  It was nice & strong too, so all the kids got a good number of whacks in before the candy exploded out:

And since photo booths/frames seem to be all the rage at parties these days, we made our own little fairy frame and costume station.

My husband used fallen branches from our yard to put together the frame and I got some floral garland to wrap around it.  The wings, wands and head wear were all things we had already.  The fleece elf hat I'd made for my daughter when she was a baby worked great as a little gnome cap:

And we used all the floral stretch headbands I made last summer (tutorial for them HERE) for pretty flowery headpieces too:

It was great that everyone enjoyed doing a whimsical picture with the birthday girl - I think the adults enjoyed it even more than the kids!  And I finally got a photo of me with my special girl for her birthday...the last time may have been her first birthday (since mom is always the one running around during the party, not actually experiencing it).  

It was so much fun, we even got teenage big brother to take part:

I think what I loved the most was I wasn't driving myself insane, or staying up until dawn, to put together a fun, pretty party.  It was in-expensive and didn't involve elaborate plans or set-up.  It's so much better to be able to experience it than just stage it!