party with heart: whales and crabs and bubbles, oh my!

thrilled to be featured on birthday girl today!

grady's whale and crab party was a success with the birthday boy {which is all that matters!} and the other wee guests, as well.

jayme marie designs knocked it out of the park with the fun paper goods.  a doll to work with and such super-cute stuff!  her whale and crab motif on the banners, food labels, and favor tags worked perfectly with the color scheme of the venue, you & me studio.  

meredith nelson photography and stacey of sugar on top are my angels sent from above.  both are so tremendously talented at what they do and i always feel so lucky to work with them!

this particular birthday party was an auction item for a local charity I am involved with, the junior aid society.  

meredith, sugar on top, lil hoot and you & me studio all donated the goods!  and we were very pleased when our friend lee won the package in the silent auction.  so again, thank you to all the special peeps who donated their time, efforts and talents and big thanks to lee for bidding.  

this party was true party with heart.  not only did everyone come together to make a fun and sweet party for grady, but we helped those less fortunate along the way.

enjoy meredith's fab pictures and then hit the beach! {especially those who got a beach pass at grady's party - the weather is glorious in marblehead today}

more details as told to birthday girl:

Grady had his heart set on a whale party for his upcoming 3rd birthday.  Given as two year olds change their minds quite frequently, Grady asked that we also have crabs at the party about 2 weeks before!  Jayme Marie Designs was amazing about adding crabs to the mix of all of our food labels and paper products.

For decor, we simulated the ocean with bright blue streamers hanging behind the dessert table and around the perimeter of you & me studio, the bright exercise studio where the party was held.  We also had a "bubbly bar" for the adult beverages.  Mimosas, bellinis, and bloody marys were served in aqua champagne flutes  {i was thrilled to stumble upon these plastic flutes at ikea - glass is just not practical at a toddler birthday party!}  coordinating target shower curtians were used on both bubbly bar and dessert table.

We had an awesome custom whale pinata by etsy shoppe whack

We lined the giant center window with the mini-sand pail favors from oriental trading post, filled with bubbles and personalized beach passes.  We incorporated the bright pink crabs on the girls pails with a favor tag that said "i'm not crabby because you came to my party! love, grady" and the boy guests tags read 'i hope you had a whale of a time! love, grady'

We used giant 3 ft. round balloons in blues and greens to decorate the space.

As a unique twist on the birthday photo banner, we used an x-large whale decal on the wall with age "bubbles".  We used circular pictures of Grady and coordinating bubbles with the age on them.

Mini-ocean themed coloring and sticker books from amazon were at coloring stations but mostly the kids enjoyed the "whaley good cupcakes" and "crabby cookies" and danced around to "under the sea'.

We placed the cake pops in an aqua bucket filled with brown sugar to simulate sand and labeled them "beach balls".

the dessert table had fondant whale and crab toppers and a matching whale topper for the baby cake were by cakes and kids. 

sugar on top created the adorable crab and whale cookies and cake pops.  

Candy jars were filled with "gummy sharks" and "goldfish" for snacks.

Meredith nelson did an amazing job capturing the details and the spirit of the party!

oh, and there's one more thing!  i cannot resist including a couple iphone pics of my lil darlings  in their birthday duds. 

can you believe how perfectly coordinated with the party theme they are?  it's as if their very own mom is the party planner or something?

okay, we are calling grady now to see if we can use our beach passes after nap.