Birthday Brunch Party

Pin It Now! I'm really lucky and grateful to have made some amazing friends while living in Germany.  Lifelong friends.  This past week was the birthday of one of those friends.  She is definitely a special friend because when I went into labor with Baby Wright, she watched Little Wright for me.  And she brought Little Wright to the hospital to meet her little brother for the first time.  And she took this picture which will forever be one of my most favorite and treasured pictures:



Love, love love this photo.  Makes me heart melt.

So for her birthday I thought it would be fun to get our friends together to celebrate.  Especially since our group hadn't hung since the school year started. 

Since it was during the week and since we all have crazy schedules and crazy  sweet little kiddos I thought a brunch would be perfect. 

I went with a bright, happy, sunny brunch theme.  Pretty colors galore.  Yellowish orange, light pink, fuschia and orange.  I like the idea of using fallish colors, but with a girly twist. 

Here's my inspiration board for the party:

The party image featured in the inspiration board is from Angela at Simply Sweet Pastries.  She did a fabulous job and was an inspiration to my party.

And here is how it turned out.

I kept the menu simple and hip carb friendly: ambrosia fruit salad (in martini glasses for extra ooomph), blueberry muffins, apple cinammon muffins, doughnut holes and bagels and cream cheese.  And then orange juice (in wine glasses), lemonade and coffee to drink.  Everyone LOVED the onion bagels with spinach artichoke cream cheese.  Lenders Onion bagels and Philly cream cheese.  Genious!  And delicious! 

Oh and of course cupcakes.

I don't having a baking gene in my body. When it comes to baking, things need to be precise. Measurements need to be exact and there are so many factors (like oven temperature or high altitude) that influence the final product. As soon as it goes in the oven, there's no going back. I'm more of an "improvise on the spot" kinda gal. Soooo.... instead of mastering fondant to make my cupcakes pretty, I made cupcake wrappers and toppers. This is a big trend in the party planning world right now.

Here are the details of the party:

1) I made the design for the cupcake toppers, birthday sign and wrappers in Adobe Illustrator, printed out on cardstock, cut with a 2" scallop punch, taped the cutout to a toothpick and stuck it in a cupcake. Voila! Simple, right? If you'd like a printable pdf copy send me an email. If enough people show interest I'll include a free printable for this party (including happy birthday banner, cupcake toppers, cupcake wrappers, goodie bag labels and food labels).

1) DIY tissue paper pom poms.

3) Bright pink, light pink and orange ribbons laid on the table.

4) Fruit salad served in martini glasses for extra oomph.

5) Orange juice served in wine glasses. (Mimosas would have been great! But we had like 10 kiddos runnin' around.)

6) Bagels were placed on a platter with cream cheese in ramekins.

7) Cupcakes, doughnut holes and muffins were placed on top of tissue paper lined cake stands. (made my own cake stands)

8) All food items had labels.

9) Used a white bed sheet as a table cloth.

10) Included a vase of seasonal flowers.

I think that's everything.  It was a lot of working planning.  Especially since I did it in a week and a half.  I think next time I'll give myself at least 4 weeks :)  It was a wonderful time though and can't wait for another party!