Flowers and Fairies 3rd Birthday Party

Girls' birthday parties take me out of my comfort zone; boys' party ideas come easily to me (bouncy castles, things with wheels, superheroes...you get the idea) but I was a bit nervous about hosting a girl's one. It was our daughter's first party with her friends; for her 1st and 2nd birthdays we had family parties but for her 3rd it was time for her to celebrate with her friends and she was really excited about it for weeks beforehand.

Surrounded by boys (we're totally outnumbered at home - even the dog is a boy), I was really keen for her to have a girly party: she's outgoing and plays happily with boys or girls but gets very excited about anything girly. She loves flowers, pink and makes a bee-line for anything creative so these gave me the starting point plus I had an image of a white table and chairs with fairy wings on the backs of each as party favours which was enough to get started.

I took my ideas to Sinthy at Happy Confetti (a gorgeous independent toy and party store) and she ran with my ideas to create the most beautiful party set-up. I was keen to avoid lots of bubblegum pink and Sinthy showed me through their stock of paper tableware (it was all so stunning that I could have picked anything and Holly would have been thrilled) before we settled on Ginger Ray's rose gold foiled paper plates, co-ordinating polka dot paper cups and floral napkins.

Ash, from Bite Me Bakes, made stunning rose gold calligraphy place names for the girls which they took home. It was a really sweet detail as many of them recognise their names and were excited to see them looking so beautifully presented.

Next, for Sinthy to work her magic on the balloons; she suggested one huge round confetti balloon, bunches and an arch (their Instagram feed - @happy_confetti_balloon_bar - is beautiful and full of lots of different ideas ). We went for a mix of pinks and white and Sinthy designed a stunning paper and lace tassel for the confetti balloon. I'm writing this more than a week after Holly's party and our balloons are still going strong: I've strung the arch across the top of our dining room window next to the confetti balloon so we still feel like we're celebrating every day!

I had originally planned to host the party at home but the numbers grew. There were a dozen girls and their mums so I was keen to avoid a venue that would make the girls feel swamped yet was still big enough. Luckily, we've a gorgeous new venue locally that was the perfect size: the Eastbourne Performing Arts Centre. It's a light and bright uninterrupted space with a kitchen and is located a short walk from town so was perfect. Ingrida, who owns and runs EPAC has created a beautiful venue and was so hospitable.

I love baking but the finishing touches aren't my forté. Thankfully, Ash from Bite Me Bakes has that in spades. We had a quick chat about the type of thing I was looking for, she sent me some images and we merged the final design from two of these. She listened to exactly what I asked for and created a stunning cake that was just as perfect when you sunk your teeth into it. I'm turning 40 towards the end of the year and I'll definitely be calling on Ash to make my birthday cake.

This is already such a long post that I've been desperately trying to figure out how to cover everything and the only way that I think works, is splitting it. So the follow-up piece (here) is all about party games and favours. It's packed with ideas so worth reading if this post has been of any inspiration.

I was so lucky to have been gifted many of the items in this post (venue, decorations and cake) but I was under no obligation to write the glowing review they all deserve. I appreciate how fortunate I am to be in the position to have anything like this and fully understand that I wouldn't be if it weren't for your readership so I would never dream of abusing that by writing about anything insincerely or inaccurately. I hope that, and the fact that I wouldn't take a chance with my daughter's birthday party, reassures any of you jaded by gifted items to us bloggers. I definitely don't take that for granted.