Today I’m finally sharing Marisa’s Tangled inspired birthday party. There are A LOT of pictures, so I have to break it up into two parts. This post will feature the decor and desserts, while the next post will feature more party details and activities.
I love the Disney animated film Tangled maybe even a little bit more than Marisa. As soon as I saw the scene with the floating lanterns, I was having visions of a Tangled party in my head. Alas, Marisa is only four and her friends can’t stay up late to do a beautiful lantern-lit dinner, so here’s what I came up with instead.
Even though this is a princess party based on a Disney movie, I wanted to make it boy friendly and parent friendly. Tangled is great because it includes a key scene in a pub with a bunch of lovable ruffians and thugs. I wanted the decor to feel part royal and renaissance, part pub/tavern with the color scheme from the movie – royal purple, light purple, and gold. I started with some hand made invitations using scrapbook papers purchased at Michaels and JoAnn’s.
I loved that the paper felt hand made/old world, and had gold flecks in it. The purple envelopes were from Staples. I designed a coordinating return address seal and envelope liner to complete the invitation. I had decided early on to have a Rapunzel character come to the party, so the wording alluded to the fact that Rapunzel was hosting a royal celebration for Marisa.
To get to the party, all you had to do was look for the giant pink and purple castle bounce house on the street. Upon entering, I had chalkboard signs directing the “princesses” and the “ruffians and thugs” to their respective activity tables. The tables were covered in light purple for the girls, royal blue for the boys. Under the patio, I had set up an area for Princess Rapunzel to do her story telling and other activities and to the right, the dessert table display. I used gold fabric to drape the front of the patio to mimic Rapunzel’s hair. Zip ties were used to secure large, whimsical flowers going through Rapunzel’s hair. Instead of the usual bunting banner, Marisa’s name was on an ornate shape frame made out of canvas and plywood…I would’ve painted something if I’d had more time. As an added plus, I love that the stone on my front porch sort of gave you the feeling of being outside of Rapunzel’s tower. I wanted to draw attention to that and leaned an M monogram covered with moss, and some giant paper flowers “growing up the tower.” In the backyard, I set up “The Snuggly Duckling Pub” with buffet tables and a lounge area for mostly the dads. Because the story of Rapunzel originated from Germany, I wanted to served bratwurst, pretzels, and beers along with juice, water, and regular hot dogs and french fries for the kids.
The dessert table was draped in a deeper purple color, and I pinned gold cording around the edge for a royal feeling. To create a more old world castle feeling, I used rustic platters and cake stands found at HomeGoods and lined them with doilies. I have to give major props to Kristin Ausk of Meringue Bake Shop for executing all of the desserts so beautifully!!! I sent Kristin a picture of the invitation, my pinterest board, and my specific requests and ideas, and boy did she deliver. Not only was everything beautiful, but it tasted INSANELY GOOD! Here’s what our collaboration turned out:
The entire dessert spread.
Mini Blackberry and Olallieberry Pies. I didn’t even know what olallieberries were, but Kristin said they are only available once a year and she saw them and had to use them. I love that!
Mini blackberry cheesecakes with a sprinkling of gold dust. Beautiful AND delicious.
Mother Gothel’s Chocolate Hazelnut Cupcakes. These were inspired by a line in the movie where Mother Gothel says she’s bought ingredients to make Rapunzel’s favorite, hazelnut soup. I’m obsessed with Nutella, so naturally I asked Kristin to use it in the chocolate cupcakes.
I also used books covered in burlap to add height and texture to the display and bring in the “fairytale” vibe.
The larger cupcakes were made by a very dear friend of mine, Celeste. I found the flower and ruffle cupcake liners at Michael’s by Wilton.
These were just plain vanilla cupcakes, but I loved calling them “Atilla’s Vanilla Cupcakes,” after one of the pub thugs whose dream it was to bake! So fitting! The flags were cut from the same paper used for the invitations and wrapped onto stripey straws.
My favorite of all…Marisa’s blow out cake, and “Rapunzel’s Towers” which were mini ombre cakelets I had found on pinterest.
Rapunzel’s towers – purple mini ombre cakes. The filling was amazing!
All of these desserts were amazingly good and beautiful. I can’t really pick a favorite. I do have to tell you that Marisa’s blow out cake was the best chocolate cake EVER. I had to ask Kristin what she put in it, because there were these interesting little bits in between the cake layers and chocolate. She said she mixed Nutella with feuilletine, which are essentially crispy thin shards of sugar cone. To. Die. For. Check out Kristin’s website http://meringuebakeshop.com and contact her if you need something special for your next party!
Stay tuned for the next post! You don’t want to miss all the fun activities and more details to inspire your next princess party.