My sweet girl chose to have a Beauty & the Beast Birthday Party for her 4th birthday earlier this year, and we had so much fun putting it together! All the pics in this blog were taking by the absolutely wonderful Nine Sixteen Photography.

Bringing Beauty & the Beast to (Birthday) Life

Anytime I’m planning a party, I always think about the main theme and how I want to bring it to life. Nearly the first thing I do is choose what color palette I am going to use and the style of decorating – i.e. am I going to do more of an “inspired by” style or go for more obvious theming? Or somewhere in between? Once I pick this, it lays the foundation for what items I need to find for the party and helps me narrow down everything available out there to a smaller (less overwhelming) pool of ‘stuff’ to chose from.

I wanted to make our “Belle Party” extra special, and I wanted it to be a little different than the traditional bold color palette of yellow/gold/navy/red, and I wanted character/movie references to be more subtle. I definitely wanted some sparkle mixed in (sparkle is a must at any party I throw!).

For this party, I chose pale pink, pale yellow, pale/light gold, and rose gold.

I used a mix of whimsical & ‘royal’ fabrics, using touches of satin, sequin, and tulle in the decor to add some texture and variation.

In the picture above of the main children’s table, I used tables & chairs from a friend’s rental business.

Table Runner: Rose Gold Sequin Runner by Amazlinen from Amazon

Tablecloth: Gold Satin Tablecloth from Amazon

Candelabra: Purchased as a silver candelabra from Hobby Lobby, hubby spray painted it gold

Cutlery: Creative Converting Glitz Gold Cutlery, ordered from Amazon

Paper Plates: Meri Meri

Added Sixlets in glass bowls to fill a little space on the table!

Some more pictures of the table:

The finishing touch on the children’s table was this great chandelier that I had intended to make but instead my amazing hubs ended up making at 2am the night before the party.

I purchased quilting hoops from Michael’s, and used cheap plastic cutlery that my husband spray painted the same color gold as the candelabra on the table so it matched well.

Cake & Desserts:

For me, the cake is the centerpiece of the party. It doesn’t have to be super elaborate, but it should definitely tie the whole theme together and make it very obvious what the theme is. I love an eye catching cake!

We have been so lucky to find BeeCaked in Roswell, Ga who makes the most amazing (and amazing tasting!) cakes – she is so talented and made magic happen with this cake!

I sent Natascha, the owner of BeeCaked, several inspiration pictures and some ideas, and she came up with this cake design.

To help save on cost, instead of having her make a fondant Mrs. Potts & Chip, I placed a real porcelain Mrs. Potts & Chip on the cake when she arrived with it, and it turned out perfect, I loved it even more than if I would have gone with a fondant option.

 

Other sweet treats on the cake table:

I ordered these chocolate covered oreos from the Etsy shop HowSweetItIsByMeliss. They were perfect and came individually wrapped, which I wasn’t expecting but was perfect! I used these as party favors.

I ordered these cookies from Pum’s Sweets. She did an excellent job, I told her the theme and the color palette and she created these. I was blown away with the design and the taste!

And of course…no Beauty & the Beast party will ever be complete without the Grey Stuff…

I used the Lil’ Luna recipe and it was so easy!

Food

I always host a party around a mealtime, I love creating and serving food so it’s so very fun for me!

I placed the food table in our front room to reduce congestion in the living area, and this worked out great!

Food always stays in theme as well, so since Beauty & the Beast is set in France, we had croissants, which I surrounded with PB&J sandwiches I cutout with a teapot cookie cutter.

I also served delicious Croque Monsieur Roll ups, which sadly weren’t ready at picture time and didn’t last but a second once I set them on the table! This recipe will for sure be a dinner party go to for me.

Lastly, I had fruit & veggie trays out on the food table as well.

Activities

I heavily utilized Pintrest to get activity ideas, and came up with some great ones!

Decorating a magic mirror, Maurice’s Invention Creation Station, and a Photo prop area. I also had the supplies for Gaston’s Target Practice, but ran out of time to set it up 😦

The cutest ever @ceeceestyle ^^^

All of the Magic Mirror & Maurice’s Invention Station supplies I got at the dollar tree – kids LOVED these activities!

The photo props came from the Etsy shop LeStudioRose

The backdrop came from the Etsy shop ohMycharley.

Belle

My daughter’s number one requirement was that Belle be at her party. She really didn’t care about anything else!

What sealed the deal for me is that Belle from Peachtree Princess Parties wasn’t just going to attend the party, SHE WAS GOING TO ENTERTAIN THE KIDS. Yes. That’s right. They do the entertaining for an hour and a half.

She sang, she danced, she had story time, she was right on top of keeping the party going for the kids, and for the kids that weren’t quite as interested in the interactive activities, they were easily entertained with the other self-directed activities.

Belle was simply wonderful.

The West Wing

We always have a lot of dads come to our party, and after the experience last year at the Peter Rabbit party being so crowded (we always have about 60 people over for the parties), I wanted to utilize our garage for more seating.

It ended up being the perfect space to transform into the West Wing, aka the adult lounge!

We moved a couple of our chairs, the love seat, and our dining room table out to the “West Wing”.

I used sheets I found at Goodwill to hang around the room and cover the garage door tracks, and my husband shredded them with a knife to give them the same appearance as the ripped curtains and wall coverings in the movie.

The main table, which was only used for decoration, had books on it I picked up from a used book store so they’d look like old books.

I got this glass bell shaped thing from Michael’s as well as the rose, and used a pack of twinkle lights we already had from RH Baby&Child. My husband rigged up the rose with some fishing line inside the glass to give it the appearance that it was floating. It looked awesome!

The most appealing part of the West Wing (especially to the dads) is that we had beer & wine available, and several dads spent most of the party in the West Wing drinking and chatting.

It was a win win!

The Dress

I usually make Maely’s party outfits, but this year I had Fox & Heron make an exquisite Belle dress that Maely would absolutely love. It was picture perfect.

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Overall, the party was a huge success! The kids had a blast, adults were entertained, everyone was well fed, and my daughter’s dream “Belle party” came to life! I had a such a fantastic time planning the party.

Here’s a few more shots of some favorite moments and more details!

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WAIT! How could I forget…THE BEAST!

My husband is such a good sport. Not only did he work overtime to help me make this party perfect, including staying up and making a cutlery chandelier, he dressed up as the Beast!

He didn’t even hesitate to get decked out in the costume I got him from HalloweenCostumes.com.

Hubs even posed for pictures with any kid who wanted to take a picture with him! It was the sweetest.

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Undoubtedly a party for the books. Share in the comments some of your best party ideas for any theme, I am always planning the next party!