Princess Bash- The decor, the cake and the favors.

The princess party was a HUGE hit! I could not be more pleased with how it turned out and most importantly, my princess had a blast for her special day! Applied a lot of what worked and left out what hasn't from past parties and it went better than I imagined!

The whole "dining room" view. I think the palace background does wonders for the room!

First I did the prep work for the food, the husband set up the outside!

I used some of my personal favorite photos of her as well as the photos I took for her 3rd birthday.

Photo banner! I took ribbon and braided it. and I bought a package of clothes pins at walmart for .97 cents and used some pink paint I already had. I'll be honest, I saw it on pinterest and then again when a friend did it for her sons birthday party! I would do it again for every single one. My love of pictures and family members who don't use facebook to see their updated photos. This was one of my favorite parts of the decor.

I feel I could've displayed the flags better, but I love how they turned out. I found them at hobby lobby on summer clearance. It was intended to be part of a "Castle" theme. I used pins to hold them to the table cloth.

Stagecoach place card holders and I used place cards I found in a big Disney princess cut out book in the party section at target (clearance price $4.50 from $12!) that included placemats and stand up princess decorations, confetti, etc. I feel like the stagecoach holders are what made it. Hobby lobby wedding clearance for $2! It helps to know the party theme well in advance. Since this will be the last year my daughter will probably "let" me choose her theme, I went all out.

And... the beautiful cake done by a good friend at church!

Walmart had the Wilton princess castle cake (which can also be used as a boy castle, apparently) on clearance. I gave her a beat up box of plastic pillars and some pink sugar and she created this. Not only is it gorgeous to look at, but it tasted AMAZING.

Table with the favors! I had lots of time to plan- but I am also always keeping my eyes out for things I know I'm looking for. The tiara's came from JoAnn's crafts, they carry them every summer for $1/ea. Inside the gift bags were princess ducks and .30 cent wands, Princess Pez, notepads, markers and lip gloss. Boys had pez, m&m lightsabers and various candy. It WAS a girl party and they got to take home the awesome swords, shields (I'll get to those too) and helmets. The helmets I'd had my eye on for awhile, but let's face it... $7.99 per kid for JUST boys is ridiculous. So I was walking through the toy section and happened to come across them for a little over $1/ea.

Before. I took a shield I found in a costume drawer at a thrift store on post. I bought it for a quarter even though it was flimsy and had marker on it. I used that as a template to trace onto the cardboard.

After I cut them all out, I painted them black. They naturally kind of bent in a way that a real metal shield would've.

Once the black paint dried, I used the gold to make a design. The original tutorial recommended put the names "Sir ____" on them, but I wasn't certain of who would all be there, and it ended up that the girls had a blast with them too!

Her big gift. My uncle is a carpenter and can build just about anything so when I found this on pinterest, I immediately printed it out and took it to him. He did a great job, so I just had to pick the colors and the phrase for the side. Love it and our princess was SO happy.

Our little Knight!

Our little Princess also wanted to be a Knight. No distress for this damsel!

And we rented the bounce house again, princess style! Our house is perfect size for us, not so perfect when you try to stick 20+ people in it. We were expecting rain, so I'm grateful that didn't come until literally the moment she finished opening her gifts.

.... More to come! Next, the food. :)