So excited to finally be sharing some Mermaid Party Ideas with you guys today. Is anyone else’s daughters obsessed with mermaids? Last year my little girl was all about Elsa. But then last fall she discovered The Little Mermaid. And it makes my heart burst with happiness! I was 6 when that movie came out and I LOVED it!!! I totally remember pretending to be a mermaid and belting out her songs! I was so excited when my little girl started to sing Part of Your World. And when she got an Ariel Barbie from Santa last year I thought she might explode with happiness. In January she told me she wanted an Ariel/Elsa/Anna party. But when we ended up buying a new house in February with a pool we decided to make it an “Ariel swimming party!” And she has been talking about it ever since.
She was thrilled with how her party turned out! I love spending a little extra time on some of the party details because her facial expressions and announcements of her gratitude make my heart swell. This was our first official swim party with our new pool. And a couple of days before we had some pretty crazy monsoons. I told my kids we needed to pray for warm weather so we could actually swim at her party. We are so thankful that it was nice and sunny! Our family really loves watching lightening storms, but that isn’t the best time to swim. But let’s get to the Mermaid party…
Mermaid Party Ideas:
Mermaid Photo Shoot
The beauty of planning your party 6 months in advance is that you have more time to make it just the way you want it. When we were planning our family vacation to California I reached out to my BFF Shari Hanson of Shari Hanson Photography about doing a Mermaid Photo Shoot. I love including a photo with my invitations, (the scrapbook-er/recorder in me loves this). Plus pictures make for great party decor. It personalizes your party. ( You can see the rest of her pictures here!) The tide pools are always a must for my family. And I knew they would be perfect for this photo shoot. Arizona doesn’t quite have that mermaid feel. But as always Shari’s photo’s were even more amazing than I could have hoped for! She is seriously so talent and patient. Georgiana was actually terrified of sand. Luckily she braved the sand the following week and is now a believer. But I can’t get over how adorable these photos are!!! If you are ever in Orange County and want to take some pictures, look her up. She is amazing with newborns, children, and families. I know we will treasure these photos forever.
It took a little extra work to finish sewing her costume before our trip but I love how it turned out. She loves wearing her “shells” and this costume is a staple in our home. I love that Shari is always excited to work with my family whenever I get an idea. She is so creative and talented. I’m lucky to have such a great friend in my tribe. And our boys had a blast exploring the tide pools while Shari worked with my girl. And did I mention that this is the same beach where Grady and I took our engagement pictures 14+ years ago.
Decor Ideas
When planning a party I always try to see what I have around my home first. Gathering frames or decor in my chosen theme colors helps me build a framework. I decided to pick purple, teal, and mint for Georgiana’s mermaid party. Also it helps me to sketch out my designs on paper first. I love having cake plates, platters, and my cupcake holders in white so they match with my different themes. You may recognize the sailing wheel from my son’s Percy Jackson Birthday Party. Or the frames I am using from my Galentine’s Brunch. And I was able to use some random bottles from my daughter’s first birthday and a bottle from my son’s Harry Potter Birthday Party. Being able to reuse things really helps me keep my costs down. I also used my treasure chests from my oldest’s son’s Pirate Birthday party 11 years ago. I still use the coins and chest every year on Talk Like a Pirate Day in September.
For my backdrop I picked up some coffee filters from the Dollar Store. Using Rit Dye (my favorite!) I was able to color the filters to match my party decor. I love their liquid color dye that I can use to mix and match for the perfect color. I used their Aquamarine and a little drop of Sunshine Orange. Rit Dye makes crafting so much easier! I love that I can customize something so perfectly. It can transform boring coffee filters into a beautiful background. I used double sided tape to layer my filters to look like Mermaid scales for a colorful and simple back drop. I created a simple birthday banner in photo shop to add some purple.
Lanterns are really great for parties. They are so festive and colorful. I bought these mint lanterns for my friend’s Mint to Be Shower, knowing I would be able to use them for Georgiana’s party later. I picked up a couple more purple lanterns to make these adorable jelly fish I saw online. My five year old loved that they looked like they were floating. I love using these command strips to help me hang up party decor. I attach the little clear hooks to my wall (and I choose to keep them up all year round) and then with clear thread I hang a thread across the room. It makes it really easy to hand things down from the thread. I can remove the thread when I want. Or sometimes I don’t, and my cub scouts tell me I have spider webs.
To make these adorable lanterns just grab some matching tissue paper. I cut long strips in a spiral and taped them around a pipe cleaner and attached them to the bottom of your lantern. You can see my purple lanterns are cleaner looking. I did these all in one sitting. The mint ones I did in stages and found my kids had stepped on them. So I would recommend doing them all at once, or putting them out of the way of your children or pets. I attached them with string being tied on the top and some double sided tape.
Using my circle cutter my hubby got me for Christmas made this simple circle garland really easy. Garland is a great way to add more color to your table with not very much effort. I just punched out some circles and taped them on some string. Sometimes I will sew them on but I wanted to watch some episodes of The Office while I worked on it. My circle punch also worked great on the cupcake toppers. I’ll be sharing those soon!
I got this candle stick from a thrift store years ago. I knew it would be perfect for Ariel’s collection. Luckily it was already painted to match. I just needed to add the silverware. Can we just talk about having real digglehoppers at this party? When I was around 6 or 7 I went to a friend’s Mermaid Party and it was the coolest party ever! Her mom had shells and nets and a beautiful table set up for us. It was super fancy. But my favorite thing was I got a real digglehopper! And it was just for combing my hair. I thought it was the coolest thing ever. So I picked up some real forks from the Dollar Store and watched my daughters’s face light up when she got to keep her own digglehopper. The other girls at the party were pretty excited they got to take one home. I tried to find different kinds. Thrift stores are perfect for this! It was really fun seeing my daughter and her friends treasure something that was a favorite memory for me when I was a girl.
Mermaid Food Ideas
Cupcakes are always a great idea! They are easy to serve and don’t require additional digglehoppers. And cupcake toppers are always a fun way to decorate a party. I love the little pearl sprinkles! I was also able to find some “pearl” candies at Winco. I love that they have the option of buying candy by the ounce. I picked up some purple ones (to fill up a jar) and some white ones to place in some shells. I also used those to accessorize the sugar cookies I made. Whenever I am planning a party I like the chance to improve my talents, but I try to keep things simple. I try and keep my design simple when I am making sugar cookies at a party. (These Bacon and Egg ones are a favorite!) Cookie Decorating is so much fun! And those videos are seriously impressive. While making my sugar cookies I helped my cookies look a little more like starfish cookies and less like Christmas stars by adjusting the points after I placed them on the cooking tray. Or order this one here. Maybe someday I will be able to decorate cookies to look like unicorns or succulents.
My cookies aren’t perfect or professional, but they look great and defiantly put a smile on my three year old’s face. Plus she helped cut them out. I love involving her in the party prep. It will be fun when someday we can frost them together. I love the frosting and decorating tips from this site. Personally I love putting on a movie so I don’t feel rushed. I chose You Got Mail, one of my desert island movies. And my kids were excited to find out the pearl on top had chocolate in it. If you haven’t tried cookie decorating yet you totally should! It’s really a fun activity! Just start simple, like one or two colors.
I also got white pearl Sixlets for these adorable cookies. I have seen them done with Vanilla Wafers or French Macaroons. Plan A was to use purple French Macaroons instead. But darn it, I can’t master those adorable cookies yet! (Key word: yet!) This was my 4th or 5th time attempting them. One of these days I will get there. Until then these easy to make treats were a hit. Plan B works out too sometimes. The kids loved them. And really that is the most important part.
Sea Glass is seriously beautiful. It was super easy and I love the look of Sea Glass. I found the recipe here. They are super yummy because they are pretty much just sugar. But my favorite treat at her party was her cake!!! I love how it turned out! I made it with fondant. But not just any fondant, How Does She’s Marshmallow Fondant. It tastes amazing. And as I keep trying to work with fondant over the years I am happy to say I am improving. I knew I had to keep my design simple for it to turn out. I will be sharing a tutorial later this month. My daughter’s face lite up when she saw it! And I will admit it took awhile to make it, but I happily put on the BBC’s version of Pride and Prejudice and I finished before it was over. And it’s only tilted a little.
All in all it was a great party! We swam and ate yummy treats. It was so wonderful to have so many great friends come to celebrate with my daughter. She and I both have wonderful friends. And it was wonderful to have Grandma come out for her party. And I don’t think she was expecting presents but she is thrilled to have so many new Barbies! We are so thankful we have this courageous brave girl in our family. She is such an example of kindness and charity.
Thanks so much for letting me share this Little Mermaid Birthday with you! I love throwing themed parties for my kids. It takes time, but I love the creative outlet it provides. And seeing their faces when I show them what I have worked on brings me such joy. I hope this give you some ideas if you if you are looking to throw a Mermaid Party or plan a Mermaid Photo Shoot. For more party tips or traditions that build stronger families be sure to subscribe. And don’t forget to ‘pin’ this blog post to support my blog. Thanks for reading!
What was your favorite element in the party? Tell us in the comments below! Or share a favorite childhood party you attended.
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