When I was planning my wedding, several vendors talked of the 20% rule, a rule I have carried forward in all my event planning ever since. So, when girl insisted she could not bear the thought of excluding any of the 11 invitees from her list, I happily obliged, thinking we would really only have 7 or 8 (yes, I do realise I was fudging the math a little in my head). All the girls accepted, which naturally must be because of those awesome invites. OK, maybe it’s because girl knows really fabulous people.   Under the Sea Party Inspiration

As our guests filtered in, they snacked on fruit, striped starfish cookies, an octopus in a sea of hummus, and fish crackers. Then we started face painting for some while the rest of the girls made necklaces. Several of them finished quickly and decided to colour mermaid pages. At the urging of a few super eager Meerjungfrauen, presents came next (for a much longer time than planned). After that wrapped, we brought out the Meerestiere Bingo game I made (doubling as a German vocab builder for me and girl) and played a few rounds while more faces were painted, photos were taken with the mermaid photo prop, and the main meal cooked. Out came the fish and chips cones (and loads of ketchup and mayo). The girls were hungrier than we anticipated, so we had to bring out a second round. Parents started arriving before we had cut the cake, so there was a mad dash to slice into the blue strawberry vanilla fishtail and divvy up the golden sea creatures (made of chocolate) adorning the outside. Everyone left wearing a smile and carrying a shell bedecked canvas bag filled with ocean-life gummies, mermaid stickers and tattoos, and, of course, their self-crafted necklace. 

While the guests were pure perfection, there were definitely some maddening, teeth-gnashing kind of issues (mainly orders not delivering despite a 3 week lead time) which meant some elements I had planned didn’t happen altogether and a couple other things were improvised somewhat very last second. I was too stubborn to enlist help, so the party day was a bit (OK, a lot) harried. Sadly, I didn’t capture photographs of the table once it was completely set or all the mermaids together. I could dwell on all these things, but my ultimate goal was to make girl feel beyond special and cement the kind of euphoric memories that make you, as an adult, long for carefree days of childhood. Since we made it out the other side and everyone seemed to revel in the day, I reverted to a few of the tips from my list and resolved to count the party as a win.

Under the Sea Printable Banner Letters The planning process netted some wins in itself, like the new Photoshop tricks (loving Creative Cloud!) I learned so I could create the banner to match the invites I whipped up. If enough people tell me they like it, love it, or gotta have it, I might do up another post with the FREE PRINTABLES for the whole alphabet.

Thank you notes with photos taken at the party were delivered today, and girl is playing contentedly with her new Filly Pferde. All is well, and I’m thinking up how to celebrate her kindergarten graduation next month. Got any stellar Butterfly-themed party ideas to share?

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