Didn’t see yesterday’s post featuring the invitation and food? Check it out here!

I love to throw a party and usually start thinking about decorations months in advance. Add in an equally-party-planning-obsessesed sister/business partner and an incredibly helpful mom, and I don’t really feel like I do that much work! Once I decided I was going the pink and orange color scheme, Beverly and I started pinning ideas on Pinterest and keeping our eyes open at places like Target, Hobby Lobby, Michael’s and other similar stores for anything party related. I also love to check out local fabric stores and search on Etsy for fabric that I can use to add more color to my space in the form of runners, table cloths, bunting or a million other purposes!

Beverly and I created a banner and door sign using patterns from the invitation; I hung the door sign on the gate because I already had something fun on the front door {you’ll see below!}. Jessica had thrown streamers into one of her trees for her Easter party in April and I’ve been dying to do that ever since, so she came over on Saturday and launched several rolls of crepe paper streamers into the trees in my backyard. It was hilarious to see people literally stop their cars to check out the pink streamers in the huge oak trees in my yard!

See some of that fabric up there? Way more fun that just the top of my washer and dryer, right? And I used a large piece of pink fabric to cover an old brown table for the favors. I think fabric is an easy and inexpensive way to decorate! {Don’t get me wrong – it’s not always affordable. Some of the fabrics I originally chose were almost $40/yard. I quickly reevaluated and never missed that expensive fabric at all!} I made two ribbon topiaries after seeing them online and thought they were so cute! I placed them on either end of my mantle and plan to use one in Molly’s room. And do you see that wreath? I made that using a coat hanger and scraps of the fabric I bought! It was SO easy and so fun, and Molly loves it. We used our new scallop/flourish punch to make the cupcake toppers and favor tags; the shape mirrors the shape of the invitation {which my friend Meredith picked up on right away!}. We set up a table right outside the gate with sand buckets and sugar cookies for the guests to take home. My mother-in-law put the buckets in cellophane bags and I placed a 5″ round personalized sticker on each bag.

My mom made this super fun bunting with some of the fabric I picked out and I ordered paper lanterns from Luna Bazaar to add even more color to the yard. Another purchase from Luna Bazaar included some clear glass bud vases in which I put pink and orange Gerber Daisies and placed them on the different tables.

Plastic and/or metal tins or containers are another great way to carry the color scheme throughout a party. I used an orange bucket to corral some bug spray and bubbles, set out a pink pail with some extra swim diapers and used small pink and orange metal pails (from the dollar bin at Target, nabbed by Beverly on a shopping trip!) for the utensils.

Later this week I’ll share some of the fabulous Etsy shops where we found a lot of the goodies we used.