Published on January 25, 2019 | Last Updated on December 1, 2021

Two days after Piper’s birthday bash we left for New York and have been gone for almost six weeks on and off. I have a new respect for people who travel all the time for work. I’m still exhausted, everything is a mess and I have a stack of Christmas cards I never opened. But today is my first day in my work routine and it feels sooo good! I’m ready to dive into 2019 and I have so many fun ideas swirling around in my head. But before I do anything else, I’m getting the photos from Piper’s candy themed birthday party out into the universe!

As someone who used to plan parties for other people for a living, I couldn’t wait to plan Piper’s first birthday bash! To be honest I started scheming in the summer. I knew I wanted gingerbread house to be the loose theme but planned to focus more on the candy and bright colors. Basically holiday Candy Land! We don’t have a garage so we had a large shed built last year to hold all the things you’d normally put in a garage. The party had to be in our backyard because the inside of our house isn’t really conducive to hosting a party more than 12 people. I knew I couldn’t hide the huge white shed that would be in the background of every photo so I decided to make it part of the decor!

Fun Candy Themed Birthday Party Ideas:

I stumbled upon this YouTube video showing how to use foam insulation to turn your house into a life size gingerbread house and the rest was history! I purchased two large sheets of purple insulation from Home Depot for $12 each and we traced the scallop shape using a mixing bowl and cut it out with a X-acto knife.

I had a box of plastic fillable ornaments in the attic from an project so I spray painted and pushed them into the foam. We reinforced with hot glue gun to keep in place. For the rest of the shed, we bought pool noodles on Amazon and wrapped them with duct tape. The pink garland and wreath are from Treetopia and I purchased the white garlands and decorations in the window boxes from Michael’s and Hobby Lobby on major sale!

We put down a large clear tarp and added the Snowonder snow solution on top. The tarp made the area slippery but it was super helpful with the clean up! We put the bubble snow machine on the roof of the screened porch so it would create the snowy effect in the yard. The real snow machines are super expensive during December so we decided to buy the fake snow machine to use for parties and shoots for years to come!! It was a great investment if you ask me. 🙂

My friend Tiffany with Glamfetti Co came up with the idea to hang balloon garlands with candy balloons on the ceiling of the screened porch and I’m still obsessed with how it turned out!! This project was the first time we met in person but she’s definitely my balloon-loving soul sister!! We’re going to collaborate on more projects coming soon! If you have a party coming up I highly recommend checking out her store. She offers DIY balloon garland kits and cute party products at affordable prices! She also spray painted the letter balloons for the dessert table backdrop. I wrapped various candy balloons in cellophane and tied with ribbons so they looked more like candies. I love the texture it adds! If you’re recreating at home, use a low temp glue gun to adhere the balloons. We also had a table of snacks and The Blonde Pantry made the most gorgeous snack boards. The rolling cooler was leftover from another party so I used my Cricut to cut out a vinyl sign and we put mini boxes of Tiff’s Treats cookies inside for everyone to take home. The insulated cooler kept the cookies warm the whole party and I used a smaller cooler to keep all the milk bottles on ice!

We had a lot of kiddos at the party so I bought a candy theme inflatable play area (linked below!) and had my friend, Julie with Young, Wild & Friedman make sensory kits with gingerbread scented play-dough for the bigger kids to play with. They kept everyone busy for hours!

This candy themed birthday party was most definitely a labor of love and took an amazing group of people to make it happen! I’ve included everyone’s website below but I have to give huge shoutout to my mom! She worked on this party for months while I was busy with other projects. It definitely wouldn’t have happened without her! I want Piper’s 2nd birthday party to be low key with just close friends and family but won’t bet money on it. Knowing me it will be equally as over the top. 🙂 If you have any other questions about the sources that I didn’t include, feel free to reach out!

xo,

Meredith

Photos: The Cotton Collective
Balloons: Glamfetti Co
Cookies: Miss J’s Bakeshop
Cake: Wink by Erica, candy by me, cookie house by Miss J’s Bakeshop
Donuts: Wink by Erica
Food: The Blonde Pantry
Hot Chocolate Cups and Drink Stirrers: Sequins & Lipstick
Cookie Favors: Tiff’s Treats
Piper’s Dress: Cuteheads
Candy Plates: Shop Sweet Lulu
Rentals: Aztec
Ground Snow & Snow Machine: SnoWonder
Activity Boxes: Young, Wild & Friedman
Pink tree, garland and wreath: Treetopia

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