A Madeline Birthday Party

Please note: It is absolutely positively the most flattering honor for me that you may wish to share my blog on The Madeline Birthday Party or "borrow" images or copy or ideas from it, however I must kindly request that you refrain from doing so. If you wish to post any part of my Madeline Birthday Party feature in any way, please contact me at info@katelandersevents.com for my permission. This blog, all of its images and content may not be transferred or shared in any way without my prior authorization. Kate Landers Events, LLC © 2009. All Rights Reserved. Thank you for your understanding!



































































I am THRILLED to feature a "Madeline" Birthday Party I did recently! The party theme was "Madeline in Paris", based off the birthday girl's favorite series of classic "Madeline" storybooks about that charming little redhead in Paris.

Twelve young girls (including the birthday girl) enjoyed visiting our Paris Marketplace custom created for the girls to visit. The Marketplace consisted of four shoppes, The Candy Shoppe, The Book & Toy Shoppe, The Clothing Shoppe and The Flower Shoppe (custom signs were printed up for each in a French Script).

Each shoppe was represented by its own table covered with floor length white linens and a custom made scallop-edged table topper in classic red or a magnificent blue.

The fifth table featured the "Bonjour! Welcome to Paris!" sign where the girls would begin their journey by picking up their darling red suitcase personalized with a luggage tag tied on with a double-faced red satin ribbon. This suitcase would be used to fill up with their goodies from their journey through Paris!

First stop: The Clothing Shoppe!! This shop featured twelve custom made (exclusive for Kate Landers Events, LLC) Madeline-inspired capelets (beautiful blue with a white peter pan collar and double faced red satin bow), each with a gold safety pin attaching the darling custom made tags featuring the shoppe name, location, and the individual girl's name. The Clothing Shoppe also featured custom red double-faced satin hair bows for the girls (also exclusively created for Kate Landers Events, LLC). The most charming custom tags were created for each of these as well, and the girls would look to find the one with their name on it! Now everyone would look like they stepped right out of the pages of their favorite "Madeline" tale.

Second stop: The Candy Shoppe! Nine large clear glass apothecary jars were filled with red, yellow and blue sweets (to match the color scheme of the party, of chourse!), each labeled with a custom sign identifying what candy the jar contained. From yellow gumballs and sugared lemon slices to red ribbon and rock candies--to blue old fashioned swirled lollipops and jelly beans to red licorice twists and candy coated chocolates, the candy shop was a marvel to look at! Each girl was given a personalized clear cello bag and red satin ribbon to tie up their sweets with. Scoops were provided for parents to assist in getting the candy out of the jars.

Next stop: The Flower Shoppe. The flower shop had darling red, yellow and blue tissue pom flowers hanging above to designate its location. The table featured twelve white canvases individually labeled with a custom tag featuring the shoppe name and "Masterpiece by" and the child's name, so everyone would be able to easily identify which masterpiece belonged to which child at the end of the party. Darling pre-made crepe and tissue paper as well as card stock flowers (traditionally for scrapbooking, available through Martha Stewart Crafts) had pre-adhered stickers so the children just needed to peel off the backing and begin to create their floral work of art! Every child was given their own cello bag full of their flowers, pre-counted and sorted the night before to make sure everyone had the same flowers to work with!

Last stop: The Book & Toy Shoppe. Favorite "Madeline" storybooks by Ludwig Bemelmans and a "Madeline" doll sat on this charming little table that featured "Madeline" coloring pages, red blue & yellow cardstock and crayons. Guests were able to color away creating their own "Madeline" pictures to stash in their suit cases and take home.

The Paris Marketplace was also decorated with custom made fabric bunting, a personal favorite and must in my book for birthday celebrations. It featured small red, yellow and blue flags, with red fabric tape to string the flags together and hang. It is amazing what something as simple as 8 yards of fabric bunting can do to really add festivity to a room! Custom bunting, as well as the custom capelets, bows, tags, labels and other decor for this party is all available through Kate Landers Events, LLC. Please e-mail Kate at info@katelandersevents.com to inquire as these products are not available on our website!

After their visit to the Marketplace, the girls were engaged in a game of "Pin the Tail on Genevieve"--a custom designed game for Kate Landers Events, LLC, featuring the cutest friendly pup for this very special party.

The Dining Hall was created to resemble that which "Madeline" eats in--an extra long table, tumblers and plates, cloth napkins and flatware and of course, candelabras! The ten foot long table featured a white diamond-quilted tablecloth and custom blue extra long fabric table runner (custom fabric table runners available through Kate Landers Events, LLC, please e-mail to inquire). Two silver candelabras with red taper candles were placed right next to two beautiful full arrangements of yellow tulips. The place settings consisted of custom white rick rack tricked cloth napkins, fabulous red melamine tumblers and plates, red plastic forks and custom printed red and white place cards (available through our shoppe!).

The menu consisted of French macarons, miniature croissants filled with ham & cheese, and a beautiful fruit display in the colors of the flag of France. A large silver bowl was filled to the brim with crushed ice and juice boxes. Lovely French wine and a variety of fantastic cheeses and baguettes were served to the adults, along with a beautiful tower of cream puffs. Please note: food images are not from the actual party, I did not cater the food for the event, these are images in which the menu was inspired from.

The "Madeline" hat birthday cake--oh, the cake--it was created by Sweet Cupcake Bakery in Boston. It was a large round single tier cake covered in yellow fondant and finished with a red fondant ribbon and bow. It served as the centerpiece of the table--so guests to ouuu and ahhh at its beauty until it was time for the large red twisted birthday candles to be placed in the top and lit for the birthday girl to blow out and make her wish!!!!

I included my favorite invitation for the party, which strongly resembles "an old house in Paris covered with vines," created by Sarah LeClere. I also included an image of a darling birthday party dress featuring scenes of Paris that was just too cute to resist.

I absolutely adored every moment of planning this very, very special event. It turned out to be the classic, charming, traditional, old fashioned and darling event I had dreamed it would be. The best part: the biggest smile on the birthday girl's face letting me know we accomplished our goal: to use the event as a very special way to celebrate the birthday of this darling child!

I hope you have enjoyed this feature, and I can't wait to feature more parties throughout the year.

If there a specific themed party you are planning and would like to discuss, help planning (yes, I can do this long distance believe it or not!) or see posted on our blog? Please leave us a comment, or send us an e-mail at info@katelandersevents.com, we would be DELIGHTED to chat with you!!!!

Little Miss Heirlooms Giveaway

I am thrilled to announce that the mastermind behind Little Miss Heirlooms is hosting a fantastic Kate Landers Events, LLC, giveaway!

The winner can select their choice of one of four prizes!

Select from...4 sheets of the personalized or monogram gift wrap; a pair of light pink felt fairy wings; a custom luxe bunting order with up to 8 flags personalized with your child's name, in light pink flags with raspberry letters, or red with light blue or winter white letters; OR a custom fabulous festoon party hat personalized with your child's name or "The Birthday Girl," "The Birthday Princess" or "The Birthday Boy" in any of the colors shown, ALONG WITH 8 classic paper party hats to match!

You have until January 15th to enter, so don't delay!

To enter, review the steps on Little Miss Heirlooms Blog. You need to become a follower of her blog (I LOVE following her blog!), a follwer of my blog, and for additional entries she has generously posted many options for you.

Thank you Little Miss Heirlooms!

Best of luck to all who enter!

Childrens' Party Tips #1: Invitations

I thought it might be nice to share some simple advice for childrens' party planning. Tid bits along the way! If you would like advice on anything regarding your child's birthday party, please contact me, I will do my best to answer as promptly as possible!

Childrens' Party Tips #1: Invitations

As you may know, I worked in the high-end custom stationery industry for over three years. I absolutely loved helping customers create birth announcements, baby and bridal shower invitations, engagement and birthday party invitations, of course wedding invitations, moving announcements...but childrens' party invitations were always a personal favorite.

Whether they were printed by letterpress, thermography or lithography (or engraving!) they were so fun to create. There are so many stationery designers out there today with a unique flavor. Papers are made of cotton, card stock is thick and heavy or light and airy, embellishments such as ribbons, threads, glitter or die-cuts are prevelant everywhere. And I love to see some of my favorite creative designers from the fashion world and domestic design world creating lines of invitations and stationery. It is wonderful to see your favorite dress pattern in an envelope lining!

Because of my love of invitations and passion for paper products, I decided I wanted to create my own line of invitations for Kate Landers Events, LLC. I wanted to offer something that was so simple, a great price point and designs that I was asked for all the time when working in the industry.

I worked with two extremely talented artists co-designing invitations that had the classic, charming, darling, simple, sophisticated, old fashioned, and whimsical feel I was looking for. I feel so very charmed to have had the opportunity to work with them, and look forward to releasing to you new exciting designs for both invitations as well as gift tags and custom labels later on in 2010.

For the line of invitations for Kate Landers Events, LLC, I was very particular about the card stock used--I wanted it to be the best quality I could offer. Textures and colors were extremely important.

I also wanted to offer low minimum order quantities, because I know that it isn't too often you need 25 invitations to a childrens' party, which is the minimum for many stationery companies. Therefore we have a minimum of 10, and after that you may order individual invitations to suit your needs.

I also wanted to include complimentary proofs for all our orders, so that you always have a chance to see a digital version of exactly what your order would look like before going to print, just in case there were any errors we could prevent by doing so.

And then the mailing labels on the front of the envelope--I have seen them popping up everywhere these days, adored them, and wanted to offer a fun and bit more unusual way to include your return address. Not to mention it adds some character to the very front of the envelope, so as soon as the recipient pulls it out of the mailbox they will know it is something special!

As you can tell, I could talk forever about invitations, but I will stop here about our designs, and move on to the tips!

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Call me old-fashioned, but there is something so charming about an invitation you find in your mailbox. Whether it is traditional on paper or whimsical in a bottle or box, it not only gives you the need-to-know information, but also helps set the theme of the event, and build excitement for your guests!

Invitations for a child's birthday party should be sent out approximately four weeks before the event. I know for many people, they feel more relaxed about sending out a child's invitation and sometimes allow just a week or two. There is no set rule you must follow on this, however I suggest sending them out as close to four weeks as you can, as a courtesy to your guests.

Invitations should contain the basic information, and typically is in the following order:

Event Name/Description
Event Date
Event Time
Event Location
RSVP Information

I tend to recommend that if you plan to receive replies via e-mail, that you still provide a phone number as well. Almost everyone these days has e-mail and gps, but just in case they get lost or wish to speak to you over the phone, it would be a courtesy to provide them with that information.

Same invitation wording would be as follows:

Please Join Us As We Celebrate
Ava's First Birthday
Saturday, January 27th
2:00-3:30pm
12 Winterberry Lane
Wellesley

Kindly Reply 800.555.5555
info@katelandersevents.com

You certainly may request an "RSVP by" date if you need to know how many guests will be coming before the party for caterers and such. In that case, you would just change the above to "Kindly Reply by January 19th" and move the phone number or e-mail to the following line.

You can add poems, a play on words or thematic elements to your invitation copy, to make it all the more fun. You may also keep it very clean and simple, and let the invition design itself do the talking. It is completely a matter of personal preference.

I always suggest hand writing addresses for the invitations as opposed to labels. It just adds a personal element that cannot be beat.

Double check that your invitation doesn't require additional postage. If you are unsure of the weight or dimensions (square envelopes always require additional postage) I suggest popping in your local post office and find out before sending.