A Shabby Chic Party

Just a few weeks after Jayce's 1st birthday last March, another party in honour of my god kids - Raine and Gianne took place at the Cristal Hotel in Madinat Zayed, on the 27th of March. It was a hit and was indeed the talk of the town!!! Let's see why...

Two adorable and pretty little girls were celebrating!!! And what better way to have it is to be shabby chic all the way. A theme incorporating vintage and sophistication.

Mommy Janina has chosen a perfect theme for the event honouring her two lovely girls, Gianne's christening and Raine's 4th birthday, the event turned out elegantly vintage and chic at the same time.

Let's go through the details and enjoy!

To start off, the chosen theme was of course paired with a "Vintage Shabby Chic" party printable collection found in Etsy.

When I Was your Age "Vintage Shabby Chic Party Printable"

The printables were used to highlight the vintage and chic feel of the event. The collection includes digital paper designs that were used in other elements of the party like the cake design, the Photo Booth layout design, and were used to cover up party items such as the "toy buffet box" and the block letters. 

DiY toy box wrapped in Shabby Chic digital paper

One of the many 'do-it-yourself' items in this event is the "Toy Buffet" box. A nice idea to organise the prizes and toys and incorporating the theme at the same time.

Shabby Chic Block Letters

Another DiY of-sort were the block letters G.I. and R.A. that stand for Gianne Isabela and Raissa Angela respectively. The letters were ready-made and were bought in Manila, Daddy Elvin which apparently had a fair share on the DiY part, transformed the plain block letters to shabby chic by wrapping them in a shabby chic designed digital paper.

Other Shabby Chic Party Printables in action

Party Invite incorporating the digital shabby chic designs by Dennis Ravago

The guest tables also featured the photographs of Raine and Gianne taken by the master photographer Eriq Bagallon along with the other printable collection such as the Table Number, personalised straw flags in Ikea straws, and the dinner Menu also in a shabby chic designed menu card by Dennis Ravago. The invitation was also done by Dennis, a freelance graphic artist here in Abu Dhabi, you can visit his website www.dsravago.com to view more of what he can do.

Message Tree hanger

Mommy Janina wanted to capture guests messages in writing and what she did to do this was another  hit and added a chic flair to the event. Guests get to hang their message cards to a nicely put-up 'baby's breath' flower arrangement. 

Raine & Gianne Dessert Table

And to fully put the shabby chic into effect, the cake and desserts table in itself created the statement. The centre of attention was the cake table which featured not only the hand-painted cake art but also some of the sweet treats of the ever artistic Ms. Chona of the Dolcetti di Mamma.  Cookies, cookie pops, chocolate cake pops, and cupcakes topped with custom made shabby chicness to match the theme. The cookiepops even had fondant toppings that had the girls' names.  I bet that the cake artist and the mommy had a lot of fun discussing details of these lovely sweet treats! 

Hand sculpted custom-made sweet treats by Dolcetti di Mamma
(photos from Dolcetti FB page)

Hand painted Chocolate Cake by Dolcetti di Mama
(photo taken from Dolcetti's FB page)

Guests were actually asking if the cake was edible!!! Indeed, it was too pretty to cut and eat... That was the first time for the cake artist Ms. Chona to do a hand-painted cake, and the result was just awesome!

Dessert Table in action... hand-painted cake as the centre..

Beautifully hand-crafted cake and the french macarons

Sweet Treats  in action

To view more of Dolcetti di Mamma's creations please do visit her website, and to know the story behind these intricately designed work of art, click here for her Facebook page.

Shabby Chic compact mirror souvenirs

A Shabby Chic souvenir for guests completed the chicness of this party when a customised compact mirror was given away as party favours. These cute little compact on-the-go mirrors were pre-ordered from Manila.

Party Favours for kids wrapped in white gift bag sealed with cute doilies

Loot bags for kids of course were packed beautifully in a white gift bag with a piece of cute doily paper to seal the deal. Who would have thought that these nice looking gift bags were originally from our favourite bake shop in town selling hot pandesals. Mommy Janina had a good deal out of this.

Godparents souvenirs

Additionally, the God parents were handed a picture of Gianne in a frame from Ikea as souvenirs, which were accentuated by the round doily papers already in hand.


Details from this shabby chic party were really nice and definitely eye-candies to our sights. Now, we move along as it's time to see how guests, kids and adults alike had the best shabby chic party ever!

Guests were welcomed by favourite "Photo Booth" tandem Jan & Che of the Chichay's Arte Co., as the photo booth set up were right by the Jade Ballroom foyer. Owners Jan & Che ensured that the photo booth layout, backdrop and props during this event matched the chicness of theme, and the result was blushingly cute.

Top : Chichay's Arte Co Photo Booth Layout;
Bottom: Actual photos taken during the event

Also located in the foyer, was the artistic Face Painting crew of Lana's Parti Perfect. Kids went really crazy and over the top as the face painter was really good. Kids patiently waited for their turn even if the queue was quite long.

Left: Raine with her Minnie Mouse inspired face paint;
Right: Face painter in action

Mommy Janina prepared (and researched) fun games for kids and of course for adults - a good idea having it printed-ready, anyone able can host and facilitate the games. Like what happened, yours truly was privileged to have hosted this event, although impromptu, but since Mommy J had it all prepared well in advance, I (and a friend Noah) emceed like a-pro :)

Impromptu Hosts 

It really takes time, effort and passion to put something as chic and neat as this Shabby Chic party of Raine and Gianne, and I commend the parents Mommy Janina and Daddy Elvin for throwing this event, and for letting me feature it here on my blog.

Raine & Gianne with Daddy Elvin and Mommy Janina
Shabby Chic Party

To view more of the Shabby Chic photos of Raine and Gianne, do visit the Facebook album "Raine's 4th Birthday and Gianne's Christening"


Next on my blog... I will try to come up with entries that will provide you with the tips and how-to's of party planning, styling, organising personal events, etc., from the things I've learned (the hard way) and acquired from the past events I have ever organised or got involved in. It will all be coming from my own personal experiences and learning and I am hoping that it'll help OC-moms like me out there.