So here it goes, my entry for the most anticipated party of my precious Elle. I tried to tell myself and my hubby, over and over that this year we will just have a little “family only” affair to celebrate Elle's 3rd birthday. Well as you see, that mantra didn’t work and here's why... Ever since we celebrated Elle's brother's 1st birthday last March (twice), Elle would very so often sing herself a happy birthday song, and would claim Kuya Ethan's, Ate Raine's, Kylie’s, Marga’s, Kuya Marcus’, Ate Irah’s, Liam's (and pretty much everybody’s) birthday parties as hers. But here is where I gave in, when she’s seriously talking about her 3rd birthday theme that would be no other than Pinkie Pie of the My Little Pony (so in this case, it’s not the OC mom, it’s the OC daughter...lol).
Those who already know me and my style, first and foremost on my party to-do list is the venue - we had some options on where to celebrate. We did some site visits, like this new kiddie place The Little Gym of Abu Dhabi in the new Nation Galleria Mall along Corniche, the play area is actually nice and new but the party place is just enough for 20-30 pax which can no way accommodate our guest list. The same goes with The Little World just next to The Little Gym. We also considered the KoolKidz in the World Trade Centre Mall, the play and art areas are literally cool for kids but yeah the party area is small.
If you are wondering where I get these new cool kiddie party venues, I chanced upon this website last year when I was preparing for Elle's 2nd : http://www.uae4kidz.biz
Since our main concern is how to accommodate our most dearest guests, we finally decided on Dome@Rawhdat's Lounge which is spacious and cozy perfect for the party I have in mind.
 |
| The Lounge from outside |
 |
| The Lounge OTD |
Now here, we styled and designed the entire Lounge, as this is not included in the package. All the hours you stayed from the time of decoration till the last person leaves are all paid for. In this case, the party program and timings have to be by the dot and planned for. You can coordinate with ease with the person in charge for parties and Lounge reception named Claudette.
Dome@Rawdhat Tel: 02-4470754.
Next were the invitations which I did myself, yes, I photoshopped and spent some late nights on the digitals this time. It was a bit difficult to DiY party printables at first, since you need to find the right elements to put together (the theme, the RGB, the diagonals, stripes, dots, and the graphics too), but once you did something that satisfies your OC-ness then everything will fall into place. So I did two designs of Invitations incorporating two of my favourite photos of Elle during her studio shoot with NicePrint Photography in SM The Block during our summer vacation.
 |
| Invitation Designs |
Elle's 3rd birthday party theme was actually Pinkie Pie inspired only and not entirely "Pinkie Pie" themed. Elle's most favourite pony among the My Little Pony is none other than Pinkie Pie, so obviously, she's delighted to see anything Pinkie Pie related to her birthday. To create the entire birthday theme, I took the colour RGBs of Pinkie Pie and kind of incorporated the colours Pink - Light and Bright, Blue, a little of Yellow to the invitations, party printables, to the decorations and the balloons.
The party printables were also made by myself, which is now on Sale on my newly set-up ETSY online shop. I had some cupcake liners to decorate the cupcakes, some party rings that I used to style the pink lemonade bottles, I also did some water bottle labels to personalised Elle's water bottles, food labels and party signs were also in existence at the party.
 |
| Party Printable Collection 1 |
 |
| Party Printable Collection 2 |
Let's see the party printables in action:
 |
| Souvenir Party Sign and Loot Bag Labels |
 |
| "Gifts" Sign |
 |
| Sweet treats Labels |
 |
| Pink Lemonade Labels and Party Circles |
 |
| CupCake Liners |
Next, the decorations. I saw this one vintage inspired tea party on Pinterest and I just fell in love with the paper rosettes put together on a wall to serve as a cake table backdrop. Although the one I did, didn't turn out exactly as the one on my inspiration, I am still happy with the end result.
I immediately took my phone and YouTubed 'how to make paper rosettes', and I was willing to DiY all the way, when my Mom and Dad suddenly decided to visit my grandMa in Manila... "Lightbulb"!!! So I googled the best party suppliers in Metro Manila and ended up in Celebrations Party Central's site (most recommended and most visited page i guess), then the rest was history, thanks to them I have somehow recreated the backdrop I wanted for Elle's birthday.
Celebrations Party Central have everything, especially the paper medallions (rosettes), and everything I need, party needs that unfortunately not available here in the UAE, and here's another giveaway, they recently had a Facebook page and they were very accommodating. Items from this supplier which later on were brought by Mom and Dad here in Abu Dhabi: paper medallions, wooden block letters (ELLE), paper straws, yoghurt cups and some more paper cups.
The party souvenirs station featured some personalised favours and sweet treats for the guests.
Very timely, McDonalds' Happy Meal during Elle's birthday celebration was My Little Pony, and to our luck, the release on that week was - Pinkie Pie of course. You could say this is luck, and whatever it is we're happy. Elle is happy! Without thinking we decided to have Mcdo Happy Meal for the kids' food. But of course, we have an equally good happy meal toy for the boys - Hot Wheels.
Another DiY and also served as take-away were the printed Colouring and Activity booklets which I personalised with a little bit of story how Elle got fascinated with Pinkie Pie and tons of MLP colouring pages and activity. The booklet cover also featured a caricature of Elle made by our dear friend, whoever is interested please send me a PM.
Let's now move on to the cake table. Now here, there were some missing elements that for some reasons did not make it to the cake table, so the symmetry was not exactly as what I was trying to achieve. But everything else in that table gave justice to Elle's most awaited part - the birthday song, the Pinkie Pie cake and blowing of birthday candles.
This girly looking cake was actually a request from the birthday girl Elle, she said she wanted a pink Pinkie Pie cake. Simple yet I still get to think when I was her age, I am not quite sure if I am anything like her - she already knows what she wants :) So what better way to have it than to entrust my little girl's dream to the hands of THE cake artist Ms. Chona of Dolcetti di Mamma, and as expected her talent and expertise made my Elle's day.
I also accentuated the table with some Pink Lemonade drinks in bottles. These bottles were actually cold Starbucks Coffee drinks available in hypermarkets that we (I and a close friend) patiently collected for months. Its a good substitute for expensive milk bottles being sold by party suppliers. The pink lemonade was a mixture of Watermelon & Rose and Lemon & Mint juices.
Other elements on the table were Iced Gems (people my age would recognise these) from Manila, some choco covered candies with matching coordinated colours. Milk Chocolates, some all white marshmallows with pink polka dot paper straws.
Since we were trying to give a very cozy and homey feel to our guests, we brought our own coffee maker and offered them one of the best ground coffee from Starbucks. I also DiY the coffee cups putting personalised Elle's Birthday+SB logo stickers on them.
We also used Elle's My Little Pony collection from Build-a-Bear, to style the place - they were on display in this in-house shelf. We also used the ponies in 'Galloping Pony' games, and we had a brand new Pinkie Pie pony raffled. The game prizes were also mostly composed of My Little Pony goodies.
The My Little Pony soundtracks and clips from the MLP TV series were shown in the big screen, kids get to watch and get introduced to Pinkie (to those who haven't seen MLP, I guess the boys).
This is quite a long one, and honestly I struggled a bit to finish this post, I actually started writing a few days after Elle's celebration but time and circumstances did not permit me to complete the entry till now. But although it got delayed, I enjoyed every single minute creating this entry ( I guess also fancy the Little Ponies that much). And thank heavens my Elle is way over her 3rd Pinkie Pie birthday! I wonder what would be her next theme...
 |
| My inspiration for the backdrop |
I immediately took my phone and YouTubed 'how to make paper rosettes', and I was willing to DiY all the way, when my Mom and Dad suddenly decided to visit my grandMa in Manila... "Lightbulb"!!! So I googled the best party suppliers in Metro Manila and ended up in Celebrations Party Central's site (most recommended and most visited page i guess), then the rest was history, thanks to them I have somehow recreated the backdrop I wanted for Elle's birthday.
 |
| Elle's 3rd Birthday Party Backdrop and Cake Table |
The party souvenirs station featured some personalised favours and sweet treats for the guests.
The souvenirs were part of our birthday party tradition and were given as a gift from our Crisostomo family all the way from Bulacan, they were the adorable ref magnets with Elle and Pinkie Pie pacute pose, designed by Djonnas and printed by DJMC PrintSolutions. I decided to put them on a dainty gift bags available at Daiso (7Dhs for 40pcs) and added some personalised thank you stickers. Adult guests were given the ref magnets as souvenirs.
 |
| Ref Magnets by DJMC PrintSolutions |
Now the loot bags for all the kids which were DiY as well. Items from the loot were first and foremost the DiY Loombands which we mass produced 2 days before Elle's birthday. Thanks to our Crisostomo Family in Bulacan for sending as the loom maker and tons of rubber bands. I also bought some party packs from Party Centre in Al Wahda Mall - 4pc Crayons, Colourful musical instruments since Pinkie Pie loves making noise, some notepads, Haribo gummy bears and mix of chocolates and wafers.
 |
| Personalised Loot Bags for Kids |
Another party souvenir for kids were the My Little Pony rubber charms that can be used for Crocs or can be added to loom bands as charms. I had these complete MLP casts shipped from China through eBay.
 |
| MLP Charms for Crocs/Loom |
 |
| Pinkie Pie and Torque Happy Meal toys for Elle's kiddie guests |
Another DiY and also served as take-away were the printed Colouring and Activity booklets which I personalised with a little bit of story how Elle got fascinated with Pinkie Pie and tons of MLP colouring pages and activity. The booklet cover also featured a caricature of Elle made by our dear friend, whoever is interested please send me a PM.
 |
| Activity Booklet |
 |
| Pinkie Pie Cake by Dolcetti di Mamma |
 | |
|
 |
| Pink Lemonade |
Another hit was the Pinkie Pie cookies of course made by Ms. Belle of How Sweet Cakes along with the Pink Velvet cupcakes.
Other elements on the table were Iced Gems (people my age would recognise these) from Manila, some choco covered candies with matching coordinated colours. Milk Chocolates, some all white marshmallows with pink polka dot paper straws.
 |
| Paper Straws and Paper Cups and Choco Covered Chocolates |
 |
| Wooden Block Letters and Iced Gems |
 |
| Paper Straws used as Marshmallow sticks |
Since we were trying to give a very cozy and homey feel to our guests, we brought our own coffee maker and offered them one of the best ground coffee from Starbucks. I also DiY the coffee cups putting personalised Elle's Birthday+SB logo stickers on them.
 |
| Freshly brewed Starbucks House blend Coffee |
We also used Elle's My Little Pony collection from Build-a-Bear, to style the place - they were on display in this in-house shelf. We also used the ponies in 'Galloping Pony' games, and we had a brand new Pinkie Pie pony raffled. The game prizes were also mostly composed of My Little Pony goodies.
 |
| My Little Pony & Pinkie Pie madness |
 |
| Screen Projector where MLP clips play non-stop |
