My daughter turned 2 on January 24th. Me, being my typical passionate party planning self, started planning her party in late October (helloooo clearance Halloween candy anyone?). I always have my eye out for a steal and only like to spend $10-20 here and there to spread out my party spending!
On eBay I found a lot (as in one lot) of Hallmark Minnie's Bowtique Dream party supplies, which were absolutely adorable! I don't usually go for licensed decor, but being as I am a full time student at the moment, this was a steal, AND made my life easier so WIN-WIN! I also found an air blown Minnie on EBay for a great deal. She made us really feel like Minnie was at our party celebrating with us!
I made Minnie centerpieces with wooden pumpkin push ins I had purchased at 75% off after Halloween! I just mod podged some pink polka dot fabric that I had leftover from a former project, and hot glued the shoes in front, the hands on the rim of the mason jar and used a portion of dollar tree foam glued inside the mason jar to poke her head into the middle! I made Daisy centerpieces with mod podge and glitter, leftover pink ribbon and feathers from my hair bow making stash! Since I didn't have a Daisy to insert in the middle I used the Minnie's bowtique store images for inspiration and recreated the flower pots with bows coming out of them! Surprisingly enough Wal-Mart's party cups are only 88 cents, which is of course less than $1 from Dollar Tree (still love my Dollar Tree!).
I remembered from the previous year that around the Holidays, Groupon does a personalized M&M's deal, which I grabbed during one of their 20% one deal promos. What they don't tell you is that you will have to pay the $14.99 shipping! These were adorable, though I'm not sure that I will invest that much in M&M's again?
The signs were made using the Waltograph font which is downloadable for free online. I only have a laser printer ( black and white) at the moment so I made all of the signs on Word and printed them and used ruffled edge scissors to cut around them, then pasted them onto random card stock that I already had from previous projects.
The favors were collected from multiple places. Aliexpress.com was my favorite! Of course if you choose to order from China be sure to order about a month or more in advance. I ordered a set of 30 boutique style 4 inch bows for $9.97. I also ordered floating lockets which came with rhinestones around the face and a very basic chain for $1.80 each! The charms for the lockets were .99 cents for 10! I got a few different Minnie Mouse themed ones and birth stones, and a couple others for those who weren't as Minnie crazy as we are (a castle, Eiffel tower, and friendship heart). The girls each got a pair of Minnie Mouse dress up shoes from the Disney Shop @ JcPenney's. This purchase was a total fluke. The shoes were not visibly marked down and were in the Minnie section. I went to purchase a pair for my daughter to wear with her birthday outfit, when they rang up $o cheap! So I went back and grabbed the entire rack and when I got to the checkout the total came to $$ and some change to which he says, " You have $$ in rewards, would you like to use it?" UH YEAH!
The Cuckoo Loca plush were a steal as well costing .99 cents each with a free shipping promo on Disneystore.com! Each guest got to "shop" the bowtique with reusable mini Minnie totes I bought from the Dollar Tree.
And now.......THE CAKE! I am NO cake professional. I originally planned to make the cake my splurge....thinking I'd spend $50? After five quotes from area bakeries and grocery stores varying from $65-$100+, I decided I might have to make time to give it a go myself. I have had minimal work with fondant and frankly was afraid to totally FAIL. I did a lot of research on Pinterest for how to work with fondant and started about two weeks out from the party making the fondant and letting the ears and bow topper dry. Then I did a practice cake, which wasn't great, but wasn't terrible. The actual cake turned out great, except for the part where I didn't put support rods under the top layer, oops! The cake ended up resembling a topsy-turvey cake ( at least that's what I'm telling myself, haha) which you can see on the party table pics. A lesson for next time I guess! I purchased the Minnie's bowtique figurines from Disneystore.com, they are adorable and have been played with ever since!
We had a blast and managed to have a boutique party for nearly the price of Minnie's Bowtique's grand opening special..."two buttons a bow"!
