If you follow me on instagram (@merricksart), you might have seen the pineapple and flamingo themed birthday party I helped plan and throw a few weeks ago. It was a surprise party for one of my wonderful friends, Sara from Tell Love and Chocolate, and today I’m excited to share all the details!

Sara is obsessed with flamingos, so we started there and made it a super colorful and bright tropical themed party. We chose two main things to focus on — the table, and the photo booth — and then added a few other simple decorations around the rest of the space.

We went pretty basic on the table with a DIY flamingo stamped runner, simple table settings, the cutest little pineapple cups, and then a two layer cake with colorful sprinkles.

For the photo booth, we cut a few yards of fabric and sewed them together to make an extra wide backdrop, and then hung it on a backdrop stand (we sewed a loop across the top of the fabric so it would easily slide onto the stand). Jana made the gorgeous crepe paper hibiscus flowers using this tutorial, and we hot glued them to the fabric. We also had a few extras to use as props for the photo booth!

For other decorations, we bought the cutest lawn flamingos to stick in the ground around the table, and then let everyone take one home as a party favor. We also painted pineapples with pink spray paint, and printed this “You are the Pineapple of my Eye” free printable and hung it behind the mocktail table!

And as with all of my parties I’ve thrown, we did it potluck style and made everyone bring a tropical-inspired dish. We ended up with so many delicious dishes! And for dessert, we had the cake and Jana’s amazing sugar cookies (details on that below!) We also asked everyone to wear brightly colored clothing, which made the party feel even more colorful and fun!

This would be such a fun summer party — not just for someone’s birthday. So get planning already!

. . . . . .

TABLE DETAILS:
ikea table
DIY flamingo table runner, made by me
home goods placemats
pineapple cups

MOCKTAIL TABLE DETAILS:
pineapple of my eye printable (download)
drink recipes

PHOTOBOOTH DETAILS:
striped fabric (two pieces sewn together to make it super wide)
DIY crepe paper hibiscus flowers (made by Jana)

OTHER PARTY DETAILS:
Plastic flamingos
sugar cookies, made by Jana (recipe) — pineapples hand painted with watered down food coloring and a watercolor paintbrush, and outlined with black food writer marker.