Circus Themed Birthday Party

February 9, 2023 Carolina Villarreal

Photography by Candi Noble

When Harry’s parents reached out to me to help them plan and design “The Greatest Harry”’s Circus-Themed first birthday party, I was impressed by their attention to detail and how important it was to them to create an experience for their guests! I knew then that this was going to be a fun celebration to set up - and I wasn’t wrong. Read on to see all the details of this whimsical and playful Circus Party.

Welcome Area

Keeping the color scheme simple, yet bright, made the entire party feel cohesive. We went with a primary color scheme - red, yellow, and blue.

As guests walked in, they were greeted by an adorable “Come One, Come All” Circus welcome sign - featuring The Amazing Harry! There was also a welcome table set up for guests to play a few guessing games.

We printed questions on circus-themed cards, and had guests write their guesses on tickets to potentially win some prizes towards the end of the party! Some of the questions were circus themed, such as guessing the amount of clown noses in a jar, and others were guest-of-honor themed, such as “How much formula has the Amazing Harry had to drink in his first year?” This was a great way to stay on theme with fun circus games, while also personalizing the party.

To personalize it even more, we set up an area for guests to write some notes for Harry to keep in his memory box and read when he got older. Such a sweet idea that guests loved and I know Harry will too!

Backdrop

Inside, we wanted to create a circus-worthy spectacle. Giant light-up marquee letters from Alpha-Lit are the perfect way to create a show-stopping backdrop! We topped the letters with a large balloon garland in the celebration’s color scheme for extra “wow” factor.

Then, in front of a white curtain we set up to make everything stand out more, we added a giant cardboard sign and cute clown cutout.

Decor

In front of the backdrops, we added cylinder pedestal stands wrapped in circus patterns.

On top of them, we placed tons of circus-themed paper decorations from Opa Paper Art. These were some of my favorite elements of this party - Eli from Opa did an amazing job, and using his paper art throughout the party really pulled everything together. Harry’s parents also ordered some fun personalized coke bottles for Harry, so we added these and some colorful tissue paper balls to the decorations as well.

Desserts

For desserts, I called on some of my go-to vendors. Westlake Bakes made incredible Circus-themed cookies that we proudly displayed on the pedestal stands. Circus tents, cotton candy, tickets, and personalized “Harry” cookies - these were truly perfect for both the theme and color scheme. We filled out our cookie trays with some tasty macarons as well.

I like to use small acrylic stands (often used for place cards) to prop up a cookie or two for display and dimension on dessert trays.

And you can’t have a circus without popcorn! To keep the desserts sweet, we had Austin Gourmet Popcorn fill bags with delicious caramel corn. We added personalized “thank you” clown stickers to them so that guests could take them with them as favors if they chose to. These we displayed in a vintage circus popcorn machine, which made the whole thing feel much more circusy.

Cakes

Because this was for a first birthday, we had Sweet Treets create two cakes for us. One for all the guests, and one for the guest of honor himself - a smash cake!

The 3-tier main cake featured a circus pattern on the bottom tier, simple beaded edging on the second tier, and an eye-catching 3D circus tent design on the top tier.

Harry’s first birthday smash cake was a light blue that went perfectly with the “ONE” circus banner we made for his high chair. Of course, the little ringmaster had a top hat to wear while he had his cake!

Table Settings

We kept the table settings simple so as to not distract from the incredible décor. I used modern white dishes and silverware, and then added a pop of themed color to each with a brightly colored napkin tied into a stylish knot.

For table centerpieces, I used cartons of circus animal crackers. These red cartons went perfectly with the theme! To add more circus flair, I sprinkled tickets and peanuts around the animal cracker cartons.

I also couldn’t resist using more of the paper art decorations for centerpieces on some of the tables. They were just too cute, and people loved them. I loved the juggling clown - isn’t it amazing?! But my favorite had to be the balancing hippo in a tutu.

This theme really makes for such a lively and entertaining celebration and we were so thrilled to be a part of it.

if you live in the Austin area and want to work with MINT Event Design to create your own unforgettable celebration, please don’t hesitate to reach out!

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