A Pot of Gold at the End of the Rainbow

I very much hope you all donned on your green and got in the Irish spirit to celebrate St Paddy's day this weekend. We certainly had a busy St Paddy's day this year celebrating not only the day of the saint, but also a little girl's 10th birthday. Definitely one of the more unusual birthday themes we've encountered, but we rose to the challenge and with leprechauns, pots of gold and rainbows in hand we set off to create a memorable birthday for the child who shares her special day with the Irish saint.


With St Paddy's Day being celebrated largely with the colour green and beer, we had to take an alternate route to make the party kid friendly. This is why we decided on leprechauns and the legend of their pots of gold at the end of the rainbow.


For the invites we kept it simple with leprechaun hats, but to add a little something extra we stuck magnets onto the back in the shape of pots of gold. This way the invite could go on the fridge, a constant reminder of the upcoming event. 

On the day of the party greeting all the guests was a friendly leprechaun waving everyone inside.

The rest of his friends were to found inside hiding in the shrubbery.

 

Apart from the jolly leprechauns we also had plenty of rainbows. Over the entrance to the party we had a giant rainbow for the guests to walk under.

We also had a freestanding rainbow that we used to add a bit of colour and party spirit to the pool area. No party is complete without helium balloons and we really made use of them to add colour and theme to the whole outside party area. Each of our bunches contained seven balloons displaying all the colours of the rainbow with pink having to replace indigo. We used little cauldron pots as the balloon weights to act as the pots of gold tying into the theme.

Of course our party table couldn't go without being "rainbowed" and so for the centre piece we had a rainbow that went into two pots of gold. We also had the birthday girl's name on the rainbow which we painted gold and sprinkled with glitter to really get the idea of gold glittering in the sun. In the pots we had gold organza and some gold chocolate coins. We also used cotton wool underneath the pots to create the effect of clouds.

                                                          
                                                      


For the cake the client wanted a big green leprechaun hat. This was my first attempt at actually carving a cake into a shape and I was pretty happy that it worked even if it was a really simple shape.

The only other party food we provided were some cupcakes that of course also fitted in with the theme.

For entertainment, although not theme related, we hired a surf simulator, a similar concept to a mechanical bull except the kids need to stay balanced on a surfboard that rocks and sways back and forth. They absolutely loved it. We also hired sumo suits which were a huge hit in more ways than one. The kids basically climb into giant padded fat suits and need to sumo wrestle each other. A whole lot of fun for everyone including the spectators.

The party packs were made from green organza and black tissue paper. They were filled with gold chocolate coins so that each child took home a sack of gold after their St Paddy's Day adventure.