Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Inspirations & Modifications: Dorothy Party

I frequently will see blog posts about themed parties (sigh, nothing fills my dramatic and crafting soul like a themed party!) and think about the things I would change or do differently. I may not have the budget, or the appropriate occasion, to recreate these parties in my version, but I enjoy the brainstorming challenges. So this will probably be the first of what will probably be a regular feature: IandM posts.

Today I came across this darling Dorothy (of Wizard of Oz fame) themed party designed by TomKat Studios and Kate Landers Events. The party featured a super-cute Dorothy silhouette, blue gingham, white eyelet fabric, and those iconic ruby slippers.

Cute, right? So what could I possible want to change?

THE STYLING: First off, I think the styling is near perfect. I love the mix of the miniature hay bales, baskets, and soft eyelet-edged fabric. I would just make some changes on how the gingham is used. First - I'd replace the white tablecloth with a blue gingham one. Hang on before you say, "But then it's gingham overload!" I REALLY don't like those gingham curtains. My first choice would actually to have a rainbow arching over the whole table, with perhaps a bluebird off to the edge above it (or hanging from the ceiling). My second choice would require a tall ceiling, but would look like the bottom of a hot air balloon (minus the gas jets) with strings going up from the table corners to make the table look like the air basket.

To not overload with gingam, I would change the food label table cards to be cut out with an eyelet edge, a red glitter line, and switch the little dots inside the oval to be blue instead of red. Additionally, on the banner I would put a red glittered shoe instead of the Dorothy silhouette.

THE FOOD: This is where I'd make the major changes. It looks cute at a glance, but if you examine the last photo a little closer, out of 15 items, only 1 items (the little jam jars on the bottom right which were one of the favors) weren't cake or cookies. Left to right is: yellow brick road cookieswhite chocolate coated oreos, balloon sugar cookies, Dorothy cookies, rainbow cupcakes, Ding Dongs, basket cookies, cupcakes, chcolate cake, red poppy cupcakes, hot air balloon cookies, cookie lollipops, "E" cookies, courage ribbon cookies, ruby red cake pops, Toto cupcakes, and Auntie Em's Berry Jam. Unless otherwise noted, all the cookies were sugar cookies with frosting and the cupcakes all vanilla. It looks pretty but it's all rather blah for the palate. While their foods tried to stay much more Dorothy-centric, I would branch out a little more.
  • Yellow Brick Road - I'd make rice crispy rectangles
  • Tinman's Heart - Strawberries rubbed with a smattering of gold luster dust
  • Scarecrow's Brains - krumkake rolled like a diploma
  • Lion's Courage - fruit leather twisted into a ribbon shape
  • Toto's Treats - peanut butter bone-shaped cookies
  • Flying Monkey Food - 2" chunks of frozen bananas on lollipop sticks, dipped in dark chocolate with dark chocolate wing cut-outs attached
  • Homemade Lollipops
  • Witch Melting Pails - cucumber cups filled with ranch dressing
  • Auntie Em's Mini Pies - cherry to continue the red
  • Dorothy's Ruby Red Cupcakes - red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, coated in red sanding sugar. However, I don't like red velvet so I would probably cheat and do strawberry cupcakes.

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