This is a gorgeous theme for any young lady. This was for my daughter's 21st, yet the gorgeous theme would suit any girls birthday. Even the boys loved it as they dressed very casual and they enjoyed the huge amounts of delicious food. All food was homemade and a complete listing is below. All recipes can be found on this blog.
We went overboard with flowers (fake), candles (used a lot of "flickering" fake candles to eliminate the danger of fire), made dreamcatchers, used jars and vases, birdcages and lanterns, covered all our cushions with gorgeous boho inspired fabrics and borrowed lots and lots of ottomans, floor cushions and pretty cloths. All the serving dishes were pretty trays and wooden serving boards. The dinner plates were bamboo platters (from the party shop), with the spoons/forks/knives displayed in mini metal buckets. The drinks station had four large drink dispensers and an antique french wire planter filled with ice and cold "buddy" bottles of coke, some beers for the big people. The drink dispensers (four of them) we had mango iced tea, fruit punch, mohito punch (alcoholic) and ruby red punch (alcoholic). All details described below in better detail:
DECORATIONS:
We covered our back patio with our huge silver camping tarps to create an extra room. We hired a space heater to keep it warm (winter in Australia). We strung fairy lights from the beams and set up the drinks station. We hung garlands of balloons (700 balloons altogether) created from mini balloons tied to lengths of string with hanging flowers at the tie points. Comfy seating, rustic scarves, lanterns and flowers all added to the style of the patio room. Hubby even painted the floor with fresh outdoor paving paint to tidy it up.
Interior decorations were soooo much fun to create. The great thing about this theme is you can use all the stuff you already have! On the wall we had this gorgeous beach rug as our "photo" area backdrop. On all our furnishings we added boho styled fabric runners, trays, flowers, candles, fake peaches, birds, reindeer. We used fur throws, rugs and pillows. This is our Mr 7 dressed in his Boho style.
The main party room we hung a wire ring from our light fitting and sewed fabric to it. The fabric we bought very cheaply at a wholesale shop (30 metres of it!) . The fabric draped from the wire ring to the wall where we attached it with extra strong large 3M hooks with rods of dowel. Then hanging fake flowers were added to the centre, simply by bending them and hanging on to the wire ring.
Every doorway had balloon swags with hanging flowers. This is the entrance from our hallway. Out the front of the house we had strings of fairy lights from the house to the tree near our letterbox and white balloon swags across the front of the house.
As guests entered we had this first display (made about 6 displays like this and then 15 mini flower vases). This consisted of an old birdcage that I found on the side of the road. A large candle, fake flowers and fake peaches and two mini white porcelein birds I was given as a gift that light up. The runner is a mini rug from the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul. Above the display you can just see we had mini picture frames either side of the door - these usually have paintings the kids have done for me in them, but I simply printed off some Boho reindeer and slipped them into the frames.
In the photo above our daughter is helping hang the balloon swags. It took us about three weeks to set up everything. A lot of the food was prepared early and frozen.
Here is a closer view of the ring with the fabric and flowers. It was really quite simple but looked awesome.
Although the pic below shows all the food - which we'll get to in a minute... it also shows the dream catchers we made. We had three hanging in this area and some outside in the patio room. We made them by pressing black doily style placements into embroidery hoops, painting the hoops black to match and then adding wool and lace strips and beads to the bottom. The runner under the food is a scarf my daughter brought back from India.
We made her a "21" from thick foam board (available from craft shops) carved into the numbers and used a hot glue gun to stick all the flowers on. This was fun to do together. We glue gunned little stands to the back with the extra foam so the numbers would stand up.
I love this photo as you can get a feel of the room as it was when finished.
We used fake candles (battery operated) for safety and meant we didn't have to worry about them all night. We used as much as we had in our home. We borrowed trays and serving platters from friends. I found a gorgeous white reindeer head at a bargain shop and we glue gunned fake flowers around the antlers.
FOOD:
This was the biggest challenge as we wanted to cater for at least 50+ people. I wanted all the food to look amazing and taste amazing. I was also doing the cake myself. All recipes can be found on this blog.
On the wall near the food I printed off this border - hot glued some flowers to the edge and printed off menu selections for gluten free and vegan choices at the party.
The cake had six layers in three tiers. It was a caramel mud cake with an Italian meringue buttercream frosting. The top tier was gluten free. The decorations are fake flowers. I made the cake layers in the fortnight before the party and froze them wrapped well. I defrosted them and iced the day before the party. I used Taste.com's caramel mud cake recipe and it was delicious... http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/12743/caramel+mud+cake . The frosting is so much nicer than regular buttercream, much less oily and very easy to work with. http://www.cakebossbaking.com/recipes/italian-meringue-buttercream/ The challenge was decorating - I just watched a LOT of online tutorials and managed quite well. as you can see the cake is on a mini tray that just fits the bottom cake layer, this was easy to then turn the cake as I smoothed the buttercream to the right thickness on the sides. The top layer, gluten free I used the same Taste.com recipe, just substituted with gluten free ingredients.
This cheese platter we were so proud of, it turned out amazing and yum, was delicious. We had several home made dips - hommus, beetroot dip and avocado dip (all recipes on blog). Nuts, meats, cheeses, crackers, homemade green triangle dippers (recipe on blog), fruits etc. yum.
Mini lemon tarts - gluten free.
home made macarons, vegan blueberry cheesecakes and mini chocolate mousse (from a supermarket packet mix shhhh) http://call-me-cupcake.blogspot.com.au/2015/03/no-bake-blueberry-lemon-vegan-cheesecake.html#.V4hJMDXQhmQ
I also had some store bought pastries (ricotta and spinach triangles and spring rolls) and did a simple pasta bake. Hot food was a Philippino pancit, roasted veg curry, beef rendang curry and honey and soy chicken wings.
The dessert bar was awesome - made cake pops - you can freeze these!
We went overboard with flowers (fake), candles (used a lot of "flickering" fake candles to eliminate the danger of fire), made dreamcatchers, used jars and vases, birdcages and lanterns, covered all our cushions with gorgeous boho inspired fabrics and borrowed lots and lots of ottomans, floor cushions and pretty cloths. All the serving dishes were pretty trays and wooden serving boards. The dinner plates were bamboo platters (from the party shop), with the spoons/forks/knives displayed in mini metal buckets. The drinks station had four large drink dispensers and an antique french wire planter filled with ice and cold "buddy" bottles of coke, some beers for the big people. The drink dispensers (four of them) we had mango iced tea, fruit punch, mohito punch (alcoholic) and ruby red punch (alcoholic). All details described below in better detail:
DECORATIONS:
Although the pic below shows all the food - which we'll get to in a minute... it also shows the dream catchers we made. We had three hanging in this area and some outside in the patio room. We made them by pressing black doily style placements into embroidery hoops, painting the hoops black to match and then adding wool and lace strips and beads to the bottom. The runner under the food is a scarf my daughter brought back from India.
We used fake candles (battery operated) for safety and meant we didn't have to worry about them all night. We used as much as we had in our home. We borrowed trays and serving platters from friends. I found a gorgeous white reindeer head at a bargain shop and we glue gunned fake flowers around the antlers.
FOOD:
This was the biggest challenge as we wanted to cater for at least 50+ people. I wanted all the food to look amazing and taste amazing. I was also doing the cake myself. All recipes can be found on this blog.
On the wall near the food I printed off this border - hot glued some flowers to the edge and printed off menu selections for gluten free and vegan choices at the party.
This cheese platter we were so proud of, it turned out amazing and yum, was delicious. We had several home made dips - hommus, beetroot dip and avocado dip (all recipes on blog). Nuts, meats, cheeses, crackers, homemade green triangle dippers (recipe on blog), fruits etc. yum.
I absolutely love the bohemian themed party idea! To elevate the sustainability factor, incorporating quality bamboo products as part of the party decor is a brilliant choice, adding both style and eco-consciousness to the celebration!
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