An Elegant Minnie Mouse Luncheon
Is there any parent out there that hasn’t thrown a Mickey or Minnie Mouse party? Both my kids had one at age 2 and I loved planning every detail at each! This last birthday for my daughter, I put together an elegant little luncheon.
If there was a hard decision, it was whether to do the more modern pink version of Minnie Mouse or the classic red and black. Pink seems to be the popular choice these days, but I decided to go against the grain and went with red and black. Her party last year was pink and I figure there will be a lot of pink parties in the future, so this was an opportunity to change things up. I’m so glad I did!
Even if it’s a small party, I love to send out invitations. It’s a great way to get guests (hopefully) excited about a theme. It seemed that all the cute Minnie-themed invites I found were pink, though, so I reached out to a designer I’ve used a number of times and she came up with these bespoke designs for us!
I almost always design the dessert table scape first. For this party, I purchased fabrics by the yard and sewed drapery panels for the backdrop. The dessert table was covered with a wonderful red flippy sequin fabric and a large tablecloth which I draped to let the sequins show. I think my daughter spent half the day flipping the sequins back and forth!
When I saw the personalized wood sign on Etsy, I knew I wanted it. The seller allows customization of exact size and paint color and I was really happy with how it turned out. My husband was less thrilled figuring out how to hang it straight with fishing line; I think it took him as long to get that to my liking as it did for me to put the rest of the party together. Fortunately he’s good-natured and puts up with me!
Desserts were a small assortment of confections in addition to the three-tiered Minnie Mouse cake. The cake was actually relatively simple. Only the bottom tier was really time consuming. Those ruffles take a long time!
My dear friend and soprano colleague made beautiful macarons to which I added bows and glitter. I had various cookies and treats and there is the MAJOR VISIBLE ERROR that will haunt me forever. Take a look closely and you’ll see the oops I made at 4am - overtired and under-caffeinated. Once that N in my daughter’s name was upside down, it wasn’t really fixable, but the worst part is that I didn’t even see the mistake until the party was about over. I was SO tired.
I think my favorite thing about this party was the fun I could have with the food. Some of these cute food names I borrowed from others, but some I came up with myself, and I’m pretty proud of them. My husband came up with Boo-Boo Chicken Sandwiches . Apparently Boo-Boo Chicken is Mickey Mouse’s pet chicken. Who knew?!
The food cards were all made with my Cricut Explore. Admittedly, all that paper piecing was a lot of work, but I’d do it again in a heartbeat because I was thrilled with how they turned out.
I love adding florals in a party, but normally outsource them. As a general rule, I like to do almost everything myself, but I’m not the best floral arranger! I went to my local flower shop and asked about having them make two of these Minnie Mouse ear displays. At first they quoted me what I thought was a very fair price, but after I got home, they texted and said the price would have to be quadrupled!!!
I love learning new skills. If I’m going to outsource something, it is either because I don’t think I can do it well or the time investment isn’t worth it. I had thought these floral displays would be a good thing to pay for, but once the price jumped up, I decided to try it myself.
Let me tell you, folks, this was the easiest and quickest display I’ve ever tried. I am so glad my local shop changed their price. With no experience and no tutorial, I still knocked two of these out in about an hour and couldn’t be much happier with the outcome.
I had no idea how many carnations I would need, so I guessed. Get ready for my proudest moment of arranging this party. I ordered 200 carnations from Global Rose. The first display required 99 carnations. The second took 101. I had not one leftover and yet needed no more! And shout-out to Global Rose. These flowers were consistently beautiful and the arrangements lasted a full week!
Because this was a small party, we were able to do a seated meal. I fell in love with these acrylic napkin rings I found on Amazon. They shipped from Budapest and still arrived within days - which was good since they were a last-minute find! I was able to pick the style and color and I thought they were the perfect element to add a little “something” to the table.
I already had red chargers, but I did splurge on red-patterned dinnerware. I went back and forth about buying these, but I’m really good at justifying purchases - convincing myself that I can use things at other times. It’s a real talent, let me tell you. I did stack three coupons, though, and got these for a total steal!!
I absolutely loved throwing this party and going way over the top for this special afternoon luncheon. Parties like this are an opportunity for me to stretch my creativity, baking, and design skills and I look forward to it every time. I also look forward to the nap afterwards - which in this case was three hours, followed by an additional full night’s rest. Gratefully, this little munchkin is a great sleeper and she let me!
