Olivia really wanted a Disney princess birthday party theme so of course we had to make all of her dreams come true for her third birthday! It was a magical celebration and I’m sharing all of the details of the royal party. We DIY’d almost everything except for the balloons!
Princess Belle Costume
How adorable does she look as Princess Belle? I scored this dress during a Disney store closing a couple of years ago – it was originally $100 and I got it for $30! I found similar ones here and here.
She can’t be a princess without a tiara, can she?! I got her this Princess Belle crown and she totally looked the part. My friend @hairbyleeen also gave her a Belle hair makeover to really complete the look. She used these kids hair donuts to make the hair bun!
White Castle Bounce House
We’ve been renting a bounce house the last couple of years and it was $350-$450 each time, which means we’ve spent over $700 renting already! This year, we decided to splurge during Prime Day and bought ourselves this white castle bounce house. Now we can have one at every event or possibly even rent it out! It’s 13′ x 11′ and a ton of toddlers and adults can jump on it. The castle, along with the princesses cutout, were the perfect backdrop for our Disney princess birthday party theme!
For balloons, @bibas.events did a pink, purple, and gold theme for us. She always does an amazing job! I’m planning to repurpose these as Halloween decor. This balloon garland has very similar colors – I have purchased balloons from this brand before and they look really professional because they’re double stuffed!
To bring the theme all together on the bounce house, I made these vinyl decals with my Cricut. The key is to use this removable vinyl to make big signs and be able to easily peel off after the party. I was so surprised to see that this vinyl in pink was sold out at my nearest Joanns and Michaels the night before. I was freaking out but finally found some at a different store on the morning of the party and scrambled to make them. The decal says Where Dreams Come True and the font is Sugar and Spice! If you don’t have a Cricut or don’t want to make it yourself, you can order bounce house custom decals.
Party Favor Wall
I decided to have a party favor wall at the very last minute. @bibas.events built the favor arch wall and did the balloons. I added the Cinderella cutout and the Once Upon A Time decal, which I also made with removable vinyl.
At the bottom of the favor wall is a vase with glittery wands. These were so fun for the kids to chase the surprise dinosaur at the end!
For the pink favor boxes, I put in bubble wands, pretzels, lollipops, crown candy bracelet, Disney princess stickers and princess rubber duckies. I decorated it with these pink bows. I also passed out these sequin crowns as party favors.
Princess Kids Table
This was my first time doing a kids table and I wanted it to be the focal point. At the base are these kids tables and kids chairs, which I rented from @merakipartyrentals. Then I created a Disney princess table setting with the following items from Oriental Trading:
- Large Disney princess plate
- Small Disney princess plate
- Crown bowls – I was going to fill these with popcorn but we had smokey weather so I kept all of the food inside
- Disney princess cups – The kids could also take these home as party favors
- Disney princess napkins
- Wooden cutlery
- Gold stripe straw
- Table runner – I used one set which came with three runners
- Castle cupcake stands – I also was going to display cupcakes on these but, again due to the weather, I kept them inside
- Bud vases – These were tinier than I expected but they ended up being really cute and perfect for the table!
Activities
Real Life Disney Princesses
The most magical part of the Disney princess birthday party was having a surprise visit from real life Disney princesses! We asked Olivia in advance who her favorite princesses were and she said Belle and Cinderella. They definitely dressed the part and were amazing with the kids! They hung out with them, read a story, did mini makeovers, held a small coronation, and sang happy birthday. We highly recommend Tales of Enchantment!
We also encouraged all of the kids to wear Disney outfits. Olivia wore a Belle costume while Amelia wore a baby Cinderella costume. All the girls that attended the party looked absolutely adorable in their Disney princess costumes. One boy dressed as Aladdin while the others were Marvel superheroes! So fun!
Piñata
I don’t remember the last time we had a piñata at a party but it was a huge hit (no pun intended)! The kids loved it and it was super entertaining for the adults to watch too. The kids put their candies in their party favor boxes afterwards. I loved that this crown piñata fit the theme and included a candy package.
Food
Main Menu
We usually cater every single menu item but decided to put in some extra work and cook some of the food ourselves this year. We made kalbi. We buy the short ribs from Fred Meyer and then use this kalbi marinade. We grilled it but you can even use the air fryer. We also had all of the Asian party staples – fried rice, chow mein, spring rolls, and egg rolls. For the kids we made mozarella sticks and dino nuggies!
Cake
In the last couple of years, I got custom specialty birthday cakes. Although they’re good and beautiful, they can also be really expensive. This year, I went the grocery store (Town & Country to be exact) route because it’s much more cost effective, yummy, and they have tons of licensed characters and images. I can’t believe this Disney princess cake was only $62! You can buy these exact princess cake toppers online at a great price!
I feel like I keep saying we aren’t going to throw big parties like this again, but I LOVED how this Disney princess birthday party turned out. It’s always a crazy amount of work, multiple days of prep, chaoticness on the day of, so much clean up afterwards, and takes us a few days to recover. But we will always remember these parties and I hope Olivia looks back on them and sees how much we love her. They only have 18 birthdays at home with us afterall, right?
SHOP DISNEY PRINCESS BIRTHDAY PARTY
OUTFITS
Belle Dress here) | Belle Crown | Kids Hair Donuts | Baby Cinderella Costume | Women’s Polka Dot Dress
PRINCESS PARTY DECOR
White Castle Bounce House | Custom Decals for Bounce House | Ballon Garland | Cricut | Removable Vinyl | Cinderella Cutout | Princesses Cutout | Princess Cake Toppers | Crown Piñata
PRINCESS TABLE SETTING
Large Disney Princess Plate | Small Disney Princess Plate | Disney Princess Cups | Disney Princess Napkins | Crown Bowls | Castle Cupcake Stands | Wooden Cutlery | Gold Stripe Straw | Table Runners | Bud Vases | Kids Chairs | Kids Tables
PRINCESS PARTY FAVORS
Glittery Wands | Pink Favor Boxes | Bubble Wands | Pretzels | Lollipops | Crown Candy Bracelets | Princess Stickers | Princess Rubber Duckies | Pink Bows | Sequin Crowns
VENDORS
Event design & planning: Me! 🙂
Balloons and party favor arch wall: @bibas.events
Belle hair: @hairbyleeen
Real life princesses: Tales of Enchantment
Kids chairs and tables rental: @merakipartyrentals
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Hello Tina, thank you so much for sharing the details. I am planning for my girls Bday party for the first time. Definitely learned so much from you! I do have some specific questions about food/cake/treats. Hope you can share your insight. Do you do cake first or meal first? What about other treats like cupcakes and cookies? Do you serve them with meals or with cakes or just leave them in the table for guests to grab as they want? Thanks 🙏
Adorable Disney princess party for Olivia! The cake looks amazing and the real-life princesses must have made her day.
Thank you so much!! She still talks about the party one year later!