My two sons (aged 3 yrs and 18 mths) invited their gorgeous little "girlfriends" over for a Valentines Day party! Here are some pics of their cute day...

I decided to create a dessert table using the colour scheme of pink and red, with a splash of aqua blue - based on the gorgeous printables from Sweet Scarlet Designs. Most Valentines Day tables are either red or pink, or a combination of both, and I love how incorporating the blue brings a fresh look to the style. But most importably... my eldest is going through a phase of having all things "blue for boys!", so it was great to be able to please him :)

For the backdrop I draped soft pink tulle and hung pink & red love heart shaped paper fans from above. I had some wooden letters carved with the word "Love" in the same font as the printables design, and covered them with metallic blue glitter wire. I think this looked really effective taking centre place and featuring so strongly in the background.

The amazing Helen from Kiss My Cakes baked a divine vanilla buttercream cake, from which I hung a mini metallic love heart bunting from wooden skewers across it. I love the heart detail Helen piped onto the front of the cake!

And there was also a surprise inside, with a layer of red velvet -- just to add to the romance with a splash of red colour!

To drink, the kids had "Love Potion" (aka raspberry cordial) from my gorgeous glass drink dispenser, and we served them in vintage ball mason jars (available from Sweet Style) with red love heart paper straws and flags.

Kiss My Cakes also made me some gorgeous cupcakes topped with fondant hearts, as well as some very yummy vanilla bean cookies.

I stuck a loveheart arrow through each cupcake to create "Cupids Cupcakes"

Little red letterbox, with a "love letter" cookie baked by Kiss My Cakes

There were lots of pink, red & blue sweets for the kids to munch on...

Now for a few fun shots of the kids... Sweet young love!!!

And I just ADORE these black & white photos, with flash of red!

A very special thankyou to Amy Atlas Events for featuring our little Valentines Party on her blog today!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Valentines Day. My day will just be about the love I share with my 3 darling boys xxx

Vendor Credits
Styling – Styled By Belle 
Cake, cupcakes & cookies - Kiss My Cakes
Printables – Sweet Scarlet Designs
Vintage bell mason jars & swizzle sticks - Sweet Style
Photography – Tom Henneman

Styled By Belle had a lot of fun recently styling a chic 21st birthday party. The client was looking for a stylish event filled with glamour, in the colour palette of pink, black & white. Styled By Belle managed the entire event from the invitation selection, marquee hire & setup, food & beverage selection, venue themeing & decoration, entertainment and of course a gorgeous dessert table to complete the look!

We hired a beautiful white marquee and lined the roof with silk draping. Black wooden flooring covered the entire surface. Fairy lights were hung around the perimiter of the marquee giving a wonderful shimmer throughout the evening. The marquee was filled with a lounge area for guests to chill beside the dance floor and a chic bar and dessert table.

The ceiling was a real "wow" factor with a big bunch of stunning tissue paper pom poms in pink, black & white hanging from the centre, and eye catching cardboard chandeliers that were spray painted black hanging either side.

Battery operated candles were stuck onto the chandeliers and gave a gorgeous pink hue along the roof. These chandeliers were ordered from America and gave the venue a glamourous look!

As guests walked into the venue, they came past the swimming pool, in which I had custom foam letters cut with the words "Happy 21st Melissa". The letters were painted black & pink and strung along the length of the pool. Tea light candles and pink & white gerbera flowers floated around the letters giving a whimsical look as guests arrived!

Welcome sign at entrance to marquee in glamourous black frame

For the dessert table I used a bold striped tablecloth, and the backdrop was made from black velvet pinned with crystal embellishments.

Glass jars were filled with an aray of pink & white sweets and black ribbons tied around their necks

Styled By Belle also featured some delicious desserts and baked items on the table...

The birthday cake was a made by my talented friend, Kylie Bourban. Kylie created a striking cake to the match of a cake designed by Jessicakes (albeit the monogram letter "M" was changed to match the font of Melissa's stationary). The client selected this cake herself, and Kylie did a wonderful job replicating it beautifully for her. Jessicakes actually provides a great tutorial online on how to decorate the cake which you can view here.

Over at the bar, a black velvet backdrop was hung with ribbons tied to vintage keys dangling along it.

One of the highlights of the evening was a photo booth where guests could go and have pictures taken of themselves. A fantastic feature of this machine, is that it also records video messages, so guests could also leave a recorded video clip for the party girl. All the clips and photos get put onto a DVD for her to watch over and over and keepsake forever!

The booth prints 2 copies of the photo strips (with "Melissa's 21st Party" logo printed at the bottom). Guests got to keep one copy, and the other was stuck into a memory book by the guests, alonside a written message for the party girl.

A truly fabulous party that I was so delighted to plan, manage & style!

Special thanks to Elise from Sweet Scarlet Designs for her design work of the printable stationary & Danielle Cutri for her wonderful photography!

And also an amazingly big thankyou to Amy Atlas Events for my 3rd feature on her wonderful blog! It just blows me away.. thankyou Amy & Lisa!! You can view the feature here

Vendor Credits:
Event Styling & Management - Styled By Belle
Photography - Danielle Cutri Photography
Printables - Sweet Scarlet Designs
Birthday Cake - Kylie Bourban (using Jessicakes tutorial)

This "chugging" train party was lots of fun to create for a little boy's 2nd birthday! The client loved the vintage train party I created for my son Aidan, and wanted something in the colour scheme of yellow and blue. I wanted to create something bright and fun and a little different to Aidan's party... and this is what I came up with!

I contacted the lovely Elise from Sweet Scarlett Designs to design a yellow & blue printable collection for me. She came up with a super cute "Choo" train design and emailed me all the files to print myself, including the great big yellow backdrop.

I utilised the wooden train track I built for Aidan's party, and used it on the bottom tier of this table. I then sourced smaller blue plastic tubs and stuck on yellow wheels to create a train "carriage" effect along the track.

These "carriages" contained the sweet treats including milky bars, lemon sherbets, blue jelly beans, bananas, crunchie bars & my special recipe rocky road.

My client had a friend that made the amazing train cake - in colours that perfectly matched the table. I don't have the details of the cake maker as yet, but will definitely find out!!

And here are some of the yummy baked desserts from Styled By Belle..

Vendor Credits:
Printable designs - Sweet Scarlet Designs
Macarons - La Belle Miette

... and a Happy New Year!! Styled By Belle is back on board after a lovely Christmas and holiday and already preparing for a couple of upcoming events. One being a gorgeous 50th birthday in a few weeks time that will be just sublime. I can't wait for this one!!! But before then I thought I might update you all with a few events I styled before the Christmas break...

A good place to start is probably a Christmas party I styled for a client in the colour scheme of red & white.

I hung a gorgeous dried red rose wreath which framed the stark white  backdrop and used white tree stems adorned with red dove ornaments as a key feature.

Yummy treats included chocolate dipped cream puffs, oreo cake pops, vanilla pannacotta jars, raspberry & Moet macarons, white chocolate rocky road, vanilla cupcakes in gorgeous red lace wrappers, cherry & white rock crystal swizzle sticks and red candy.

I created my own candy cane vase (an idea I found on the internet) and filled it with beatiful red florals. It sat atop my glass milk cake stans, which I tiered on top of another larger one that held mini chocolate puddings.

Glass jars were filled with red & white candy, and cute little ceramic star tags with Christmas words "Peace", "Love" & "Joy" were hung from their necks.

For a little wow, I also ordered red and white m&m’s from America with the clients custom logo printed on them. A lovely touch!

I also setup a cute little drinks station on my wooden vintage auto trolley. It included a delicious festive berry fruit punch and mini glass bottles with red paper straws.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and enjoyed some rest & relaxation with your families as I did!

Vendor Credits:
Printable designs - Sweet Scarlet Designs
Macarons - La Belle Miette

This party is very special and dear to me since it is the 3rd birthday party of my eldest son, Aidan. Aidan has been going through a mix of phases from Dinosaurs to Toy Story to Monsters and now Transformers! However he has always had a very special love for Thomas the Tank Engine as many little boys do (as you can probably see by his toy room here)

I dont particularly like going down the "commercial" party route and wanted to stay away from "Thomas" (although you will see I did hire a Thomas jumping castle!). Instead I decided to create a vintage train party in the colour scheme of sky blue & red, with the party to be held at "Aidansville" station to celebrate the 3rd birthday of "The Aidan Express"!

I found an adorable train collection stationary set on Etsy by Parties By Hardie. The printables were so affordable and upon purchase I was emailed a set that I was able to edit and customise with whatever text I wanted and then print my own stationary. Loved it! Here is a copy of the invitation that I went with:

I spent many late nights painting and building props including – a custom train station backdrop that I drew and hand painted myself. The station was of course called“Aidansville”, the clock was pointing to “3 o’clock” (being Aidan’s age) and I had 2 windows representing “Tickets” and “Luggage”. I got my
little man dressed up as a train driver and took photos of him before the party to stick in the windows (you might notice one is of him holding tickets for the
ticket booth window and the second photo of him holding mini suitcases for the luggage window).

I created a super long (4.5 metre) dessert table and covered it with hessian to give it a rustic feel. I built & painted a wooden train track to line the front of the table and bought plastic tubs that I painted red & blue and put wheels on to create “train carriages” to hold the food platters. Aidan already had a cute vintage
red ride-on wooden train that headed the table and “pulled” the carriages along the tracks!

The menu consisted of: caramel popcorn, chocolate bars in custom wrappers, train sugar cookies, red velvet cupcakes, blue & red jelly jars, oreo cookie pops, wild berry yogurt push pops, chocolate ripple cake and fruit skewers (of which I used a train shape cookie cutter to cut the watermelon pieces).

I also had lolly jars filled with red & blue candy: jaffas, bon bons, jelly beans, raspberries, sour straps and clouds.

I used my vintage wooden compartment box to hold 4 types of lollipops – train shape suckers, swirl sticks, rock crystal sticks & swirl lollipops.

The birthday cake was BEYOND AMAZING! My wonderful friend, Kylie Bourban, created a fabulous train & carriages cake to match my theme perfectly! The train and carriages were each a different flavour: chocolate mud, white chocolate mud, jaffa mud & banana mud. Yum! Yum!

To drink, I served raspberry cordial and iced water in my glass beverage dispensers from Lily Chic Events, along with mini glass bottles with red & blue paper
straws. I also used printable drink bottle wrappers from Parties By Hardie for the kids pop top juices.

To set the scene, I had my cousin dress as the “Fat Controller” (or as he is officially known, "Sir Topham Hatt") and he greeted guests as they arrived. I made train boom gates and had them positioned along a train track we stuck on the ground using black tape. I also made a “Railway Crossing” traffic sign and had a STOP sign along the tracks. 

For entertainment, I hired a Thomas jumping castle and a motorised ride-on train (which we called “The Aidan Express”) to give the children train rides throughout the afternoon, which was a huge hit! 

The children received lots of little train paraphernalia to take home – train shaped crayons, train whistles, train driver hats and train drink bottles. I also had wooden train toys that the children were able to paint themselves and take home.

Overall the party was "choo-choo" fun and my little man had an absolute blast with his little friends. I just had to share some photos of Aidan as he arrived at the party and saw what his mummy had created for him. It's just priceless and makes all the hard work so very worthwhile when you see that look of awe and amazement on your childs face!

I have to say a very big thankyou to Lee Bird Photography for coming along at such notice! My original photographer got stuck in Sydney with the Qantas airline cancellations and sadly couldn't make it back in time. However Lee Bird was just so wonderful to work with and I'm sure you'll all agree has some very special photography talent! I love how she edited the photos with a vintage treatment. Thank you so much Liat!

I am also SUPER EXCITED that Aidan's party has been featured on the amazing queen of dessert tables blog... Amy Atlas! This is my 3rd feature on Amy Atlas and I am beyond ecstatic! Thankyou Amy & Lisa xx

Some other vendor credits I must mention:
Photography - Lee Bird Photography
Printable Stationary - Parties By Hardie
Birthday Cake - Kylie Bourban
Train Crayons - Ivy Lane Designs
Jumping Castle - Speciality Castles
Trackless Train Ride - A&A Jumping Castles

When my client asked me to style her daughter’s 8th party and told me she wanted a “beauty spa” theme, I was very excited and immediately thought of gorgeous tones of pinks and lavender. Having two sons of my own, I always love when I get a chance to style things ‘girly’. However my excitement soon changed when she went on to say that Chloe wanted the colour “blue”! I had to have a laugh as my most recent parties have all been blue and I thought - oh not another one! Haha! But I must admit I have always been a ‘blue girl’ myself since I was very young and it is my favourite colour so I knew I could create a delightful little party for Chloe and her friends!

For the dessert table I used my pretty ruffled tablecloth from Vintage Sew and So and created a
backdrop made from strips of hanging ribbon in shades of blue, white & silver.

We decided to call the event "Chloe's Day Spa" so I used a few beauty themed products such as a wire bodice, shower cap, loofah and mini bottles of blue fragrance to set the scene. I also designed a set of printables using a pretty blue haired girl as our themed character.

Sweet treats on the table were in tones of blue including blue heaven jelly, oreo cookie pops, fairy floss, white chocolate mud cupcakes, mini blueberry meringues and chocolates in custom wrappers - of which I made them all. There was also blue candy including bon bons, bubblegum clouds, jelly beans, chocolate beans and sour strings.

To drink I made a delicious blueberry fruit punch which looked gorgeous in my apothecary beverage dispenser from Little Big Company. The drinks were served in mini glass bottles that I embellished with ribbon & flowers along with pretty paper straws.

The girls also received a cute shimmy makeup bag and were able to select blue eye shadows, nail polish and lip glosses.

Throughout the afternoon, Chloe’s mummy treated the girls to relaxing manicures and pedicures. For the manicure station I was inspired by the little “shop awnings” made by The Party Dress here, and I thought I might try to make my own version with blue and white striped canvas fabric for the awning. With the help of my wonderful Dad and grandmother, we came up with a cute little creation I think!

For the pedicures, Chloes mother did a lovely job of setting up chairs & foot soak buckets with rose petals. So sweet! And I printed up little signs and framed them for the mani & pedi stations.

A super sweet party, for a super sweet young lady. Hope you had a relaxed and pampered day Chloe!

Vendor Credits:
Photography - Danielle Cutri Photography
Ruffled Tablecloth - Vintage Sew and So
Jars, Choc beans & Enjoy stamp - Sweet Style
Cupcake wrappers - Mon Tresor
Drink dispenser - Little Big Company

Beep Beep! Toot Toot! Broom Broom!

I recently styled a dessert table for a cute little boys "car" themed 1st birthday party. Hudson's mother wanted the colour scheme of soft blue, green & white -- gorgeous for the last "baby feel" party you can have for your son before he gets into the real "boy boy" themes!

I hung blue & white tissue poms and blue & green polka dot laterns above the table. For the backdrop I printed a car shape image and used it to trace lots of car cutouts from coloured cardboard. I then sewed the cars together to create hanging garlands.

Along the front of the table I hung a garland banner that I printed and threaded with ribbon. And by coincidence, when I was wondering through Ikea I found these car floor mats - in the exact colours of the party - so I bought one to put in front of the table and Hudson's mum loved it, so she bought a few more in the kids play area!

Hudon's "Sweet Servo" (for those that may not know, "servo" is an Australian slang word for petrol/fuel station) featured lots of yummy blue, white & green candy, treats and desserts...

For the jelly jars I layered blue jelly, then condensed milk white jelly & finished with green on top. I used wooden spoons and stamped them with the word "enjoy!" (stamps from Sweet Style). I also found some blue & green keyring holders and printed little "toot toot" and "beep beep" cars inserts for them.

I found some small tyres at my hardware store and cut some foam to size to fit inside the tyres. I then painted one blue and the other green. I used these to stick my marshmallow pops in.

To add to the car theme, I made tiny teddy racing cars (milky way chocolate bars with blue & green smartie tyres and cute tiny teddy biscuits in the drivers seats!)

Hudson's mummy made delicious vanilla cupcakes with cream cheese icing, in super cute blue & green polka dot cupcake cases. For the toppers, I printed and cut out the little car shapes and attached them to small wooden sticks.

I found two adorable toy cars at Parenthood and bought them to hold the rock candy sticks and the lolly bags. They slotted in perfectly!

The birthday cake was made by the very talented Emily at Pratty Cakes. I love that the cake was subtle and beautiful in the colour scheme, without being a typical "car themed cake".

At the drinks table ("Re-fuel station") we used my fabulous beverage dispensers (from Lily Chic Events), and cute recycled mini glass bottls with blue & green striped paper straws.

Hudson's mummy bought little wooden toy cars and painted them blue and green. When the guests left, children could take home a car with helium balloon attached.

I must say a HUGE thankyou to the amazing Amy Atlas for featuring Hudson's party on her blog today. I am totally THRILLED to bits and it has absolutely made my day! To read Amy's feature click here.

Vendor credits:
'Enjoy' stamp, cupcake cases, choc beans, paper straws, lolly bags - Sweet Style
Polka dot lanterns & ribbon - Specklefarm
Birthday cake - Pratty Cakes

I have always had a love of elephants, dating back to when I travelled to South Africa on safari in 2008. It was truly the most unbelievable experience in my life to be on a jeep in the middle of Kruger and tracking down the animals. We had a dangerous encounter with a herd of elephants and one that I will never forget –thankfully we all escaped unharmed! The elephant is such a beautiful animal and I have always had an obsession with them, so it seemed natural that I create an elephant themed party for my son!

I hit the internet and browsed endlessly to find inspiration for my invitation and party. You just have to type “elephant birthday party invites” in Google images and you will see hundreds of gorgeous elephant designs & images. The most prominent are the very cute styles of the elephant holding balloons in his trunk!

We recently celebrated our youngest son Lucas' 1st birthday with a blue baby elephant themed party at home. I am thrilled to share with you some photos from the day...

I personally designed and printed the invitation and all the printables myself, and tied the colour blue and little elephant into all elements of the event.

I hired a life size baby elephant statue to greet the guests at the
front door and set the scene as they arrived. (We later used the elephant to let the children have a sit/ride on and took a photo of all guests and sent a photo to them after the party with their thankyou card).

The dessert table was the star of the show and I used a canvas backdrop that I painted in blue and hung paper flag bunting across it. Blue & white tissue poms and polka dot lanterns were hung above the table. I also had 3 little blue polka dot elephant 
toys along front of table. Above the backdrop I placed wooden letters spelling Lucas' name, along with the number "1"

The table was lined with glass apothecary jars filled with blue lollies and sweets. I tied custom designed menu tags to each jar with blue ribbon. 

Click gallery links below to view larger images of the sweet blue treats!

I covered chocolate bars with my custom wrappers, made mini size fairy floss (cotton candy) bags with custom toppers, made blue & white Oreo biscuit pops, white chocolate cupcakes with my custom cupcake toppers, blue heaven milkshakes in mini glass bottles with paper straws, blue mini iced donuts, caramel popcorn in blue polka dot cones, and stamped “Lucas’” name on the wooden spoons in the berry blue jelly.

The birthday cake was made by a friend of mine, Amy Chapman, who created a gorgeous white chocolate mud cake with white chocolate ganache and fondant decoration. I gave Amy a copy of the invitation and she matched the design so wonderfully!

For lunch, I set up a “Gourmet Sausage and Hamburger” bar where guests could make their own with a huge selection of
toppings - just as they liked!

I dressed the birthday boy in a very cute custom designed party hat and tshirt that I had made in America. I sent the two very talented ladies a copy of the invitation, and once again they both delivered a super cute outfit for Lucas to wear on his special day!

For the kids we hired a jumping castle, little bottles of bubbles which I covered in my custom design label, and I also set up a drawing station where I designed and printed my own "elephant" colouring books, with lots of different elephant pictures.

Before they left, the kids each had a turn to ride the elephant statue and we took a photo of them. I then sent the photo of each child to them with their thankyou card. The kids also received an elephant figurine with helium balloon attached to take home on the day.

I truly had a fabulous time planning and styling Lucas' 1st birthday, and I think all our guests had a wonderful time!

And once again, I must thank Amy Atlas for featuring my party on her blog today. I am still pinching myself! You can read Amy's blog post on my party here.

Vendor Credits
Jars & personalised stamp - Sweet Style
Beverage dispensers - Lily Chic Events
Tissue pom poms - Ah-Tissue
Cupcake cups & paper straws - Mon Tresor
Popcorn cones, treat bags & lollipops - The Little Big Company
Custom made elephant tshirt - Sweet Couture
Custom made elephant party hat - Stell & Livi
Birthday cake - Amy Chapman

The world of "dessert tables", "candy buffets" or "lolly bars" (however you want to call them) have been popping up at events more and more. They are absolutely HUGE in the USA and have hit Australia's party scene with gusto over the past year or so. There are many talented dessert stylists and I have been obsessed with following the blogs of many of these creative gems over the past 6 months. So much so that I have been buying party decorations, gorgeous jars and accessories, confectionary from wholesalers and lots of little bits and pieces from here there and everywhere all over the world. My house was looking like an event warehouse!!

There is one lady in particular who is the inspiration of the entire industry (of which she created) and I have no doubt if you haven't already, you surely will be blown away by the work of the amazing Amy Atlas! I like to think of Amy as the "Martha Stewart" or "Oprah Winfrey" of the dessert and event styling world in America. She is huge!!

On Monday morning I received an email from the Amy Atlas team to advise that my son Lucas' baby blue elephant first birthday party was being considered for publication on Amy's blog. Now this is a HUGE deal!! Only selected stylists are published on Amy's blog, and to be chosen as one of them... well words just cant describe. I am completely and utterly thrilled beyond imagination! Truly!

Thankyou Amy!!!

You can read Amy's post on Lucas' party here.
And you can read my post with all the details here.

By Belle x