Ladybird Garden Dessert Table

Today we are delighted to be able to share with you a really cute Ladybird Garden dessert table we styled for Gracie's first birthday in October - the weekend after Archie's Retro Train Party. We are thrilled to have had this event recently featured by Amy Atlas on her wonderful blog - thank you, Amy and Lisa!

Concept, design, styling, stationery by Little Birdie Events

Gracie's mummy, Danielle, was fabulous to work with, as she provided some lovely input to the table and party. She was organising a pink ombre cake with added garden and ladybird elements, and this became the inspiration for the whole table. We created a sweet colour palette with pinky-red ladybird colourings, and girly pink ombre hues with added tonings of minty green and happy sunshine yellow.

Danielle had arranged cute ladybird bunting and a welcome sign through printable stationery supplier, Fairydust Stylish Stationery. The bunting was hung behind the dessert table in a cut-out window within the house where the dessert table was placed. Danielle added the embellishments with the daisy chain and little pegs. So cute!

Printable bunting designed by Fairydust Stylish Stationery and dressed up with a daisy chain and mini ladybird pegs by Gracie's mummy, Danielle.

Printable welcome sign designed by Fairydust Stylish Stationery

As you would know if you have been a follower of our work, we take particular delight in creating details special to each event. For this table we designed and created the food and drink labels ourselves by designing our own cute ladybird image. This image was also used on the decorated vanilla biscuits.

Food labels were "planted" in mini silver pails with retrostyle paper straws and green chocolate beans.

Concept, design, styling & stationery by Little Birdie Events

We decorated mini glass bottles with pink ribbon and mini flower-shaped pieces of paper that coordinated with the riser covering, plate liners, and chocolate bar wrappers.

Concept, design & styling by Little Birdie Events

We worked with our usual favourite suppliers, Judy from Cakes by Judy C and Trish from Marche du Macaron, as well as a couple of new suppliers, including Leanne from Sweet Style, and The Cupcake Parlour.

The centrepiece cake was made by Gillian from Crumbs of Comfort.

Danielle asked for some cupcakes to be placed on some cute mini cupcake stands she had bought. As we wished to continue the ombre pink theme, we had fairy floss cupcakes made by The Cupcake Parlour, who used our colour palette to create these iced cupcakes with butterfly toppers.

Fairy floss cupcakes by The Cupcake Parlour

We also had gorgeous baby cupcakes made with icing to match the colour palette we created. These cupcakes surrounded bowls of fluffy strawberry-flavoured fairy floss.

"Granny Smith Green Apple", "Pretty in Pink" rose-flavoured, and "Lemon Sorbet" with icing coordinated the colour palette we provided. Made by The Cupcake Parlour.

Judy C made delicious classic vanilla biscuits, which displayed the ladybird image we designed especially for Gracie.

Biscuits by Cakes by JudyC with image designed by Little Birdie Events.

Trish from Marche du Macaron made wonderfully-themed macarons, which were decorated with various flowers, bugs, bees, and toadstools. She also had some of these macarons "planted" in terracotta planters.

Pistachio, mixed berry, and lemon cheesecake garden-themed macarons by Marche du Macaron.

Delicious petite treats included mini lemon curd tarts, mini orange blossom cakes, and baby passionfruit kisses.

Mini orange blossom cakes with cream cheese icing, lemon curd tarts, and passionfruit kisses by Cakes by Judy C.

Lindt chocolate bars were wrapped in paper that coordinated with paper used for plate liners and risers.

Lindt chocolate bars with personalised stickers designed by Little Birdie Events.

Pink lollipops from Sweet Style with classic wooden stems were "planted" in our wooden planter boxes with Darrell Lea choc-mint balls in at the base.

Strawberries & Cream lollipops from Leanne at Sweet Style.

Candies included rhubarb and custard bon bons, banana lollies (Danielle's favourite!), and giant fluffy marshmallows.

Danielle made up sweet take-home lolly bags (from Martha Stewart), she put out lovely fresh flowers with cute ladybirds, and we placed the cute napkins and plates she bought on the table.

Head over to our Facebook page to see more photos.

We had a lot of fun planning this sweet dessert table for Gracie. Keep your eyes on the blog, as we will have many more posts planned as we share other events we have styled in the last couple of months, including a Little Red Riding Hood inspired table, and a fun aeroplane inspired table.

Carole & Gerri

Archie's Retro Train Party Dessert Table

Gerri's son, Archie, turned two at the beginning of October, so we celebrated with a Retro Train Party. We are buzzing after having our dessert table featured by one of our absolute favourite international event stylists, Amy Atlas. Click here to see the feature on her blog, and here for the feature on her Facebook page.

Retro Train Party dessert table
Concept, design, styling & stationery - Little Birdie Events

Archie loves trains, which inspired us to create this train party with a fun, wholesome, and fresh, yet retro vibe. We loved working with our colour palette of slate blue, powder blue, apple green, and mid-grey. We also pulled in wood-grain and light bright tones to off-set the gorgeous preppy colours and patterns of spots and stripes.

If you have been a reader of our blog and follower of our work, you would know that we prefer not to work too literally with a theme, so we set about creating a dessert table fit for a little boy with added train touches and a retro feel.

We put a great deal of love and fun into putting this event and dessert table together, and we are so happy to be able to share the details with you. We have included vendor credits throughout and at the end of this post.

We are so grateful to our terrific suppliers. We adore working with you, Judy from Cakes by Judy C, Trish from Marche du Macaron, Rosie from Jocelyn's Provisions, and Lily from Sticky, Chouquette, Flour & Chocolate, and Gwen from Welsh Lady. Thank you also to Samantha from Dunne with Style for your wonderful style and crafty work.

Read on for the details and photos...

{Invitation}

We created this simple, yet stylish and fun invitation, which introduced the colour palette, theme, and wholesome boyish retro atmosphere of the event.

Stationery by Little Birdie Events

{Backdrop}

Samantha from Dunne with Style created rosette fans out of card stock in our chosen colours and patterns in line with the fresh, wholesome retro feel we had in mind. She also created a rosette fan name garland on bunting using vintage-style paper fans (similar to those we had made for Isabella's Wonderland {very merry} Mad Hatter Tea Party - click here to check it out).

We selected the light-toned brick wall as the location for the table, knowing it would tie in to the theme wonderfully. We love the striking backdrop for the dessert table.

Rosette fans and name garland by Dunne with Style

Rosette fans by Dunne with Style

Rosette fans and name garland by Dunne with Style

{Food}

We had such fun designing some neat and scrumptious sweet treats with our wonderful suppliers to coordinate with the young boyish, preppy Retro Train Party theme.

Once again we came together with Trish from Marche du Macaron to create some macaron magic! These were some of our favourite items on the dessert table. We selected six of Marche's usual menu flavours that represented six traditional style "Soda Pop" or "Milk Bar" drinks that may have been used as refreshments on a train:

• Ginger Beer (one of Marche's current limited-editino "Spring Picnic" macarons)
• Traditional Lemonade (Marche's "citrus lemon" macaron)
• Creaming Soda (Marche's "vanilla bean" macaron)
• Chocolate Milk (another one of Marche's current limited-edition "Spring Picnic" macarons)
• Strawberry Milkshake (Marche's "mixed berry" macaron)
• Iced Coffee (Marche's "espresso" macaron)

Macarons by Marche du Macaron
Concept, design, styling & stationery by Little Birdie Events

Macarons by Marche du Macaron
Concept, design, styling & stationery by Little Birdie Events

The decoration of each macaron was so eye-catching and fabulous (and yummy) - how cool are the chocolate squiggles, the gorgeous candied lemon peel and ginger pieces, and the tangy dried slices of strawberry! We just adore working with Trish - she is so passionate about bringing our ideas to life.

Macarons by Marche du Macaron
Concept, design, styling, and stationery by Little Birdie Events

Caramel Bomb cupcakes are one of Judy C's specialties - a delicious, fluffy cupcake with a surprise caramel centre. One of our favourites. Yum!

Cupcakes by Cakes by Judy C
Stationery by Little Birdie Events

Peanut butter whoopie pies are another one of Judy C's specialties. Delicious, soft peanut biscuits sandwiched with peanut butter cream.

Whoopie pies by Cakes by Judy C
Stationery by Little Birdie Events

Meringues (made by Jocelyn's Provisions) and Ferrero Raffaello balls appeared as little puffs of smoke. These were displayed above mini vanilla bean cupcakes made by Flour & Chocolate.

Meringues by Jocelyn's Provisions
Mini cupcakes by Flour & Chocolate
Stationery by Little Birdie Events

Mini cupcakes by Flour & Chocolate
Stationery by Little Birdie Events

Petit four eclairs filled with chocolate, vanilla, and coffee custards made by Chouquette were some other tasty morsels featured on the table.

Eclairs by Chouquette
Stationery by Little Birdie Events

"Railroad Slices" consisted of three slices from Jocelyn's Provisions, cut into haphazard pieces and placed atop black chocolate beans to look like a railroad. The decadent slices included chocolate & raisin, triple chocolate, and (our favourite) chocolate, caramel & pecan.

Slices by Jocelyn's Provisions

Classic vanilla biscuits were decorated with apple green spots, slate blue stripes, and two different edible images with motifs, which we created to tie in with the stationery suite - "Archie Express" and "Stop No. 2". Made by Cakes by Judy C.

Biscuits by Cakes by Judy C
Stationery by Little Birdie Events

Six white dishes on top of a long wood-grain riser with six grey-striped rosette fan wheels reminiscent a train carried cargo, including chocolate-covered honeycomb, Ferrero Rocher balls, and a range of delicious Darrell Lea sweets - "Caramel Snows", licorice bites, pieces of rocky road, and chocolate-covered peanut brittle.

Rosette fans by Dunne with Style
Concept, design, styling, and stationery by Little Birdie Events

Rosette fans by Dunne with Style
Concept, design, styling, and stationery by Little Birdie Events

"First Class Ticket" Whittaker Peanut Slabs were covered in personalised stickers coordinated with the stationery suite we created.

Whittaker Peanut Slabs
Concept, design, styling, and stationery by Little Birdie Events

Kiwifruit-flavoured green-and-blue lollipops were designed and created by Sticky especially for the birthday boy, Archie. These had "Thank You" notes tied to them with different styled ribbons, and were displayed in wooden plantar boxes.

Lollipops by Sticky
Concept, design, styling, and stationery by Little Birdie Events

Chocolate mint balls and apple-flavoured bon bons were displayed in apothecary jars, as were a selection of fresh apples and pears, as well as gorgeous black fabric poms to depict coal and fluffy grey fabric and tulle poms to depict puffs of smoke, made by Samantha from Dunne with Style.

Like the macaron "Refreshment Bar", there was a savoury snack bar, with small pine cups holding "boy snacks" - Kettle corn, mini pretzels, and roasted salted nuts.

Mini pretzels, roasted and salted nuts, and kettle corn in mini cups
Concept, design, styling, and stationery by Little Birdie Events

The beautiful dessert-style "Ultimate Chocolate Roulade" was made by Gwen from Welsh Lady. We wanted to use a cake that was a bit different, and that depicted a log that may be cargo on a train.

Cake by Welsh Lady
Poms by Dunne with Style
Concept, design, styling, and stationery by Little Birdie Events

Cake by Welsh Lady
Rosette fan by Dunne with Style
Concept, design, styling, and stationery by Little Birdie Events

{Drinks}

We had a small drink station serving iced water and lemon iced tea from eco-glass drinks dispensers.

Concept, design, styling, and stationery by Little Birdie Events

Mini glass bottles were dressed with "neck ties" of ribbon coordinated with the colour palette and patterns consistent with the styling, as well as fun retro-style paper straws.

Concept, design, and styling by Little Birdie Events

{Details}

We love creating little details that make each event special in its own way. For Archie's party we designed and created the stationery suite ourselves using a cute train in slate blue, and text, fonts, and colours in line with the retro theme.

Concept, design, styling, and stationery by Little Birdie Events

Mini glass bottles representing the "Refreshment Bar" macarons in flavours reminiscent of traditional "Soda Pop" and "Milk Bar" drinks.
Concept, design, styling, and stationery by Little Birdie Events

White dishes ready to carry "cargo" atop a wood-grain "train" with rosette fan "wheels".
Rosette fans by Dunne with Style
Concept, design, styling, and stationery by Little Birdie Events

Whittaker Peanut Slabs covered in "First Class Ticket to board the Archie Express" stickers
Concept, design, styling, and stationery by Little Birdie Events

Welcome sign before entering the "train yard"
Rosette fans by Dunne with Style
Concept, design, styling, and stationery by Little Birdie Events

{Photography}

The Little Birdie girls have recently purchased an SLR camera and have been dabbling in simple photography. We've had a lot of fun experimenting with the camera and trying to capture the details of our work.

Macarons by Marche du Macaron
Concept, design, styling, and stationery by Little Birdie Events

Lollipops by Sticky
Macarons by Marche du Macaron
Concept, design, styling, and stationery by Little Birdie Events

Eclairs by Chouquette, biscuits by Cakes by Judy C, slices by Jocelyn's Provisions, cake by Welsh Lady
Rosette fans by Dunne with Style
Concept, design, styling, and stationery by Little Birdie Events

Rosette fans by Dunne with Style
Concept, design, styling, and stationery by Little Birdie Events

Concept, design, styling, and stationery by Little Birdie Events

{Vendor Details}

Concept, design, styling - Little Birdie Events
Stationery - Little Birdie Events
Sweets: Cakes by Judy C, Marche du Macaron, Jocelyn's Provisions, Sticky, Chouquette, Flour & Chocolate, Darrell Lea

Rosette fans, name garland, poms: Dunne with Style

Cake: Welsh Lady

Photography: Little Birdie Events

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Check out our Facebook page for more photographs of Archie's Retro Train Party.

Just one week after Archie's party we created a Ladybird Garden-themed dessert table for Gracie, a little girl who turned one. We will be sharing images of this event soon.

Carole & Gerri