An underwater themed party
The beautiful thing about this particular birthday celebration, and something that I really treasure, is that we first had the pleasure of working with this family on their daughter’s third birthday party back 2009.
The combined birthday and christening magical fairy celebration that we put on for this wonderful family back then is still something that our team talk about as it was such a magical day.
Fast forward 15 years and having the privilege of bringing to life her 18th birthday was a real joy. The connection we have formed with this family allows us to really get to know what they want. This meant than when they put their ideas to us, we knew exactly how to bring them to life in the best way to suit the family’s personalities and wishes.
Birthday girl Lucy wanted to have a dining experience in a restaurant that she knows really well but wanted some party magic on top of that, so the family reached out to me and asked me to help.
She’s about to go and study marine biology in Florida and has a huge passion, developed from a young age, for dolphins and working with marine animals. My imagination started working right away, and from my bubbling cauldron of ideas popped visions of bubbles and underwater magic.
The family came to me not knowing what they wanted, so I worked with them to develop my ideas, ensuring they fitted in with their wishes. There are lots of different ways of creating an underwater theme, from full on Disney to mermaid to fantasy of the sea themes, but the family were keen to move away from any animated themes and focus on their daughter’s passions for marine creatures, as well as incorporating her favourite colour, blue, and the under-the-sea concept.
We developed our theme based on the elegance of the water combined with the sophistication of turning 18 and becoming an adult, whilst also using playful colours by celebrating the colours of the sea and bubbles.
It was then time to transform the space and curate the event and entertainment to create the perfect 18th birthday party…
Transforming the space
We incorporated our birthday girl’s favourite colour blue into our design and worked with our concept to create something magical.
We made a table centrepiece as one long coral reef with floating bubbles, which along with water effects projected onto the ceiling, gave the impression of being underwater. The coral reef was in light purples and blues, big enough to make a magical visual impact, but low and narrow enough to allow the dining experience and conversation to flow.
To further celebrate those 18 years and link into the fizz and bubbles theme, we then created little bubbles of memories down the centre of the table with photos that the family had gathered. This gave guests a really nice way to engage with the underwater theme as they explored these bubbles, spotting little treasured moments and other celebrations over the years. They also made a lovely keepsake for Lucy to take home.
We used up lighting and balloons to decorate the walls and add to the underwater landscape. The balloons also doubled up as a nod to the bubbles and celebratory fizz that guests would be enjoying as part of their dining experience.
For the cake, we created an edible coral reef as a really fun way to put the cake at centre stage. Just as a pearl is the jewel of sea, so our cake in a beautiful shell becomes the jewel of the party, the treasure of the undersea landscape. In my eyes, the cake and making the wish is such an important and beautiful aspect of any birthday celebration, so being able to display the cake in the middle of the shell really heightened that moment making it even more special.
Curating the event
Decorating the venue is just one part of what we do to create magical events. Working with the team at the venue, we then go in and add another layer of decadence on top of an already wonderful service of food. Our role on the night is to work with the venue in between service to add pops of entertainment, colour and party fun throughout the evening, orchestrating the evening food and entertainment journey.
For this underwater themed party, a 3-course dining experience was mixed with underwater inspired cocktails. The final part of the food offering was to have cake and sweet treats. To facilitate this in a memorable way, we had a band that came and surprised them at the end of their main course. This was a roaming brass band playing all their favourite classics, with the final song of the set being ‘Happy Birthday’.Â
This led into the cake and making a wish, and then everyone tucking into the cake and sweet treats. After their sweetie treats, the band returned with a big surprise, presenting the birthday girl with tickets to see her favourite artist as they played songs by that artist, bringing to life the gift giving that the family wanted to share with everyone on the day. This was such a lovely way for the family to gift the birthday girl something she wasn’t expecting and provided a special moment of joy that they will always remember.
When this client came to us, they knew where they wanted to dine, but didn’t know how to bring their special celebration to life. We were delighted to be able to bring Enchantica’s magic to their event, creating an immersive visual experience from start to finish and creating the theatre of the journey so everything flowed seamlessly throughout the evening.
We’d like to thank Lucy and her family for giving us the opportunity to celebrate such a special occasion with them. We truly feel so grateful that you invited us along.
Special thanks also to party venue The Alice Hawthorne for working with our ideas and allowing us to come in and create the magic, and to Brigitta Penzes Photography for capturing all those special moments to be enjoyed forever.
Get in touch
If you have an event, special occasion or celebration coming up and you’d to make it magical, please get in touch to arrange a call. We’d love to work with you to bring your event to life.
