Surprise Princess Party for my sister

So I always wanted to do a princess party, and since I have 4 boys, I realized it just ain't gonna happen. So I decided to do a surprise princess party for my oldest sister. I loved spending almost 3 months in planning, but it was hard not sharing all the good deals I was finding with her. As the party got closer, it was much harder to make sure she didn't find out. I think she was really surprised, and it turned out exactly as I had pictured it. A special shoutout to Jenn for her awesome catering skills-be sure to see all the fun goodies she made for the luncheon!

INVITATIONS: I made scroll invitations. I lucked out and found 24 wooden candle holders at our local thrift store, then I bought dowels to fit into them. I glued them together and then spray painted them gold. I printed the invitations on clear vellum paper. It read:
“By royal summons of the kingdom of Cedar, (the town we live in I had this next to a fancy letter C) Princess Stephanie Lynn Harris of Westview (Example name ) your presence is requested at the royal banquet hall on DATE for a royal surprise celebration in honor of Princess Clarissa Jane Jones of Lake Mountain, the royal chariot will pick you up at TIME. (I arranged for a limo to pick up each of the 12 guests) Please come dressed in you finest regal attire. Your crown and jewels will be sent to you. (More on this in costumes) Please acknowledge your acceptance by calling PHONE NUMBER.”
I personalized eac invitation with the names for each lady who was invited, the older ladies were queens and the younger ladies were princesses, and they were the princess of the street they lived on.
I cut the dowels to 12” and glued the wooden candle holders on each end. Then I taped the paper invitation across the top and rolled it around the dowel. I tied it with a pink ribbon. My husband dressed up in a tux complete with cumber-band and bow tie, and we hand delivered the ones we could and mailed the rest.

This pic has has the personal info changed.

I made a separate invitation for the birthday girl, it read:
“Princess Clarissa Jane Jones of Lake Mountain, (example name)
Your presence is hereby requested
at the royal banquet hall,
for a royal birthday celebration
in your honor.
The Royal driver will pick you up at
Approximately 1:30 PM

COSTUMES: Each princess was to come dressed up. I had sent "save the date" emails a month earlier so they could start looking for a dress. I wanted every princess to have a crown tiara, rhinestone necklace and bracelet, earrings, and a large rhinestone ring. I bought all of them on eBay. The tiaras I got were real, not the kid party kind and they were cheaper too. (under $3 each)

I went to the shoe-store and got kid size shoe boxes, spray painted them gold and glued jewels on them. I cut some foam to fit the box and covered it in  red velvet material. I placed the jewelry inside the box, on the velvet, and made a label with each princess’s name on the top of the box. I forgot to take a picture of the inside with the jewelry.

DECORATIONS: I wanted this to be super fancy. We have a dance studio, and we had our “royal banquet hall” here. We had 2 large banquet tables. I covered them with white satin tablecloths and used pink squares and cloth napkins. I used my china with gold rim- plates and cups. Silver platters and tiers held the food. I draped pink fabric (bought pink sheer curtains from the thrift store) from the ceiling. I had some other pink fabric with flowers on it that we draped as well. I bought diamond confetti (1000 pieces for $1.45 and free shipping on eBay) and sprinkled them all over the table. We had a throne at the end of the table for the birthday girl. We got an old chair at the thrift store. It had intricate designs all over the wood back. We spray painted it gold, then sprayed gold glitter on it, then glued rhinestones (I bought lots of rhinestones from eBay for 1.50) all over. We took the cushion off and covered it in gold material. It looked real nice.

PICKUP OF PRINCESSES: As this was a surprise party for an adult, we didn’t play games, but we wanted each lady to feel like a princess. One hour before the party, I had my son and husband, again dressed up, deliver the invitation scroll to the birthday girl. We gave her a dress, shoes, and jewelry so she could get ready. Of course my memory card was full so I missed a perfect picture opportunity. My sister was so surprised! Right after we pulled away I got a call from her wondering what was going on. We had a limousine pick-up each princess at her home.

Each princess was dressed as a real princess. We took pictures of each princess and my husband handed them their jewelry box.

The limo pulled up to the “castle.’ I had a large sign printed with the Cedar Crest I created and it read, “The Kingdom of Cedar.” We hung it on the side of the building. I had a red carpet leading from the front door to the parking lot.

My husband ran our speakers out the front door. We downloaded the royal fanfare onto his iphone and he played the music loudly and announced each princess, "Princess Stephanie Lynn Harris of Westview," as they walked the red carpet. We had some family there to take pictures.

The limo picked up the birthday girl last. It brought her back to the royal banquet hall. All of the other princesses (guests) were there lining the red carpet as she was announced and walked the red carpet.

The princesses then went into the royal banquet hall. We took pictures with the birthday girl.

FOOD: Our party started at 1 PM, so we had a luncheon. We had chocolate covered strawberries, chocolate eclairs, cream puffs, chicken salad croissants, chips and ranch salsa from Chili’s, bacon and cream cheese pinwheels, and cream filled cupcakes with a pink chocolate butterfly on top. This was set up right before we picked up the princesses so it was ready when they got there. The food was made by my totally awesome cousins’ wife, Jennifer, who should be a caterer. She really outdid herself!

Chicken Salad Croissants

Bacon and Cream Cheese Pinwheels

Jennifer made these chocolate butterflies by hand.

The cupcakes had a Delicious frosting and were filled with white chocolate.

Look at these chocolate covered strawberries. YUM!

Paper Flower centerpieces

Diamond Confetti

GOODY BAGS: I bought satin organza drawstring bags for each princess to take home and filled them with real rings, earrings, necklaces. (I got 50 assorted rhinestone rings for $8 and necklace/earring sets for $1.25 each)  I ordered several lots of jewelry off eBay. Each princess was able to choose the rings she wanted and I had enough for them to have several. I bought 12 little crown pendants that said “princess” on them (.99 cents) and a chain for them to go on (2.33 for 30) rolo candy, and candy bracelets, rings, and necklaces from the dollar store. I placed the goody bags on the plate along with name tags.

The princesses opened these before we ate.

We just visited while we ate and then the birthday girl opened her presents.

 Each princess got the royal treatment! (Surprising note: Of all 12 princesses who came 7 of the guests had never ridden in a limo before, so it made it extra special)

Thanks!

Momma!