Flower & Garden Festival Birthday Party

Last year, the opening of flower and garden festival fell on my birthday weekend, so I thought it would be the perfect inspiration for my 24th birthday celebrations. I haven't attended Flower & Garden at Epcot but it's on my bucket-list. Until then, I had fun bringing the magic of flower & garden home. This was such a fun theme to put together and it could also be used for a bridal shower, baby shower or even just as a fun way to celebrate the beginning of spring.

The Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival is an annual garden festival at Epcot in Walt Disney World Resort. The Festival takes place in the spring, typically from early March through late May. The festival is known for creating visual displays out of plants and flowers as well as amazing topiaries of classic characters. Flower & Garden isn't just about the flowers, it's also about the food. Many recipes are inspired by bright colors and flavors that come from the garden. For Disney Lovers Flower & Garden is one of the most welcome signs of spring.

Invitations

I could have just texted my friends an invite, but I just love invitations. Who doesn't love to receive something fun in the mail and it makes such a cute keepsake from the party. I always make sure to keep at least one invite for myself because its a fun memory to look back on and maybe one day I will add them to a scrapbook.

I couldn't find the perfect invitations for my party so I had fun designing my own. I wanted to make sure the invite captured both flowers and Disney in the design.

When I found this quote from Walt Disney I knew I had to include it on the back of the card. "Growing old is Mandatory, Growing up is Optional." This quote is basically my life moto. The older I get the more I love and appreciate magic. Adults can have magical Disney themed birthdays too!

Decorations

For my decorations I made three statement pieces. First, I made the Happy Birthday banner that I hung behind the table.

To make the banner I got poster sheets that had a wood grain pattern on them and assorted fake flowers. I used the back of a cereal box to create a template for my banner. I printed out the letters from word using a really large font and then cut them out using an Exacto knife and glued them to the banner. Then I arranged an assortment of fake flowers at the top of each letter, one big flower in the center of two smaller flowers. I used tape to attach string to the back of the banner.

For the table I also bought an artificial grass table runner from efavortmart.com to really bring the garden vibes indoors. I used the same assortment of flowers in all the decorations I created to tie everything together and I scattered the remaining flowers on the table.

Topiaries are one of the Main Attractions at Flower & Garden so I knew I had to include a Topiary in my garden party. For my topiary I made Minnie Mouse with a flower crown. It was the perfect center piece for my party and I left it out as Décor all spring. Check out my tutorial to make your own here.

The last décor piece I made for this party was a Floral Minnie Mouse Wreath. I hung this wreath over my food table. I will create a tutorial for this wreath some time but it was really simple to create. I took one large embroidery hoop and two small embroidery hoops and hot glued them together to make a Minnie Silhouette. I then arranged and hot glued flowers around the top edge to create a flower crown.

Menu

For my Menu, I was inspired by garden fresh flavors & colors. To fit with the garden party theme I decided to create a scone bar for lunch.

I made three types of mini scones: Lemon Scones, Classic English Tea Scones & Cheddar & Chive Scones and assortment of sweet and savory scone toppings. Scones are best fresh but I premade the scone dough a week in advance and plastic wrapped the scones and put them in the freezer so all I had to do the day of was bake them.

For the savory scones I put out ham, turkey & assorted sliced cheeses and cream cheese so people could make their own mini scone sandwiches. Cheddar & Chive Scones with cream cheese is one of my favorite savory scone combinations.

Sweet scone toppings included homemade lemon curd and raspberry curd. I also put out strawberry jam & honey

I served fresh fruit salad and veggie cups as sides. I placed little paper cups inside mini flower pots, inside the bottom of the cups was ranch dressing. This was such an easy idea and perfect for a garden party lunch.

What's a birthday party without cake! These little flower pots are actually editable cupcakes. You can bake terracotta pots in the oven. I put cupcake liners inside the little pots and filled them with chocolate cupcake batter after baking I frosted them with a Russian piping tip to make the easiest little flowers. Not only where they sweet to eat but they where a cute centerpiece to add to my table.

I also have to have frosted sugar cookies at all my parties because they are so much fun to frost to match any theme. I love all the floral details on this sugar cookie set. My favorite cookies are the Minnie's with floral bows and the Castles with vines and flowers.

One of the most popular drinks from Flower & Garden Festival is violet lemonade. So I created my own lemonade bar. I made fresh lemonade and got flavored syrups for my friends to customize their own lemonades. For my floral flavor I choose to go with rose. Raspberry rose lemonade was my favorite combination. They syrups do add some sweetness to the lemonade so I recommend halving the sugar in your lemonade recipe.

My parties are always an excuse for me to dress up. Emily has always been my partner in crime when it comes to dressing up and planning parties. She helped me bring my vision of this party to life. My garden party dress was inspired by Ariel and Emily borrowed my Rapunzel dress.

These memories have been extra special to look back on because a few weeks after my birthday the world locked down due to COVID. I didn't know that that would be my last memory of normal. I'm so thankful I was able to make these memories with some of my favorite people.

I hope this post inspires you to bring the magic of Epcot home and celebrate your own flower and garden festival this year.

Love,

Meredith Joy