Hola! Well after a brief blog hiatus, I’m back and wanted to share some snaps of a fun party I decorated a few weeks ago. My partner’s 30th! We’re celebrating it with a holiday to Mexico & the USA in a few weeks time, but we decided that for one night only we’d bring the crazy, lively spirit of Mexico to us!!!
The night turned out to be a riot of colour, Day of the Dead skulls, more tacos than you could poke a piñata stick at, a bucket load of tequila and a feast of hilarious get-ups!
The lead up to the event was mental and we went a little nuts with the decorations, many made by hand of course. The word of the day had to be ‘garland’, I suspect.
Tissue pom pom garlands in colours from Mexico’s flag and strings of red chilli peppers brightened up the backyard. Pretty tissue balls in assorted colours and sizes hung from the ceiling.
We customised Lorna Love’s fabulous free skull printable with Day of the Dead patterns and strung them up as garlands around the room. Her amazing acrylic skull print featured prominently too (thank you Lorna)!!!
The DIY photo booth props were from a cute little store on Etsy, with the Polaroid camera getting a good work out. I sourced the most amazing genuine hand cut tissue Mexican Papel Picado banners from eBay, so beautiful that I haven’t had the heart to take them down.
There were piñatas, of course, pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey and a cactus cake. Recycled Spanish olive, paprika and tomato tins made beautiful vases with blooms that exploded with colour. Vases were filled with red, green and orange peppers. My colourful terra cotta pots made friends with chilli plants and yuccas. We recycled the tin cans left over from all the beans we used for the Mexican feast, strung them with neon builders line and viola they became beautiful lanterns to line the entryway.
Everything in sight was either moustachio’d or sombrero’d, including the flying ducks on the wall.
I can’t even begin to describe the effort and beautiful presentation by our creative culinary caterer, Coralie Astrinakis, or should I say Frida Kahlo! You seriously flaw me every time I witness your magic in the kitchen!! Mini servings of bean salad, nachos in gorgeous little cups, spanish meatballs, tacos, fajitas, guac, sweet corn, paella… You nailed it!! Muchos gracias!!!
Giant cacti, traditional Mexican blankets and a rams scull, all courtesy of The Prop Store, completed the fiesta feel.
But best of all were the costumes that everyone went to so much trouble putting together!!! We had appearances from the Mexican Soccer Team, Frida Kahlo, Day of the Dead girls, sexy señoritas, dodgey drug lords, luche libre wrestlers, mariachis, a mariachi Puss in Boots, Zoro, Amigos, Speedy Gonzales, a giant chilli, life-size piñatas, tequila bottles, the tequila worm, a salt bottle, and Cheech & Chong (giant scoop included).
A fun night and understandably many a tequila hangover the next day. I can’t wait to see what the real Mexico has in store for us…
