In this post, you’ll find everything you need in order to throw an enchanted forest-themed birthday party!
My baby turned one! I can’t believe it. Time went by so fast. But who am I kidding? I’ve had this theme in mind for like six months already.
I made this her first birthday party and cake smash theme but the theme really works for any age.
Here is everything that you need to throw the most magical enchanted forest birthday party for girls!
Get Inspired
The very first step when it comes to planning the party is to get inspired! If you’re not in love with the theme then it’s going to be hard to get everything together. But when you love the theme it makes planning so easy and fun.
What usually happens to me is that I will see one thing that really catches my eye and I plan the party completely based on that.
That item for this party was these Meri Meri mushroom plates.
After I saw these, I went down an enchanted forest theme rabbit hole. I really wish I had incorporated more mushrooms, gnomes, and slugs. I wanted more of a mossy vibe, but it was cute regardless.
As an aside, everything that Meri Meri has is so next-level cute and unique for birthday parties. They have things for a bunch of different themes. They can honestly take all my money but that’s beside the point.
When I was on their amazon page, I also found these cute butterfly plates so I decided to get both and do half and half.
Find the perfect outfit
We found this super cute dress on amazon. And I was trying so hard to find the perfect headband to match it. I wanted ethereal purple woodland vibes. Well, google did a good job listening to me because an ad popped up for this headband from Milk Monster Kids and I was totally obsessed.
Amazon has a pretty good selection of cute cake smash dresses. I like buying them from Amazon because they are inexpensive and it’s not as big a deal if it gets ruined. I also like to see all of the reviews to see how it’s going to fit.
Plan some enchanted forest theme activities
We were actually on vacation at my parent’s cabin in the woods (perfect setting!) for the party and we were only planning on having slightly older children attend, ages 2-8.
We gave out the party favors (details below) at the beginning of the party just so that the kids would have a way to entertain themselves.
The party was held outdoors so it wasn’t too difficult to keep the kids occupied. But here are some activity ideas that would be perfect for an enchanted forest-themed birthday party!
Bubbles
If you’re doing an outdoor party, then a bubble machine like this is a great thing to kind of just have run the whole time. Kids love bubbles and honestly, who doesn’t? We had a bubble machine running and in the party favors, we had little bottles of bubbles so the kids could join in on the fun.
Fairy Wings/ Enchanted Forest Dress Up
We bought these cute fairy wings.
Our party was not exclusively a girl’s party. In fact, the friends we invited were primarily boys. I thought, okay well the girls will dress up in the wings and the boys will just like find sticks in the woods and be happy.
But actually, the boys ended up wearing the wings too and were pretending to be some sort of evil blue fairy. The point is boys can find a way to have fun with wings too, so don’t worry if the party isn’t all girls.
Party Favors/ Goody Bags
This was another aspect of the party that I was really excited about!
My friend made me a cute gift bag like this when we went on vacation to visit them. And I was thinking omg I’m totally going to steal that for the enchanted forest party.
Everything to make the party favors is from amazon. Except for the things inside, which I think I got from Target or Walmart in the little party section.
You can get the gold leaf ribbon here.
You can get the gold butterfly cutouts here.
And the bags themselves are in different colors here.
But aren’t these so cute?! My friend just keeps these things around to give out to people as a little gift. She’s really extra. But honestly, I’ve started keeping them around too, just in case we have a birthday party we are going to and need to throw a gift bag together really quick.
Cake (For Smashing)
Since we were in the middle of nowhere I decided to DIY our cake smash. Setting up your own cake smash is so fun and surprisingly easy.
We made a cake for smashing and a cake for eating and we actually did them on different days.
We made separate cakes because I don’t think anyone wants to eat a cake that a baby has just been elbow-deep in.
I did the cake smash on a different day than the actual party to try and make it more of a photoshoot where we could snap cute pictures. With my first child we did it at her party and I just really didn’t get any pictures, which is ultimately what I wanted.
I usually say don’t knock it ’til you try it but I think that I would feel kind of weird if I was eating a cake in front of 30 people taking my picture. But that’s just me.
I watched videos on youtube of how to make my own cake, but you could really just get a store-bought cake and add some cute toppers to it and it will turn out just fine.
Or I saw this hack one time where you scrape off the icing and can make the store-bought into a DIY naked cake.
Here is a recipe for an easy “healthy” cake if you wanna go that route!
Then just throw on some toppers and your cake is ready! We got these super cute butterfly toppers off of amazon.
Build a set for the cake smash
We did our cake smash photoshoot just like on the floor in the woods but you could do it anywhere, even in your home.
To make a background in your home you can take a white sheet or white tablecloth and secure it to the wall and floor. This will give you a plain background that you can decorate however you like.
I got most of our set supplies from Hobby Lobby. They in general have really cute woodland-themed items. And they are typically a LOT cheaper than whatever you find online. We got acorns, the eucalyptus vine, and butterfly cutouts all from Hobby Lobby.
Here are some alternatives in case you want convenience over cost:
If you have a professional camera then you can totally use that.
I always use my phone just because I’m not a professional photographer and the portrait mode turns out really really good without needing any sort of prior knowledge or setup.
I’m big about being able to take quality pictures on your phone without paying people a ton of money for high-quality photos.
Cake (for eating)
We made the eating cake more or less the same as the cake for the cake smash. We had leftover butterfly toppers so we just used those again.
I also decided to make cake pops because honestly, I was just craving cake pops.
They look really cute and are good for small children at parties because it’s a little bit easier to regulate their cake portions. And they’re fun like a lollipop. Overall, beloved by all.
Party Decor
The last step and arguably the most fun is to get decor for the party.
We got a lot of our decor from Hobby Lobby and Walmart.
Hobby Lobby had really cute butterfly cutouts, acorns, all of that kind of stuff. Walmart has really cheap balloons and DIY balloon garland kits. Or you could order a balloon garland for the party.
We also just got some wildflowers from the store (Trader Joe’s has the best flowers) and scattered them around.
We also printed out all of my baby’s monthly milestone pictures (I’m not crying, you are) and scattered them around the table. I’ve seen people put them in little place card holders or on a little rustic wooden display.
You can get really creative with this step and I’d love to see what everyone comes up with!
I hope you found some decent inspiration to throw an enchanted forest-themed birthday party! Our daughter’s party was magical and I know yours will be too!
