A Willy Wonka Birthday Party for the WIN!

My lovely friend Pilgrim is colorful, creative and the world’s best mama! You’ve seen her fabulous illustrations (she designed our super amazing masthead—including the spooktacular October version!) but wait til you see this spectacular party she threw for her little man D, who was turning a grand old FIVE. I’m so thrilled to share with you, Draw! Pilgrim’s Magical Willy Wonka Party!

I think my favorite thing about this party is that with a little planning, and a defined color scheme, you can create something pretty spectacular faster than you can say  Oompa Loompa Loopety Doo! Let’s cut to the chase—we begin with the invitations. Pilgrim’s fun party invitations are a great play on the original! Here’s what she had to say about them:

“i started off “small” with the invitations. the obvious choice was to send out bars of chocolate with golden tickets! and who am i to question the obvious choice?! however i’m neither made of postage money or chocolate so i opted for 2D double-sided paper wonka bars that were cheaper and simpler to post. i made you a special printable version to use for your own wonka party, linked below! ask your print shop to print them double sided – printable front and printable inside: just fill in the party host, the location, time and date, your phone number and “RSVP by” date.”

How sweet! You can download your own! Yee haw! Pilgrim is always extremely generous with rad little downloadables….but back to the party!

For decor, Pilgrim did not disappoint. Her trademark vibrant color palette displayed beautifully with whimsical candies—both real and pretend. I love the mason jars “filled” with paper candy. Such a simple but effective touch! They are a great way to give added punch but let the real candies become the stars of the party!

“a tight color palette may not be the answer to all of life’s problems, but it helps parties look well put together with minimal effort and expense. turns out there’s not much chocolate brown party supply out there so i happily used the groovy pink/orange/yellow color scheme of the wonka bar packaging. you can make a big impact with a knock-out buffet display – let the food display be part of the decor: decorative AND delicious! i really lucked out finding a groovy striped plastic table cloth in those colors which served as the backdrop to the table AND the table cloth (it was long).”

~ Ze Delicious Menu ~

fizzy lifting lemonade

everlasting bubblegum cordial

(if you’re in australia, cottee’s make blue “gubble bum” flavored cordial)

ice water

chocolate crackles

birthday cake flavor rice krispie treats

chocolate+candy spoons

coconut strawberries

jelly slice

pretzels, chips, popcorn, mini candy bars, & lots and lots of candies!

M&M’s on chocolate cake is one of my all time favorite “festive but easy” decorating techniques. Of course Pilgrim does it one better by making a graphic design—the number 5. I LOVE this! And the square cake is so adorable.

I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Mr. D and the marvelous Pilgrim in person and I can tell you that they are awesome. He is adorably sweet and spunky and Ms Pilgrim is every bit as cool and lovely as you’d think she would be. So it should come as no surprise that they created one of the cutest and coolest parties I’ve ever seen! So often in these “fancy kiddo bday parties” the decor seems more for the parents than the children (I’m guilty of this myself….). And this party is so much fun for children AND grownups alike. Pilgrim, you are a clever clogs. I’ve only shown you a bit of her madness. You must go to draw! pilgrim to see the really fun games she drummed up as well! Let’s just say there is a game called “violet beauregarde’s blueberry balloon bonanza”.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MR. D! WE THINK YOU’RE COOLER THAN A GOOSE THAT LAYS GOLDEN EGGS!

39 thoughts on “A Willy Wonka Birthday Party for the WIN!

  1. There is so much to love here that all I can say is that I’m tempted to rip everything off and give the Peach a Willy Wonka birthday party!

    I love the use of stripes! And happy birthday Mr. D, you little cutie patootie!

  2. The decorations look great of course. Great idea…but is it correct that the entire menu for the birthday party consisted of CANDY?!? Was there no FOOD?

  3. Are the Invites to print up still available. I have been searching for my twins birthday and was very excited when I saw yours. Please let me know if there is any way I can get a downloadable version of the front and back of your invite?

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