I LOVE Valentines Day!! It’s one of my favorite Holiday’s…well ok..I say that about almost all of them, but I love a holiday that’s main purpose is to celebrate the ones we love! I mean really…how cool is that! Not to mention how stinking adorable everything for Valentines Day is. Pink, Red, Hearts, Polka Dots, Chocolate, Flowers, Adorable plush animals, I mean really…what’s not to love! Valentines Day is not just for couples either…there are lots of people in your life that you love and that deserve to know it and be reminded of it often!
The only bad thing about Valentines Day is that it comes off the heels of Christmas and right before Tax Day so money is usually a little tight for most people. Today I’m going to show you that you can set a fun and creative party table that will make people think you spent a fortune but won’t break the bank at all! That’s all something we can ALL LOVE…right?
First we start with the invitations. That’s were your inspiration for the entire party comes from in my opinion so it’s the most important piece. When I design a new set I always start with the invitation first and build the rest of the set around it. This one is from my Sweet Treats Valentines set available on my Etsy site. I’m of course bias and would LOVE for you to purchase my set for your party…lol…but if this one doesn’t work well with your taste or needs head on over to Etsy.com and search the huge choice of Valentines printables available. It’s a great cheap way to really have a unique invitation and dress up your table.
Now that your invitations are out we need to work on the table set up. I used the bottom part of a hutch that I have in my dining room and covered it with a white linen tablecloth. The backdrop I created using around 2 yards of fabric from my local fabric store. Use some thumbtacks to secure it to your wall and run an iron or steamer over it quick to give it a nice smooth appearance. Add your printable banner and you have a beautiful backdrop.
I chose a simple menu of valentines sweets and treats and looked for creative ways to display them.
I found these cute little mailboxes at Target in the Dollar Spot. When you add a bag of licorice to them you have an adorable and fun way to display it.
A jumbo bag of Smarties looks very cool stacked up on a long serving dish.
Using a tiny terracotta flower pot I took a bag of Valentines lollipops and arranged them to look like a pot of flowers.
Some homemade Italian pizzelle cookies filled with strawberries and topped with whipped cream look so much better with some of the printable party circles sticking out of the top.
I was always so intimidated by the fancy cupcakes I would see in magazines and on websites. Mine never ever looked like those, but once I made friends with a pastry bag and cupcake toppers my whole world changed!! I won’t be winning Cupcake Wars anytime soon but I can now make a cupcake that doesn’t look like a 4year old had made it..woot woot! I used a store bought cake mix and a can of store bought frosting. Using a pastry bag and a basic star tip I simply filled the bag with my icing and started piping it in a circle from the outside of the cupcake into the middle in a circular motion. Experiment with this and before long you will have a style that your comfortable with. If your store bought icing gets too runny as your working with it place it in the refrigerator for a little while to stiffen it up. Use some store bought sprinkles to add a little color to the tops. I found some adorable pink cupcake liners at Michaels and I placed them into those after I cooked the cupcakes in a normal liner. Then using my printable files I created two different styles of cupcake toppers and that’s it…piece of cake…well piece of cupcake :)
I needed a tall cupcake platter that would sit above the other items on my table to create a bit of height and make it easy to reach the cupcakes. The only problem was that my cupcake pedestal was not tall enough. I found a clear bowl that I had and flipped it upside down and was able to place my cupcake pedestal on top of that and it fit perfect! Since it was all clear and to me still looked like my bowl turned upside down I decided to fill it with something to take the focus away from the bowl shape. I had some extra Smarties so I mounded them up and placed the bowl over top of them. Pretty cute and now it doesn’t look like a bowl…yay!
Cute little mini coke glasses I found at the dollar store filled with a raspberry crystal light drink. White flexi straws with heart cutouts help carry your theme over to your beverages.
Wrap a bag of Hershey’s miniatures in your printable candy bar wrappers.
Printable Valentines set out on the table for the guest to right Valentines to each other give your guest an inexpensive thing to do to keep them busy as they munch their sweets.
Another $1 mailbox from Target was perfect to provide a place for all of the Valentines to be placed during the party. The host or hostess could then hand them out at the end of the party.
I love sock monkeys…they always make me think of my Grandma! She used to make them and give them away to people at the holidays. My girls received these from someone this year for Christmas and they happened to be pink…perfect little additions to the table don’t you think?
For favors I used some little hot pink take out containers I found at Hobby Lobby for a few dollars for a sleeve of them. You can fill them with candy or little trinkets or some yummy white chocolate popcorn mix. Using the photo tags or favor tags from your printables you can send them home with a personalized message.
The lesson today is you CAN have a beautiful party without breaking your budget! Think outside of the box and look around your house and see what you may already have that your could use in a new way.
Now, go celebrate someone you LOVE! Don’t wait to tell them…we’re not promised tomorrow!
Enjoy!
Candy
