Flashback Friday: Sporty Sport Birthday Styled Shoot

Jessie Whittleton
Aug 25, 2023
4 min read

This spring I had the opportunity to bring together a few of my favorite vendors and also some new ones that I loved meeting! While it wasn't for a wedding, it was for something pretty spectacular! A birthday party! If you know me well, you know I love a birthday party! I think celebrating another trip around the sun, growth, set backs, ups and downs deserve acknowledgement and celebration.

Kim, The Snap Happy Photographer, did not make it into many images, but she brought this vision to life and put many of the foundational pieces together of bringing this vision to fruition. She has been in touch with me over the year about working together and we made that happen in a big way. What a unique shoot this was! A sports themed party at The Alberta Sports Hall of Fame here in Red Deer. Specifically making one of The Halls murals of a dressing room into a true dressing room with the players! Isn't this perfection?!

Working with these vendors was a pleasure and the collaboration made my heart so happy! What made this even more amazing was we did this as a giveaway for an actual birthday and Beckett, his family and friends were amazing to work with. He truly had an unforgettable birthday! These sports fans showed up and meant all wearing their favorite jersey! From the vendor team, to the "models" this was some serious sporty fun!

The Alberta Sports Hall of Fame is truly a treasure in Central Alberta! What a blast for families and children of all ages and abilities to try out and learn about many different sports. This is an amazing location for a birthday party (clearly) but also family activities! Surrounded by parks, trails and Heritage Ranch, it is a place you will want to visit with the whole family!

The dessert, cake and lunch spread did not disappoint! Everyone was well fed and raving about everything. Having all these theme pieces come together through food was amazing. From the signage by Demi, to the sport themed cookies from Sugar and Spice Cookies and donuts from Stella Bean Sweets everything was spot on and delicious!

The rentals from Last Minute Rentals elevated the entire spread. Shout out to the team for helping put these plates and pieces together and stepping in to ensure everything came together on time!

Our gluten free treats were absolutely delicious from Grace Alyse Sweets! My personal favorite being the Cotton Candy Cookies! The popcorn from the The Popcorn Company was a huge hit and the party goers loved the popcorn truck!

The room itself is the perfect party zone! The mural adds an amazing backdrop to the entire experience. With lots of space for set up and eating it was a dream to make this space a haven for any sports fan, especially a bunch of seven year olds! The backdrop made and installed by Opal and Onyx Occasions was the perfect addition to add to our party theme and make the whole room come together.

Special shout out to iBrandit Digital for work on some of the graphics for our giveaway and Audacious Visuals for the videography of the big day!

With that there's nothing I love more than a party theme! Here are my top three must haves for a party to come together on theme!

1. Food - something in the food must tie into the theme. If it all does that's gravy! But,

having at least one is a great place to be! Our cake made by Stella Bean Sweets was a definite highlight for me as it pulled together cookies from Sugar and Spice Cookies and hit the theme out of the park!

2. Decorations - likely an obvious choice but often over looked. Simply bringing in one or two specific colors makes a huge impact on building the theme into any party. Further, using everything in that color or theme down to to the napkins and plates brings it all together. Major shout out to Demi who was a constant sounding board and creative mastermind on how we could tie in the theme in our signage and decorations. Not to mention the unreal champions mural she added to the party room at The Hall!

3. Focus piece - some parties have more than one focus piece! This could be a photo backdrop, balloon arch, welcome table or food spread. But, having at least one piece and making sure it is full on theme focus will drive home what's going on! We again, did have quite a few pieces. From the show stopping guest table, amazing dessert table to the champions mural. But the photo backdrop with the pops of colors and balloons was once of my favs! Shout out to Opal and Onyx Occasions. Working with them this spring and these awesome backdrops not once but three times was amazing. A definite show stopper!

Bonus: centralize to one area as much as possible. Having the above three in closer proximity saves time, effort and makes the theme come together beautifully! Stay tuned for next weeks final Flashback Friday Blog where I recap all the good stuff. If you happen to be a Kenny Chesney fan, you'll get it.

With love, your resident balloon lover!