We are so privileged to be surrounded by so many beautiful beaches in Australia, aren’t we? There’s not a kid I know who doesn’t enjoy spending their summer swimming in the surf, rolling in sand and building sandcastles. Just add ice cream and you have the perfect day out!
For those lucky enough to be celebrating a birthday or special occasion during the warm summer months, a beach party theme is a fun way to turn everyone’s favourite day out into a party – whether it’s at the beach with a BBQ lunch, at home on the deck or by the pool. Just add umbrellas, bright zinc and away you go! Of course it doesn’t have to be summer to enjoy the beach either – turn up the heat indoors, get the deck chairs out and bring the outdoors in! Just like this fantastic set up by Party In A Package.
Beach Party – Party In A Package
Wherever you’re hosting a surfing or beach theme party or a pool party, we’ve sourced some great partyware and party supplies to help set the mood – just add sand!
Beach party invitations
Depending on the age group and event type, draw inspiration from marine life, retro surfboards, colours and props commonly used at the beach to bring together your theme.
Surfer Girl Invitation – Joyful Invitations
Ocean party invitation – Bonjour Berry
Vintage surf party invitation – Sassaby Parties
Beach Party Invitations – Joyful Invitations
Having a beach themed Christening or First birthday? Subtle nods to the beautiful colours like these gorgeous watercolour designs by Emma Smith Event Stationery add a more sophisticated touch.
Beach them wedding invitations – Emma Smith Event Stationery
Beach party decorations
When it comes to decorating your venue for a beach themed occasion, get creative with items you already have at home and would normally accompany you to the beach, add balloons and hey presto! We’ve found some fun items for adding colour, fun and style to your event from our LLC Vendors.
Styling by Sugar Coated Mama
Love these gorgeous summery colours together:
Oasis Fan Mix – The LIttle Event Company
Honeycomb Garland – Ruby Rabbit Partyware
Yellow Paper Fan – Emiko Blue
Tassel Garland – DD Brand
Teal jumbo balloon – Emiko Blue
Shark Splash Scatters – Fantasy Kids Parties
Teal Honeycomb Fancy – Poppies For Grace
Emoji sunglasses balloon – Favor Lane Party Boutique
Poolside confetti – Ruby Rabbit Partyware
This tablecloth provides the perfect base for a beachy themed dessert table:
Hessian Table Cloth – Saffy & May
You could also hire a table such as this (love the teal legs!) for a beachy feel. You can see it in use in the first beach party setup shared at the start of this post!
Trestle table with teal legs for hire – Petite Events Hire Sydney
Cute summery chairs for the kids will help style your kids party table:
Kids cane chair for hire – My Garden Party (Sydney)
Hessian Covered Stools – The Enchanted Party Hire (Qld)
Kid’s Yellow Stools – Little Giggles Party Hire (Melbourne)
Beach theme tableware
Colour blocking your tableware is a fantastic and easy way to achieve a coordinated beach theme. Incorpating a scened backdrop or props to complete the look around a seated table or dessert buffet, your guests will be transported to a sandy tropical island!
Striped Plates – The Little Event Company
Sunrise plates – The Little Event Company
Rollerskates and Rainbows plates – Ruby Rabbit Partyware
Yellow dessert plates – Hip and Hooray
Pastel ice cream cups – Emiko Blue
Sunshine Cups – Fantasy Kids Parties
Yellow Paper Straws – The Little Event Company
Love the beachy look of these napkins:
Mint Green Napkins – The Little Event Company
Outdoor Party Kit – The Kit Source
Beach theme cakes and desserts
The best part about a beach party? The BBQ picnic lunch of course! But this is a party, and it wouldn’t be a party without cake now, would it?
There are some seriously talented patissier’s out there who can make some clever dessert options to tie in with your theme. Think macaron crabs, summery themed desserts and fun surfboard cookies! Here is a sample but browse the Directory if you need someone specific in your location:
Beach themed cookies – Sweets with Love Sydney
Crab macarons – Arelio Sweetbox (sydney)
Beach themed cake – Sweetest Jubilee (Melbourne)
Beach themed cookies – Dous Dolce (Sydney)
Mini desserts – Velvetier (Qld)
Watermelon fudge pops – My Petite Sweets (Perth)
Create your own treats with this fun surfboard mould!:
Surfboard Chocolate Moulds – Confectionately Yours
A few extra accessories:
Turquoise Cupcake Baking Cups – Little Kite
Shell handpainted cupcake toppers – ELK Prints
Beach themed party favours
Send the little ones home with some treats in these beach coloured favour bags along with some fun beach themed favors:
Sunrise treat bags – The Little Event Company
Sweet soiree party bags – Emiko Blue
Yellow tin bucket – The Party Parlour
Thong notepad beach party favour – Children’s party supplies
Mini beach deck chair favours – The Little Big Company
Mini beach balls – Party Kit n Kaboodle
With summer well and truly on our doorstep now, this is such a fun theme for your next occasion and can really be as relaxed and casual as you like, with plenty of fun.
Surfs up!
Flamingos make SUCH a fun party theme or a great inclusion into a tropical or pool party, or even an Alice in wonderland party!
I love the influx of Flamingo party items out at the moment and on the blog you can find loads of Flamingo party inspiration in this Flamingo inspired 1st birthday shoot, Flamingo Dessert table and Tiki Flamingo party supplies board.
Today I’m sharing this fun Flamingo 2nd birthday party by Emma, mother of 2 who shares snippets of her life and loves on the blog Sophie and Millie
Emma used some fantastic Flamingo decor from various LLC partners and I loved how all the pieces worked together to create a casual, festive party! See the end of this post for the vendors involved as well as some fun Flamingo party supplies to help you recreate a fun flamingo fiesta!
When it came to organise Millie’s second birthday party Emma wanted to keep it (relatively) simple but had no idea what theme to choose.
As Emma explains:
“Then one day on instagram I saw a fabulous flamingo piñata from Party Pony Piñata. And it was a done deal! It helped that there are so many fabulous flamingo products on the market. Milly loved it and called it her “mingo party”
They decided on an afternoon tea celebration with their family and friends in their yard. Being January Emma was expecting lovely warm and sunny weather. Instead the weather forecast was for warm and stormy weather! After stressing all week about it, they thankfully got 2 hours of party in before the massive storm clouds rolled in.
The kids ran around, played in the cubby house and jumped on the jumping castle while adults enjoyed finger sandwiches and drinks watching them.
Such a cute celebration right? You just can’t go wrong with flamingos!
Thank you Emma for sharing – see more of Emma’s blog here!
See all the vendors involved below and then shop some fun Flamingo party supplies using the inspiration board and source list below!:
Vendor Credits:
Poppies for Grace – party hats, honeycomb decorations, flamingo temporary tattoos, feather garland
Party Pony Piñata – flamingo piñata and balloon with tassel
Ruby Rabbit Partyware – flamingo balloons, confetti balloons, pink/gold confetti, favour bags, dessert plates
Piccolo Studio – Invitations and other decorations
LoveLauren – Cake and biscuits
TasteeTreats4u – Cupcakes
Shop the party:
Want to plan your own Flamingo party? Shop these fun party supplies to bring it all together for your next kids party!:
Flamingo party supplies source list:
Flamingo balloon
Flamingo candles
Flamingo Cake topper
Feather garland
Flamingo pinata
Flamingo lollipop party favours
Flamingo napkins
Blush and gold flamingo balloons
Flamingo bunting
Flamingo invitation
With summer upon us, this theme is fantastic for any kids who love the beach or ocean and especially great for a pool party where you want more of a theme besides just a pool party!
You could base this party around blues and greens, along with another colour such as grey or something bright to go with a tropical feel such as red or yellow.
I have kept this post to mainly shark/scuba ideas although if you look into “Under the sea” parties online there are many more ideas out there which I’ll have to keep for another blog post!
Invitations/Printables
There are some great options available for this theme:
Under the Sea Jennifer Birkhead Designs invitation - Little Sooti
Shark printable birthday range - Frog Prince Paperie
Shark and Scuba printable range - Paper and Cake
Shark attack printable range - Slindb
Decorations
Being an ocean inspired theme there are many ways you could decorate for this party.
A ribbon backdrop would work well for a dessert table to give an ocean/seaweed feel in shades of blue/green ribbons. Or you could use streamers to create a seaweed effect as well. Include fish cut outs and other ocean inspired shapes hanging from the ceiling (jellyfish, seahorses etc)create the underwater feel.
Tropical fish cut outs - Lombard
Printable DIY fish paper garland - Happy Paper Hearts
A backdrop such as this one could also be used for the table or other area in the party:
Under the sea backdrop - Happy Time
The soft floaty look of pom poms would also work well into the decor for this theme:
Grass green Ah-Tissue pom poms - Piece of Cake Parties and Celebrations
Aqua Ah-Tissue pom poms - Piece of Cake Parties and Celebrations
These garlands remind me of an underwater world…
Tissue garlands - Inviteme
For something a little different (and lovely to hang up after the party) these shell swags look great and could be something you could make yourself:
Shell swag - Island Collections
Or use wall decals to set the scene and then easily transfer them to your child’s room after the party:
Scuba diving wall decal - Hakuna Matata Decor
Tableware
Love the colour of this tablerunner for an crystal clear water look:
Tiffany blue table runner - {P} is for Party
Or if you want to create the feel of a sandy ocean floor then you could use this Hessian tablecloth:
Dyed hessian cloth tablecloth - Occasion by Design
These paper eskimo plates come in the perfect colours for this theme:
Paper eskimo plates - Occasion by Design
Paper Eskimo apple green plates - Occasion by Design
A mix of aqua blue and green stripes make these straws perfect for an ocean inspired theme!
Aqua and green stripe straws - Sharnel Dollar Designs
The little ones will love to drink anything which have these shark fins floating in them!
Shark fin ice tray - Vivid Room
Sweet Treats
Shark fins are an easy shape to add onto any treats on your table – whether it be as cupcake toppers, or food flags. Here are some other items you could use for this theme:
Shark cookie cutter - The Spotted Apron
Sherbert blue baking cup - Sharnel Dollar designs
Shark cupcake toppers and wave wrappers - Giggle Bees
Shark Cupcake Toppers - Little Betsy Baker
Little blue jelly cups would work really well on your dessert table and I love these mousse pots to serve the jelly in which can be reused for many parties:
Mousse pots/jelly pots - Tracey Lau Art & Soul
A gorgeous teal colour cake stand (which comes in different sizes) is perfect for this theme!
Tall teal cake stand - Emerald and Ella
Themed items
Let the kids have some fun in a photo corner using a prop board such as this – perfect for a shark and scuba theme!
Shark prop photo board - Happy Time
Instead of party hats, these Shark hats would be fun to have all the little ones running around in!
Shark Hat - Echidnas on the Loose
Some ocean inspired/theme inspired toys are fantastic to keep the kids entertained. If you’re in Sydney these toys (and more ocean themed toys) are available to hire form Tiny Tots Toy Hire:
Octupus merry go round - Tiny Tots Toy Hire
Angel fish rocker - Tiny Tots Toy Hire
Or outside of Sydney you can buy some of these items which would be fun for any summer party in future anyway!
Great white shark rider blow up toy - Swim In
Dash n Splash shark bite ride - Mr Toys
Create the look of the ocean floor for all the little divers with shells, corals, sea urchins, star fish and more!
Baby sea urchins set - Boho beach
Or simple ocean bath toys could be used for fun kid friendly decorations (or party favours)
Sassy snap and squirt sea creatures - Baby Village
Use these shell placecard holders to hold your food labels! You can’t even tell they are placecard holders so you could display them in a nice vase after the party too:
Sea shell placecard holder - Pink Frosting
Use props around the party which double as birthday gifts for the shark and scuba loving birthday boy or girl. Using 2 water bottles you could create a scuba tank prop as well.
Kids falcon snorkelling fins - Swimwear Shack
Large shark plush - Teddy Treasures
Hang a sign such as this (which you could also make yourself) around the party area:
Shark sign - Australiana Online
Another item which could help work with an underwater theme such as this, is a Bubble Machine. This one is available for hire in Sydney from Tiny Tots Toy Hire, or outside of Sydney you can find them online and in most department stores:
Bubble machine for hire - Tiny Tots Toy Hire
Favours
A few cute favour ideas for this party:
Schleich scuba smurf - Playdex
These snorkel kits are quite affordable and could be given to the kids to use if you were having a pool party as part of this theme, to use during the party as well:
Kids swim mask and snorkel set - Epools
Or perhaps some swimming goggles which they can reuse many times:
Zoggs junior swin goggles - Rebel Sport
Grey shark bath gel - Parties and Gifts
Set of 4 fishy soaps - Bubble Lane
Shark plastic toys - Australian National Maritime Museum
For packaging I love the wave effect on these lovely scallop boxes:
Scallop boxes - Sweet Little Birdy
For a beach/sandy feel these 2 options would work well filled with something delicious:
Cloth bags - The Party Studio
Corked bottle - The Party Studio
Real Parties
Lots of fantastic ideas in this Shark and Scuba party featured on Hostess with the Mostess
This Shark party is filled with DIY ideas, featured on the Celebrations at Home blog
Lots of under the sea ideas in this party and the backdrop demonstrates a great way of creating an ocean feel. Featured on the Celebrations at Home blog
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I hope that has given you ideas if you are planning a party for this theme, or generally a pool party or ocean inspired party! There is so many things you can do and I am sure all the little ones will love feeling like they are under the ocean at this party!
