Another year older, another year wiser, another chance to plan an amazing birthday party! Every coming birthday is a fantastic chance to change it up, start fresh, and celebrate with those you love. Every birthday is a marking point of where you have been, but more importantly where you are going. Whether you have been in love with Beauty And The Beast since childhood or just now having a passionate love affair with Paris, it seems that you have landed on making this year’s birthday une fete Parisienne!
Now… we have who the party is for – you, and the reason for it – your birthday. Unfortunately, I cannot really help you with the other essentials such as time and place and invite list. But! I can help you with important things such as a French-inspired gift wishlist, your outfit, invites, birthday cake and additional sweets, centerpieces and other decor, and entertainment such as movies, music, and games!
Maybe because I am a mix between Belle and Amy Santiago, but I have developed the habit of connecting what my gift wishlist is with my overall theme. It is a fun and festive way to bring your guests into the whole motif. If the list below doesn’t tickle your fancy, you can look through Amazon and Etsy with key phrases like “Paris”, “Effile Tower”, “Macaron”, “French Antiques” or “French Perfume”, and “Beauty And The Beast” or “Cinderella” if those are your favorites.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/918634898/french-lavender-shea-butter-soap
These beautifully smelling and beautifully unique soaps are 100% artisan. They are cut to the thread and are packaged by hand with great care. The shop owner uses shae butter and castor oil for each soap batch. Shea butter is a great ingredient for softening skin, and it also has anti-inflammatory and healing properties. Castor oil also has anti-inflammatory properties and also reduces eye bags as well! But they also use lavender and its essential oil, which is a great regenerator of skin cells, yes for anti-acne treatments and/or dehydrated skin. But! It is suitable for all skin types.
https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/8138452-macarons-style?store_id=175109
French macarons have become a staple of the aesthetic. If you haven’t had them before, they are absolutely delicious and come in a wide variety, from traditional to weirdly funky flavors! (I will be linking a shop below you can order from that arrive in a timely manner and as fresh as can be.) So, why not bring le petit, delightful, sweet treats into your wardrobe? Available in different styles and colors, the pastel print of various macarons is cute and flirty and perfect with jeans or a tutu skirt!
https://anaiscandle.com/products/anais-venus-candle
This candle has gone viral on Instagram in a few different communities and I can totally see why! This beautiful interpretation of the famous Venus De Milo statue is perfect for any bedroom, bathroom, or office. Plus! Anais candles are handmade and refined by experienced New York City sculptors with mindful ingredients, such as beeswax and soy wax. They are organic, ego-friendly, and sustainable, standing at about 7 inch height.
It’s your birthday so wear what you want to! Whether it is jeans and a tee-shirt or something fit for a Paris runway, your day is the perfect reason to go all out. Though you could put a dress code on the invite, you could also reach out to your guests about what you’re wearing and encouraging them to have fun with it too!
https://jbunzie.com/products/princess-sweater
I totally have a girl-crush on JBunzie and she is an amazing inspiration for all things vintage and princessy! Her YouTube videos and posts on Instagram can help with any girl’s dream of revamping their wardrobe or apartment. Currently, her Princess ♡ sweater comes in Tiffany blue, (but she is hoping to release more colors soon). With ribbing at the collar, cuffs, and waistband, the pull-over sweater is a 80% cotton and 20% polyester blend fleece. This would be perfect with a pair of high-waisted, light-wash jeans, pearl earrings, and a cream beret!
https://www.unique-vintage.com/products/1940s-ivory-floral-lace-fit-flare-dress
A little dressy, a little casual, this is the perfect in-between for every occasion, including your birthday! This 1940’s inspired fit and flare dress is elegant and beautiful in its lace design. Danity but also a little bohemian, with a gathered collar and sheer long sleeves that drop into smocked cuffs. This would be the perfect dress to accompany a vintage-inspired hairstyle and the use of French perfume.
Talk about Vintage Parisian! Out of the pages of Vogue, from the runways of Paris, this dress is absolutely stunning and perfect for this year’s birthday une fete Parisienne. It features a sweetheart neckline, wide shoulder straps, empire waist, tulle overlay on the skirt, and lace-up back. The black details set off the beautiful ballet pink fabrics and the pearl accents make it all come together elegantly. (I bought this myself because I couldn’t pass it up; hopefully, I’ll be able to wear it to Epcot in October and eventually to Paris!)
Confession: I am a bit of a traditionalist. I love the idea of etiquette, doing things in a proper way, and find things like invitations to be totally classy. Though in this modern age e-vites can be such as beautiful and special, here are three French-inspired invites you could deliver to your guests:
Can’t go wrong with a vintage-inspired invite. Taking queues from the Vintage Parisian aesthetic or Cottagecore, it is a beautiful, elegant, and sophisticated choice that could match many different specifics in your dress, decor, and food. Pastels and metallics are a great combination here, and using cursive writing is always pretty.
Fun Fact: “Oh la la” means “Oh dear” in French! (But to say “Oh, my dear” is “Oh, mon cher”.)
This invite plays on the stereotypical themes of French and Parisian aesthetics being rather feminine. Dainty foods, fresh roses, stunning fashion, and romantic places… using these motifs is a great way to showcase what is in store for your birthday.
Ahhh, Paris… Paris, Paris, Paris. The most iconic thing in Paris? The Effile Tower! As seen in almost every French movie, it even shows up in the “Be Our Guest” scene in Beauty And The Beast. The Effile Tower is an efficient and effective way to tell everyone it’s going to be a French party!
Candles, no candles, doesn’t matter – what is a birthday party without a cake? “Let them eat cake!” right? Whether it’s homemade, a sheet cake, or a custom-made one from a local bakery, it is a birthday staple that can easily be decorated to fit any theme! To have a variety, though, you can always have extra cupcakes, and what French party could be complete without macarons?
Now, this is in theme with the French lavender soaps, the lace dress, and the vintage invites. Very French countryside, it is slightly rustic while still being feminine and delightful. With pastel colors and fresh flowers, it is a small tiered cake that is perfect for a non-candle celebration.
This is a great way to bring in a variety of cake flavors for all your loved ones! The tiered cake can be as specific as you want it to be for your birthday, but the cupcakes can be a simple vanilla and chocolate mixture, with maybe a few spice cake. To intertwine with the romantic French theme, they can be decorated with roses!
(Macarons are the little cookies depicted above and macaroons are larger cookies with coconut.)
Hopefully, there is a bakery near you that makes macarons. That way you can pick out the flavors and have them fresh! But, if that’s not the case, here is a website I have used before!
You can order the variety box, you can choose your own flavors and make your own box, or you can look at what they have whipped up for special occasions, (such as Valentine’s Day)! They have traditional flavors but funky flavors based on candy bars and cereal.
Kitchen, dining room, living room, outdoor patio… whatever space you do have can always be transformed! Centerpieces don’t have to be just for weddings, balloons don’t have to be just for kid’s parties, and a photo wall is one of the newest staples of modern celebrations.
https://www.venusetfleur.com/pages/maison
Venus Et Fleur is one of the leading companies in the Eternity Rose market! Curated by floral design specialists at our bespoke atelier in New York, each arrangement is chic and sourced from our lush, vibrant rose fields of Ecuador. Personally, I have three of the vases pictures above with the colors lavender, lilac, and red! (I also have their classic buddle in white with pink roses.) Whether it is from the Maison collection or their signature collection, a Venus Et Fleur bouquet is the perfect centerpiece that will last for years!
In all your years, balloons have been remodeled and redesigned to be elegant, festive, and even a little avant-garde. Target even has arch packs that contain multiple balloon colors, with faux ivy and roses! It is the perfect thing to display over your sweets or gift table.
Now, this is where you can have some freakin’ fun! It is super easy to drape some fabric or put some wallpaper over cardboard and then add some decorations. Balloons, flowers, an image of the Effile Tower or a chandelier, you could make a ballet-inspired wall, or something akin to a scene from Romeo And Juliet. Some awesome props to provide could be the Venus Et Fleur bouquets, a lacey parasol, or fake pearls! It will be a great way for everyone to record the amazing memory that is your birthday.
What’s a party without there being some form of entertainment? And what’s a birthday party without some games? Movies, music, and board games are always a good choice in my book, and here is a way to keep them within the French theme.
Followers of the Vintage Parisian aesthetic seek to emulate movie stars such as Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe, as well as some modern hyper-feminine characters and celebrities such as Blair Waldorf and Ariana Grande. So! Movies like Breakfast At Tiffany’s and Some Like It Hot would be interesting for those who want a minute to sit relax or just as general background noise. Other good moves that take place in France are French Kiss (1995), Beauty And The Beast (2017), and Amelie (2001).
A tragic love story in turn of the century Paris, where a man following his heart into the Bohemian Revolution falls in love with the Sparkling Diamond of the Moulin Rouge… an amazing musical featuring Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman? What more can you ask for! Given that the music for the entire film is an audio collage of really famous songs, it is the perfect playlist for a French-inspired birthday party!
The Effile Tower, the Arc De Triomphe, the Louvre, cafes, macarons, baguettes, French perfumes, berets, poodles, Beauty And The Beast, Cinderella, a Parisian girl… and the list goes on! Though you may have to write all the ideas on little slips of paper charades style, it is totally do-able to make a France specific Pictionary list!
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