Princess Birthday Party Ideas: Disney Food, Decorations, and Activities

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When our daughter turned one, we threw her an amazingly large shindig.

In retrospect, I cannot believe how elaborately I planned the one birthday she will never actually remember.

But, I wanted her to have a special day, and in the event she grows up to hate Disney princesses (oh, what a travesty!), I got to throw at least one Disney princess birthday party for her!

Thanks to brainstorming, Pinterest researching for food ideas, making many visits to craft stores, I threw a pretty awesome Disney princess birthday party. 

Here’s everything I did to make the day special!

Disney Princess Party Attire

First, I had my daughter dress up like Snow White since she really is the “fairest of them all.”

Possibly the baldest also. (I had skin cancer while pregnant with her, so we always over-protect our pale, bald child from the sun!)

Her birthday came soon after Halloween, so I snagged a clearance outfit and then made the cutest little headband from red, sequined elastic ribbon and a sequin iron-on bow.

Princess Birthday Party Food Ideas

Here are the princess-themed food ideas I put together. (As I mentioned, many of these were my original ideas, but some came from Pinterest inspiration!)

1. Tiara sandwiches

Made from chicken salad and cream cheese with strawberry jelly and cut with a fun cookie cutter.

2. Cinderella’s Carrots and Belle’s Broccoli

Made with ranch sour cream dip…because veggies are much tastier with dip!

3. The Gray Stuff Dip

This was just a dark black bean hummus I got from Kroger. I’ve also seen similar hummus dips at Walmart and Target.

4. Chip’s Chips

Pictured above with the Gray Stuff, this is pretty much just chips and some pretzels thrown in also.

5. Fairy Godmother’s Magic Wands

These were grapes with blackberries and raspberries skewered on sticks.

6. Ariel’s Fish Friends

These were vanilla cupcake goldfish because our local grocery store (I’m looking at you, Kroger) only had expired pink princess goldfish on the shelf.

7. Cinderella’s Mice Friends

These were just strawberries with white chocolate chips and mini chocolate chips for nose and ears and a toothpick for a tail.

8. Pumpkin Carriages

These were made with a stick up celery celery stuck into peeled clementines. (Peeling took forever, UGH!)

9. “Under the Sea Water” and Princess Punch

For beverages, we had “Under the Sea Water” with mint (get it?) and then a pink “Princess Punch.”

The punch was Sprite-based with Hawaiian punch and some pineapple juice.

Princess Party Utensils and More

I made little cute graphic labels for each food and put some faux diamond ribbon along the side of the island to make it look more deluxe.

I also got great princess plates, napkins, and straws, and even found matching placemats, snack holders, and a tiered cupcake holder to match the theme!

Also, I bought a package of Disney Princess gummies.

These went at the base of the cupcake holder before I put the cupcakes out.

Disney Princess Birthday Cupcake Ideas

Snow White-inspired cupcakes were dessert for the guests.

The first are blue cupcakes topped with yellow frosting and a card stock picture of Snow White’s upper body.

The other type are yellow cupcakes topped with blue frosting and red candy roses.  I’m so proud of myself for making these!

I was able to buy a pre-colored cake mix as well as colored frosting from Walmart.

This saved me from having to find the perfect Snow White colors.

I have a piping set that I bought for my daughter’s baby dedication that I used.  I put the frosting in a bag and set it in the fridge for a little while before piping it.

First Birthday Smash Cake

Baby girl got a rocking pink cake with Cheerios and Tomato Basil Lil’ Crunchies on it. Those are her favorite foods.

I joke you not, my child picked every single one of the Crunchies and Cheerios off the cake to eat and wouldn’t even touch the cake itself. Oh, how I wish I had that kind of self-control!

I guess it was a good thing that she didn’t overindulge in the cake–turns out she had a little reaction to something in the pink icing and got a rash!

Princess Party Decorations

I copy-catted a backdrop for the window using three Dollar Tree tablecloths and then added some princess sticker bling to the top.

Also, I bought an extra tablecloth for putting under baby girl’s chair when she was going to do her smash cake.

I like to be prepared, but it turns out regular dinner is messier than baby girl’s cake eating was.

My child also LOVES balloons we discovered, and she learned her 5^th word that day: “balloon.”

Because my windows were shorter than the size of the tablecloth, I had some leftover tablecloth. I tied each color in a bow and then tied one of the opposite colors around the center of the bow. I put these on the backs of the chairs around the table where baby girl would do her cake eating. They looked much classier in person than in the pictures where the clear tape doesn’t look so clear…

Princess Birthday Party Activities for Guests

I set up some pre-party activities for everyone while all the guests were arriving.

Here are the little stations around the dining room table:

First, I made a scrapbook for baby girl of her first year of life.

It took forever to make, but I was very proud of the finished product.

In the digital age of storing photos in online albums or creating photo books online, I just thought it would be nice to have something handmade to give my daughter when she grows up that I put a lot of love into.

I also had a photo album of my favorite pictures of her for everyone to look through.

Everyone also decorated a crown with stickers and bling when they came in to wear around.

At the end of the party, we took a group photo in our crowns.

I wanted to have some sort of time capsule, so I had everyone predict what they thought she would be when she grew up.

We plan to give the responses to her when she graduates high school.

It was hilarious to see the wide variety of responses!

I also had everyone sign a picture frame matting for her, and I later framed one of her photos from that day.

Princess Birthday Party Favors

I never throw a party without some sort of goodie bag.

Here’s what I came up with for princess party favors.

Inside each bag, I put Hershey’s Kisses (“True Love’s Kiss”), Ring Pops, and candy bracelets (“The Royal Jewels.”)

Everyone had a great time at baby girl’s birthday party, and I am glad to have it over with so I can spend my time planning our next shindig!

And lastly, something else that my husband and I did to help make special memories was to write her a note in a journal for her birthday this year.

We plan to give her this journal on her 18th birthday after we’ve written her a note every year.