party decor

I scream, you scream, we all scream for silver sparkles, disco balls, and ice cream! We love throwing fun styled summer parties, and this year’s concept was derived from a love of old time ice cream parlours, milky pastels and triple-scoop cones loaded with sprinkles. Of course it wouldn’t be a party without a little bit of glitter, so we gave our theme a disco twist! With pretty sweets and a swoon-worthy ice cream cake from our local favourite bakery, and custom party supplies by Lampshade Bash, tiny disco balls and succulent favours were the cherry on top of a perfect party. Whether you’re celebrating a birthday party or a bachelorette, we highly recommend you break out your favourite silver dancing shoes and throw a disco ice cream social of your own.

And in case you missed it, see more of the shoot on Glitter Guide!

Photography by Scarlet O’Neill

Styling and Direction by Paige Boersma of Bicyclette and Alyssa Garrison of Random Acts of Pastel

Treats by Bake Shoppe

Decor by Lampshade Bash

Party Supplies via Meri Meri

Tassel Garlands by Studio Mucci

Printed Materials by Alex Perlin

Select clothing provided by Pastel Dress Party

When Birchbox first asked team RAOP to decorate their upcoming customer appreciation event (and by “team RAOP I mean me and Johanna), I’ll admit I was a little nervous. Though I’ve styled a lot of spaces for party shoots, I hadn’t really ever done an actual full-scale party with strangers who would be actual guests, and it seemed pretty daunting to take on. Luckily, I believe pretty strongly in jumping in with both feet, so I agreed to the challenge, and Johanna and I immediately got to work.

We wanted to come up with a cute theme for our decor plan, so we settled on “you’re a gem”, because really, all of you truly are something special! We put our heads together and came up with some sparkly DIY projects, like folded paper gems and mini gem pinatas (posts with instructions coming in the next couple of weeks), and created a glittery pastel sugar drink rimmer blended with pastel pop rocks for the strawberry mojitos the bar was serving. We dipped mason jars in silver glitter to serve as vessels for the flower arrangements (again, DIY on its way), and bought our weight in blooms at the local flower market. In the end it all came down to a bit of a scrambled mad dash that involved me in high heels on the ladder holding onto a pipe with armfuls of pinatas, but when 6pm rolled around Wednesday night everything looked pretty much perfect.

With glitter and glue all over our faces and hands we spent the evening meeting new friends, snacking on the most delicious finger food, and talking beauty products of course! Birchbox is such a fun and creative company, and I’m always so excited to see what they’re creating and featuring (if you don’t have a monthly subscription yet, do it. Like now.) There was a nail painting station and a spot for beauty touch ups, and it was such a treat to finally meet the whole team (and Ania B!) in person. By the end of the evening, Johanna and I were already planning our trip to the Birchbox store in New York.

Birchbox – The Box is Monthly, the Beauty & Grooming Possibilities are Endless! Sign up for just $10/month.