Real Parties in Dubai: Baby Einstein Themed First Birthday

One of the top Google search keywords that has been bringing a large number of visitors to my blog is planning and organising parties in Dubai, thanks to a post I had written on the subject a while ago.  

This insight has led to the birth of a brand new section on the eve of my blog’s third anniversary  =D. My dear readers, I am super excited to introduce ‘Real Parties’, a column dedicated to all those people looking for some real inspiration and local vendor details, to showcase creatively organised real parties in the country, and the region, to inspire and assist you in planning your next event.

To kick start this series, I have an awesome Baby Einstein themed party that Sarika Aidasani threw to celebrate her son, Ranveer’s first birthday. Sarika left no stone unturned to ensure her son, her family and their guests have a fabulous time. Below she gives us an overview of how she went about putting this wonderful party together. She has also very kindly shared vendor details that I have summarized at the end of the post.

 
I have loved organising events for the longest time I can remember. It all started off with social events such as Diwali parties, weddings, annual galas and then professionally moved on to corporate events (as part of being a PR consultant).

For Ranveer’s party, I chose the theme ‘Baby Einstein’ since in the last one year, he has lived by these DVDs. We have used it to cheer him up, to distract him, to keep him calm and what not. So I thought why not this be the theme?

Once my venue was decided, Gloria Hotel, I got started on the invite. My friend Deepti Rupaney Taimni (DR Design Co.), a well known graphic designer in Dubai, made me a design that worked perfectly with the theme.

While the invites were distributed, I was still working on the return. It took me the longest to decide these. I finally found the return that I liked. It was an imprint kit, a photo frame (gift supplied by Customise Me: 055 6563141 & packaged by Treasure Box: 050 7646362). I wanted to give something personalised but it was not easy to personalise the frame as I think it would damage it. So I decided to make stickers of each child with their full name and initial, which they can use on anything such as giving gifts, on their stationery and/or any belongings. I have had great feedback from my guests, so glad many of them really liked it.

Then the cake - this was simple. I didn’t want to take any chances, so I got it from Choco’a. I had tried and tested them several times and was very pleased with the cake when I saw it.

 
So now that the main things were sorted, I had to decide on an entertainment company and the options I’d like to offer my guests. For this, I felt, let’s stick to the basics. You can never judge a child’s mood and to try and do something totally different could be a bit risky. Hence, I went for the basic games, bouncy castle, face painter, hair braiding, tattoos, balloon bending, bubble machine and a soft play area for the little ones. Ranveer wasn’t walking then, so I wanted to make sure that there is something for his age group too.

I rented all of my entertainment from Crash and Castles (+971(4)3948422) who also helped me to do the décor. For the soft play, I stumbled upon Toys On Rent, really a life saver as I didn’t have all these toys and in this size. It was so very convenient. They dropped it off and picked it up.

There were special balloon arrangements made to serve as centerpieces on each table.

We also added little print outs of Ranveer’s party theme at the back of each chair instead of balloons.

I even made separate passage ways for entrance and exit as I didn’t want people to come in and leave from the same place and had placed roll up banners at all possible points to guide the people coming into the hotel.This made it easy to lay out the gift table (receiving) and organise the return gift table (done alphabetically).

All of this has been beautifully captured in pictures by the photographers I had at the event. I had a photo studio set up, done by Imprint Design, which was a chance for all guests to experience professional photography and make memories that would last them a lifetime.

 
To cover the entire party, I had three photographers as I wanted one to just focus on Ranveer and the family, while two photographers covered the event. I am so happy I had a number of photographers on hand as these are the priceless memories I am left with from the day.

Vendor Details:

Venue: Gloria Hotel
Invitation:DR Design Co
Decor and Entertainment: Crash and Castles
Toys rental: Toys On Rent
Return gifts: Customise Me: 055 6563141
Return gift wrapping: Treasure Box: 050 7646362
Photo booth:Imprint Design
Photographer for family: KR Creations
Photographer for event: Melrish Photography