Real Parties in Dubai: Little Mermaid Themed Birthday Party

I am swoooning over this Mermaid themed birthday party organised by the very creative team at 3flowers. They had me at those gorgeous mermaid costumes for all the little guests. Big task but what fun!!

Sadly, when I wrote to them inquiring about the party details, I was informed that they no longer live in Dubai and have moved to Switzerland. But there is so much inspiration in these pictures that I had to share them. Such a girly theme this is :-)

P.S. Lots more inspiration on mermaid theme parties here and here.

P.P.S. More ‘Real Parties’ posts here featured on the blog including Parisian, Airline, Bollywood, Baby Einstein and Circus themes.

(Images courtesy 3flowersinabucket.com)

Real Parties in Dubai: Circus Themed Grown-Up Birthday Party

In today’s post of Real Parties, I am thrilled to bring you a super fun Circus themed party that my dear friend, Geetu Ahuja organised to celebrate her birthday. I loved her theme implementation in the games, cake, decor, photo booth and drinks.

The highlight of the event, for me, was the photo booth. I have always loved this whole concept of photo booths for a long long time. They always bring so much to an event. And at Geetu’s party, the photo booth set-up and execution, by Imprint Design, was just fantastic. The props were so in tune with the theme. I’ll let the pictures do the talking :-)

Cake in theme

Games in theme

Geetu’s always chosen fun themes to bring in her big day. Here’s what she has to say:‘There comes this time in a year, where for some reason I just want my friends and me to get our souls 'inside out' cos I truly want to celebrate the significance from growing a year in maturity to living another year of life with some 'crazy spice'. Maintaining the trend of my desi videsi themes in the past, I landed up with my latest recipe of "Geets da cirque" for this year’s celebrations.’

P.S. More ‘Real Parties’ posts here including Parisian, Airline, Bollywood and Baby Einstein themes.

Real Parties in Dubai: Paris Inspired Baby Shower

I’m so excited to share with you a gorgeous Parisian themed baby shower held recently for one of the warmest women I know in Dubai, Simran Ramsinghani.

I am in love with how the theme was executed and the attention to detail - a beautiful French restaurant oozing of softness, romanticism, Eiffel towers, balloons, pink poodles, yummy food and desserts. J'adore! 

This theme would also be so amazing for a birthday party or a bridal shower. Simran’s kindly shared with us the party details and vendors in Dubai who assisted her family and friends in bringing this memorable event together. Read below for details :-)

Invites often give the first signs of how an event will be. This one had awesome written all over it.

Super chic decor with lovely baby-esque messages incorporated

Check out the themed cupcakes, sippers and personalised bottle wrappers, C’est magnifique!

Blessed parents-to-be, Rohit and Simran

Returns/ Favors - fine chocolates in Tiramisu, Panna Cotta, Dark Lemon and Pepper flavors

The photo booth set-up complete with laced umbrella, hand fan as props

   
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Party Details, as told by Simran:

It took me a long time to come up with a theme that would suit my personality, be a sweet memory of a lifetime and also be one that everyone (men, women and children) could relate to.  An Evening in Paris fit the bill - romantic, graceful, soft, glamorous, creative, manageable, unique, fun, and suits my personality of a coffee shop dreamer/gazer who likes to be in her thoughts. 

The core team had a lot of fun putting the baby shower together with this theme. I thoroughly enjoyed conceptualizing and visualizing it - such good memories of creative juices flowing from each and every one in the planning committee.

The foil balloons, the Eiffel tower sippers, the Eiffel tower cut outs, the poodle paper plates and poodle printed glasses – were ordered online and shipped from the US. Ritu from Creative Box is my magic fairy to convert all my demands and wishes into reality :)

All these efforts and gestures put together, and the flow of energy, love, warmth and blessings on the day of the event itself, and the lovely photographs captured by Melrish make it a precious memory that brought me closer to my family and friends in such a beautiful way. Bless, xxx 

Vendor Details:

Venue: Bistro Madeleine, Intercontinental Hotel, Dubai Festival City
Invitations, decor, return/favor packaging and all the creative detailing: Creative Box
Cake: Sherry’s Cakes
Cupcakes: Sugaholic
Photography: Melrish
Returns: Finer Things, the fine foods' store next to Barracuda Beach Resort,  Umm Al Quwain
Simran’s hair and make-up: Punam Rani

P.S. If you have organised or attended or know of a really cool party and want it to be featured in this section, please send me an e-mail on nishka [dot] manglani [at] gmail [dot] com.

Local Event Alert: Chocolat Chic Hosts Dubai’s Undiscovered Talent

There’s something so charming about exploring exhibitions and open markets, vendors from near and far, experienced and up and coming talent, all coming together to bring stuff not meant for malls. And the thrill that follows…of discovering something so unique.. it’s a lovely experience :-)

Which is what makes me all excited about this effort by Chocolat Chic, a lovely café and patisserie at Boardwalk, Dorrabay in Dubai Marina, who are offering their space to bring together local artists and entrepreneurs to showcase their handmade items. The event is spread over two weekends, 13-14 and 20-21 April, and with being a mommy now, I must also point out that there will be a covered play area for the kids complete with a bouncing castle and arts and crafts workshop :-)

What’s also great about this event is that one of the exhibitors will be our very talented cousin Dipti Mulani (I have blogged about her creativity here earlier) with her debut show of paintings. Below is a sneak peek into some of her work I really love, that will also be available for sale at Chocolat Chic. Your chance to grab her work here before she shoots to fame.. :-) Do visit her website to learn more about her and her work www.diptimulani.com

 

The event starts at 10am, for more information call Chocolat Chic on 04-3990433.

Real Parties in Dubai: Rocking Airline Themed Birthday Party

When it comes to hosting parties, there are those who simply throw one and then there are those who put in so much thought and creativity that it makes attending their soirees a really fun affair. Our friends Rocky and Nandini Bhatia fall into the latter category. Recently, we attended Nandini’s Airline themed birthday celebration and I just had to share this amazing theme and its super execution with you.

  Hosts (top left) and guests following the theme to the T

The boarding pass (invite) that set the stage for a fun journey

What’s an airline theme without some strict security check :P – The Entrance

No stone left unturned to implement the theme

Oh yes! and the generic airport seating area was re-created too

Vendor Details:
Food: Pizza Express (Live and yummy pizza and pasta station)
Flight Information Board & Security Check-In Installations: Costra Advertising
Cake: Yummy Tummy
Photography: John Eapen
DJ: DJ Raj (Suraj Serai)
Bartending: Flaming Trio

P.S. If you have organised or attended or know of a really cool party and want it to be featured in this section, please send me an e-mail on nishka [dot] manglani [at] gmail [dot] com

Date Love

We’ve been treated to delicious Nadiya Dates quite a lot recently, and I am especially in love with these dark chocolate coated ones – just the right amount of bittersweet to meet the soft and sweet date.. yummyy!

They are a super competition to Bateel, not only on the cost side but taste too, and will make for a very nice birth/wedding announcement gift or as giveaways at any personal or corporate event.

Visit their website here for more details.

Real Parties: Bollywood Retro Theme 25th Anniversary Celebration

We recently enjoyed a super fun silver wedding anniversary celebration in the family and wanted to share with you some creative nuances from the event.

The theme was Bollywood retro and I loved the way the invite, designed and written by our cousin Dipti, set the stage, giving away event details such as date, time venue, dress code, etc, in a unique Antakshri format.

The other super element Dipti brought to the party was a simple DIY - transforming popular movie posters from that era by replacing the lead actor or actress with a picture of each of the elders in their younger days. These were framed and placed on tables. They can be a really fun alternative to name cards in table settings while at the same time adding to the decor and theme, and can also serve as personalised returns/giveaways.

Retro glares in various shapes and colors (as you can see in the first image) were made available as fun props to provide that extra zing to the pictures :-)

P.S. If you have organised or attended or know of a really cool party and want it to be featured in this section, please send me an e-mail on nishka [dot] manglani [at] gmail [dot] com

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

Restaurant Review – Thiptara

The Downtown area of Dubai is a really pretty one that houses many lovely restaurants of different cuisines, with most offering splendid views. Thiptara, a Thai fine dining restaurant here is unfortunately one of their more average offerings.

 

The views and the setting are spectacular, no doubt, but as I said earlier there’s plenty others that offer the same.

 

The vegetarian options in the menu are limited, as is the case for us at most restaurants ;D, but if you want to eat good Thai, my all time fav Thai Chi at Wafi is a far better and reasonable option.

 

Thiptara is located in The Palace, Downtown Dubai. You can reach them on 04 428 7888.

Be a Responsible Earthizen – Recycle Your Mobile Phones

Did you know that the UAE has the highest average number of mobile phones per person in the world? Each individual here owns nearly two handsets in the country according to the US-based Wilson Electronics.  

We don’t even need to look at these statistics to know that I guess. One look around us and you see people changing mobile phones with every season ;) While there is no harm in doing that, ensuring that you put your old mobile phone or for that matter any electronic item to good use is essential - either by giving it away to someone who could use it or to an organisation that can help recycle it.

When you donate your cell phone, you are helping to keep toxic elements out of landfills.

(Image via)

Jacky’s Electronics is currently running one such initiative. You can hand over your used mobile phone and also receive cash vouchers in return for this green gesture :) Learn more about it here.

If you know of any recycling initiatives in the UAE, do let me know.

Personalised Hand Painted Shoes.... Oh Yes

I’m loving these hand painted canvas shoes by Veathika of Foot Path, especially for the younger ones - easily custom made to what they like, what they want, to reflect their aspirations and very unique.

They’ll make for such thoughtful presents too.

Check this soopawoman out :)

 (Image Credit: Foot Path)

P.S. Veathika is based in Dubai and can be reached for orders and inquiries via her Facebook page.