A little girl's fairy tale during Covid19

preface:

Here and there she mopes around, carrying her things and dumping them on the ground. She's one minute happy as a blooming flower and next, as dreary as a hollowed log. This is my soon to be four-year-old daughter living through a pandemic in Central California.

Five months ago she witnessed her little sister turn one. There were lots of friends, family, cake and not to mention a face painter and balloon artist. Almost immediately thereafter, she turned to me; grinning cheek to cheek saying, "My birthday is next Momma!" My dear little flower Arianni, neither you nor I knew what was to come or the pressure as a parent it would be to create a magical experience during Covid19. We had dreamed up ideas of princesses and all things Frozen with friends and lots of giggles. When Covid19 became apparent, neither you or I knew what to dream or imagine... the world we knew turned into you, me, Daddy and Reen. Face masks and our four walls were what was in our daily scene.

I know I am not alone. I know there are other parents feeling as I am... frantic, stressed and churning with anxiety. I draw all our thoughts on a paper. She loves princesses, she loves dressing up, she wants social interaction. I know we must be cautious, we don't want to put our guests at risk. We don't want them to feel obligated to come or the need to stay long.

I pondered on how to create an event where she could feel happiness in seeing her friends without the "feeling' of it being awkward and unsafe. After all, her school is closed and the teachers are sick, she says "Momma, I hate the virus, can you make it go away?"

Our thoughts on paper sparked an idea, could we throw a front yard celebration inviting our guests to a parade? The children would come dressed up ready for a birthday serenade!

Select a theme

One of my favorite things to do is helping clients and friends select a theme for their event. Create a storyboard, color scheme, behold, it all comes together. However, when it comes to my own personal events for my spouse, children or myself; it becomes weeks long of trying to talk myself out of my initial idea, until I ultimately land back on some version of the original idea. This was also the case for Arianni's fourth birthday. Like many young children, Arianni is obsessed with the Disney movie Frozen. So like many parents; my husband and I were and still are, over Frozen. We have so much Frozen memorabilia in our house we could literally open our own store. Having said that, we wanted to give Arianni the opportunity to choose her own theme. Risky, I know, but it paid off. The month prior to her birthday, we started discussing her birthday and what she would want her party to be focused on (she doesn't really understand the word "theme" just yet). We talked about her last birthday and I showed her photos of the pastel balloons, unicorn plush animals, and a cake made to go down in rainbow history. We talked about her stuffed animals; maybe a mini mouse theme. We talked about her favorite books; maybe an astronaut theme. We talked about her favorite shows; maybe Mira: The Royal Detective or PJ Masks. As the days passed and the weeks started to near her birthday, the theme seemed to become something different each day. However, one thing remained consistent - she would dress up as Elsa no matter what the theme. Knowing we had to cave in, the theme was selected two weeks prior to her birthday. I quickly drafted a digital invitation securing the theme.

notes: if you're having a hard time selected a theme; go with your gut, if you can't come to a consensus create a story board with all of your ideas. If you see a pattern on your storyboard; like color, mood, or topics - those should be the focus of your event. A great way to make a storyboard is using pinterest. You can view an example here on my Pinterest page.

Are vendors still available

After a theme is chosen, typically it is time to make your vendor selections. This includes vendors for catering, party rentals, staffing, entertainment, security, etc. As I embarked on the vendor selection journey for our four-year-old's birthday, I texted, called and even direct messaged my contacts, but quickly learned that many were not working or shut down due to Covid19 and county orders. The beautiful gala we imagined was quickly shaping up to be flop. I started using social media to track who was still open and operating; our county was in the highest tier of lock down. The demand for those open was extremely high and many had already been booked with dates not available for months to come. I started to learn that this would be a DIY event with the caterer being a food truck!

notes: Plan at least 2 months ahead of time to secure your vendors for a small party during COVID19. If all else fails, food trucks are a great option to provide food, dessert, drinks and still manage to keep social distancing protocol! Large vendors that typically supply large venues will typically not be operating during shelter in place orders. Look to the mom and pop locations for the best selection and deals. If all else fails, you can DIY your own decorations, food and put your Alexa to play the hit list for whatever genre of music. Need some suggests for party decorations fast, check out my picks below.

What are we going to wear

Of course my little love has several costumes of the entire case of Frozen and Frozen II. She loves to play dress up with her dolls and little sister. These were not going to cut it for her birthday, as she insisted a new dress must be worn. I spent a few days researching the perfect dress for her to wear; of course the shopping had to be done online due to the lack of options available at the stores open. Browsing the web, there were so many Elsa costumes that it seemed daunting to select the perfect one. After a few hours of going site to site, I settled on one site that had about eight different costumes. I let Arianni choose from the eight and we ordered. I felt a little uneasy ordering from a site without previously ordering before, but was recommended by a friend to shop there. Arianni was so excited for the dress to arrive because it had a long train that she could swirl around. Two days before the event, it was a sunny and hot Thursday and there was no sign of the dress. I checked the tracking information and it said arrival Friday. Something in my gut told me it wasn't going to arrive even after ordering it three weeks in advance and being guaranteed it would be there in time. I contacted the seller but still no response, shipping now said arriving Saturday - the day of the party. After loosing hope of the dress arriving, Arianni and I headed to Target on Friday to get a backup dress in case the other didn't arrive. It was a good thing we did because the dress didn't arrive until four days past the date we needed. It was delayed due with the United States Postal Service and Covid19. The dress has since been returned.

notes: When it comes to outfit selection for small events it is important to secure any outfits needed weeks (if not months) in advance. In addition, it is important to leave time to style the outfit and iron prior to the event. It may seem tedious, but if your stuck in a situation as I was, you may have to drop by your local store the night before to get a backup outfit. Trust me you do not want or need this stress. I will also note that if you are coordinating family outfits or having guests wear themed outfits, that planning should be done ahead of time. The last thing you want to happen is your husband asking what he is wearing the night before... (yes that happened too).

Crowd Management

Crowd management during Covid19 is a bit tricky. You invite guests, not sure if they will want to be cautious and wear a mask or be unbound and give you and other guest hugs without a mask. Knowing I had to be sensitive to my guests needs, concerns or lack thereof; as I sent out invitations digitally, I also included a survey through Doodle for guest to select a time window to drop by and enjoy the party. Our event was short, 6pm - 8:30pm. We allowed guests to select a spot every fifteen minutes with no more than 4 families stopping by at once. Once guests started arriving, everyone wore masks and the scheduling of time worked out well. Approximately 40 people attended (including expecting moms and healthcare workers) and we are happy to report that no one was sick after.

notes: Having an in person event during Covid19 is a personal choice, if this is not for you and you do not feel comfortable doing it, that is okay. I did not feel comfortable having elderly guests (65+) at our event. I was able to set up a zoom call for the grandparents, as well as, the guests that lived beyond an hour away. It was nice for them to be able to watch the event from afar while still being able to take part.

Keepsake

I went back in forth with my husband about cutting a cake. I really wanted to cut a cake but couldn't figure out how it work if we were staggering the time our guests would be attending the birthday. I also had other thoughts on how I was going to keep the cake looking alive when it was 100 degrees plus or if anyone would want to eat it because it was so darn hot. After debating, we came to the conclusion that we would reach out to food truck vendors to see if they would be available to come. I instantly went to social media trying to figure out what type of dessert would be available; cupcakes (yummy), cookies (double yummy), ice cream (triple yummy). After determining that snow cones went with our theme the most and the vendor was available, we booked it right away. Frozen snow cones it would be!

We also debated on handing out goody bags or favors to the kids attending. This is something I love doing every year, but we came to the conclusion that it wasn't going to be ideal for guests to take anything back home with them. We didn't want anyone to feel obligated to take something back that they didn't want to.

notes: Cutting a cake, serving food, alcohol is all a personal choice for you as the event planner. Be creative and maybe a food truck is the best way for you to serve your guests.

In all, the feedback I received from guests was really positive and partly why I wanted to share this post with you. I wanted to create an event for my daughter where she could see her friends, have fun and share the day without putting anyone at risk. Here's to another event in the future - hopefully without a pandemic.

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