A sweet watermelon celebration

The assignment:

a super-sweet watermelon birthday

The goal:

go beyond “watermelon” colors

Tricks to pulling off the look:

1. Use equal parts red and pink

2. Add watermelons everywhere

3. Keep the metals warm

Using red, pink, and purple

Most pre-packaged watermelon decor is some shade of pink or red and some shade of green.  The challenge with this look is that my daughter’s favorite color was purple at the time, so I wanted to work that into the look.  Purple isn’t usually a watermelon party color, but the look started to come alive once I started thinking of purple as a variation of pink.  I wanted to balance the three colors, so I was careful to use (approximately) equal parts red, pink, and purple.  It was easy to find red (watermelon) plates, napkins, bowls, etc., so pink became the focus of the flowers.  Purple found its place in the linens, balloons, and cookies so that one color wasn’t stealing the show.  Together, this made for a fun look that is visually interesting.

Watermelons everywhere!

When the party is themed after a fruit, it needs to be everywhere, and this means more than just serving the fruit itself.  This means sourcing watermelon-themed serveware, floral picks, mini lights, pinatas, and even cakes so that the theme is on display no matter where you look.  Once it all came together, the different shades and iterations of “watermelon” created a visually stimulating, festive, sweet look.

Keeping the metals warm

I didn’t want the look to go cold, so sticking with gold and rose gold as accent metals kept everything feeling warm – from the confetti to the cake stands and the vases to the drink dispenser spigots.  The accent metal selection controls the temperature of a look, so it’s always best to keep that in mind as you are sourcing decor items.  Over the years, I’ve accumulated items in each metal so I can easily (and quickly) change the feel of a look.