A Whale of a Fun Time: DIY Whale Themed 2nd Birthday Party for Atticus

Our Atticus turned two! We went to Mark’s hometown in Mindanao for his 2nd birthday for two reasons:

1. Tikoy to meet the rest of our relatives on his father’s side

2. Celebrate with lechon. 🙂 

I was amazed that simple celebrations at my Mother in law’s always include Lechon. I later learned that this is because it’s more affordable and less hassle. Mama will only need to raise a pig or two on her backyard and have a roaster season, cook, and deliver it. It should feed a whole lot of guests and no need to prepare other viands.

Whale Theme

According to Mark, his childhood was filled with days playing outside with the glorious views of nature and swimming at the nearby beach just a few meters away from home. So we thought that having an under the sea theme would be a nice touch to bring it all together.

It was a little challenging to plan at first because we’re living in Metro Manila, and our only coordinator at home was my mother in law (whom Tikoy fondly calls wawa). While the food was already taken care of by simple (and admirable) lending of hands, the rest of the set up was up to us. Researching on the internet, we can’t decide on a look. Later, we decided to agree on these points to make the job easier:

1. Decide on a color palette

Believe me, it’s easier to funnel your design ideas after agreeing on this. Pick at least 3 colors.

2. Choose an element

We decided to use whale stuff toys as centerpieces for the dessert table.

3. Set a budget

Of course, decorating entails expense. If you can’t do everything from scratch or recycle, minimize the cost by setting a limit. Remember, there are other things to pay for. 🙂

Also, since we’ll only arrive on the day, so it has to be easy to install. We already asked to have the wall covered by stretched white cloth and the table skirted with blue ahead of time. All of the other details will be added in the afternoon, hopefully, after some rest.

Most important of all, we want our party to have minimal trash if not totally zero waste just like his Totoro party last year. So we opted to get stuff that can be reused, and non-plastic. Here are the things we bought:

Whale Stuffed Toy

We bought 3 pieces of large whale stuffed toys in the color palette from Miniso. These sold out fast when they released it so we bought them right away when Mark saw the last 3 pieces on display. We agreed to give it as a gift after the party.

Little Whale Plushies

There weren’t really tables set up at the party because ours was only held at home but we bought a few pieces of these little Whale plushies (and anything related to it) from Chapters and Pages for only PhP 20.00 a piece. We scattered them around the dessert table and will be given away to the kids as part of their loot bags

Name Bunting

We’re saying no to plastics and balloons so we commissioned a set of bunting for his name from a work from home mom based in Davao. It was handmade with felt and stuffed with cotton. A friend who sews told us that this takes a lot of work and mused that she hopes that she’s paid well. And while this isn’t exactly cheap, we went ahead with it to respect the craftsmanship behind it. Anyway, we’ll be using this as a decor in our room later on.

Cloth Buntings

It’s amazing how you can get almost everything from Shopee. We got this cloth bunting from there, which was shipped all the way from China. We’ll also use this to create a little Tikoy corner at home afterwards. 

Tip: Make sure you’re buying from a legit online seller. We like buying from Shopee for buyer protection. Before purchasing, check the product rating and reviews. If the item doesn’t have any yet, check the store rating just to ensure that you’re getting what you paid for.

Paper Tassels

The paper tassels just made the table look fun! Also bought from Shopee, it’s made with papel de hapon that’s pre-cut. It’s a little tedious to do so we needed 3 people to help just to make it on time.

Cupcake toppers

We ordered a few cupcakes from a local baker and asked to have the icing in different shades of blue. We bought these paper nautical cupcake toppers from–you know it–Shopee.

Cake Design

We didn’t want the cake to be an overkill, so we ordered a simple barrel cake (10 inches) iced with white and blue. We bought candy sprinkles and a good sized number 2 candle from All About Baking.

Tip: Sprinkle some of the candies on the table and cupcakes to tie the look together.

Loot Bags

Two things: Paper Bag and snacks. We closed it by this Thank You Whale stickers we designed in Canva.

Invitations

My favorite phrase whenever we need to design something is “there’s a Canva for that!” It’s free, easy to use, and there are thousands of templates to choose from. I started with a blank page, set the size, added the text, some free elements, and it was done in an hour! Amazing!

If you are planning to have a whale-themed party too, we hope you’ll get some ideas here.