Planning a Safari Party: Theme/Inspiration + The Decor

I had so much fun planning Lucy’s 5th birthday party and wanted to share some deeper dive blog posts about different elements of the party. Today, I’m sharing all about the party decor. You can find more about the party food HERE and party activities HERE.

THEME + INSPIRATION

Lucy told me months ago she wanted her 5th birthday to be ‘cheetah themed’ and we decided to just…go for it! Instead of just leaning into cheetah, I leaned into a more broad ‘colorful, safari, party animals’ vibe. I almost always order party supplies from Meri Meri, and while their Jungle + Safari collection is SO cute, I was also loving Rifle Paper’s Party Animal party supplies. I decided to sort of blend the two and create our own magical cheetah-inspired birthday adventure! Here’s a few collages I made to guide the early phases of party planning!

SAFARI-PARTY DECOR

One of the first things I knew I wanted for this party was a big balloon garland. I’ve seen friends create beautiful DIY balloon garlands before and was determined to try it out for Lucy’s party! Thankfully, my father-in-law and mom lead the charge in the balloon department and they turned out SO good! I ordered this Cheetah Balloon Garland kit in the 12 foot size to really make a statement! I had also ordered four bundles of this Safari Balloons set and mixed those balloons into the garland, so we had a mix of three different animal prints, a muted mustard yellow, light pink, and sage green. I originally ordered a Balloon Hand Pump, but so glad that my father-in-law decided to get a Balloon Electric Pump – definitely made it a lot easier! We put additional clusters of balloons throughout the house and made a mini balloon garland for the greenhouse, too! Not only did the balloons look really good, but the quality was excellent. The balloons have been hanging up for almost a week and haven’t even started to deflate yet. I definitely think there’s a difference when you ordered from a quality Etsy shop/small business vs. Amazon or somewhere basic for balloons. Speaking of balloons, I also had a Gold “5” Balloon hanging up our family room.

Another form of party decor was our signage! I bought this Party Animal Signage Printable on Etsy and customized it. I’ve ordered customizable digital downloads before, but this was SOOOO easy to download/edit right from Canva. After making the original ‘Welcome to Lucy’s 5th Birthday Party’ sign, I actually decided to edit the sign even more to make a few other signs for other areas of the party. I had the different posters printed (some via Office Depot same day, and some via Canva — which was much better printing quality, in my opinion!)

In terms of other decor, I hung this colorful Happy Birthday paper banner on our family room fireplace. We’ve actually had this since Lucy’s 1st (!!) birthday and I love getting to hang it up in the same spot every year. I also ordered this adorable ‘party animals’ banner and hung it on our the headboard near the stuffed animals. It’s so cute! I also hung up a Gold “5” Balloon hanging up our family room. I had ordered a set of pink and gold leopard balloons and while we didn’t really need them decor-wise, we ended up scattered throughout the house.

SHOP THE PARTY

Note: I’ve included additional party items we didn’t use, but that are ‘on theme’ for this party. The products we didn’t use have an asterisk next to them listed below.

PARTY TABLEWARE:

Safari Dinner Plates

Safari Cheetah Plates

Safari Large Napkins

Safari Animal Print Small Napkins

Safari Animal Cake Toppers

Lion Plates*

Elephant Balloon Napkins*

Zebra Napkins*

Party Animal Paper Cups*

Party Animals Cake Toppers*

Safari Candles*