Whether you’re after a fun birthday theme, or are looking to jump on the trend of hosting an at-home cafe, this cafe themed party is sure to inspire! In this post I’ll be sharing everything I did to plan and set up this beautiful event for my client’s 40th birthday.
In recent years, the coffee shop party theme has gained increasing popularity. And for good reason! Whether you’re organising a small gathering in your home with friends, or a large party, this theme is a great choice.
In this post, I’ll be sharing all the details and food that went into this cafe party.
For my client’s 40th birthday, she requested a relaxed and elegant afternoon tea, making this the perfect theme.
By the end, you’re sure to have gained inspiration and unique ideas to help make your party unforgettable.
This post is all about sharing inspiration and ideas when it comes to a hosting a cafe themed party.
Hosting the Ultimate Cafe Themed Party
At Home Cafe Menu Ideas
For this event, I wanted the menu to reflect the food often served in a cafe cabinet. With everything from sweet treats to go with coffee, to savory afternoon delights.
I plan to share a full menu and breakdown of all the food used at this party in a future post, so if that’s something you’re interested in, be sure to keep an eye out!
To keep with the relaxed setting of this afternoon tea, I wanted the whole menu to be like finger food, even the salads.
To do this, I purchased these gorgeous clear plastic salad cups online. The ones seen holding the pasta salad above were 250ml. I also purchased them in the 360ml size for the fruit salad.
To complete the ease of use, I added a mini fork in the lid of each cup. These were just 110mm wooden forks.
Keeping with the “cabinet food” theme, every food was labelled by name and included a Gluten or dairy-free tag as necessary. This was mostly for the aesthetic, but also was helpful for the guests.
When it comes to food layout, using wooden chopping boards and basic white plates is very much a part of the cafe aesthetic.
When organizing the food on the boards, I tried to keep everything as straight and tidy as possible.
As I mentioned above, I’ll soon be sharing a full menu breakdown of all the food at this event.
The Cake
Above is the delicious cake which the guests could not stop raving about! Its colours and flowers reflect the aesthetic of the event.
Adding flowers from your decor to a basic cake is an elegant way to decorate and is so ridiculously easy to do!
Ice Cream Tricycle
Above is a photo of one of the event highlights, which doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with a cafe… Regardless, ice cream is always welcome!
This vendor was organised to serve ice cream in the afternoon. If you’re looking at hosting a large event, having something like this is a unique treat for your guests and takes some of the food prep off you.
If you happen to be located in the South Island, New Zealand, then be sure to check out booking this tricycle. Find the Rolling Pedaler by going through their website linked here.
Cafe Party Drinks
Now for the part we’ve all been waiting for, the coffee! If your truly following the cafe theme then serving coffee and similar hot drinks is a must.
You don’t necessarily need a coffee machine, if instant coffee and tea is all you have I’m sure your guests wont complain. For this party we hired a barista to come in and make as many guests as wanted them hot drinks over a 2 hour period.
He bought his own equipment and really helped to make the hot drinks experience cafe-like.
As an extra special touch I ordered custom stickers for this event to be added to cup sleeves. Unfortunately however the cups were too small for the sleeves and so I ended up attaching the stickers straight to the disposable cups.
Still having some custom branding like this is a great way to really take your guests experience to the next level.
For those looking for a cool drink instead of coffee we had plenty of punch on hand. This is especially enjoyed by any younger guests who are unlikely to be drinking coffee.
The Decorations
Color and Flowers
My main prompts from the client in regards to the decor was a color pallet, flowers and relaxed but elegant.
We settled on a very soft color pallet featuring dusky pink, sandy beige, whites and subtle yellow. The main thing to be aware of with this was avoiding making it look too much like a wedding.
For flowers I drew inspiration from arrangements I liked. I then found artificial flowers as similar as possible. With some hunting I found flowers I was pleased with the quality of.
I usually strip any artificial flowers of their foliage as I find most foliage doesn’t look as realistic as the flower. By mixing artificial flowers with real foliage gathered from outdoor your fake flowers are far more likely to come to life.
Photo Station
As seen above the guests loved this focus area where they could take pics of their gorgeous outfits or share a hug with the birthday girl.
In my previous two posts I share exactly how I made this sign and banner. The balloon arch was featured balloons in our color pallet as well as scattered flowers and foliage throughout.
I love using foliage and/or flowers in balloon arrangements as they never fail to elevate the look.
Standing Tables
We had chairs placed in small groups around the venue, as well as 4 bar height round tables. I really struggled to find tablecloths for this which would be long enough to reach the ground, and not cost too much.
In the end I used two long rectangle table cloths per table. I draped these across each other creating a floor-length, boho style tablecloth for each.
In the center of each of these tables we placed a mason jar filled with our flower arrangements. Then directly over this, 3 balloons were suspended from the ceiling using a small loop of masking tape each.
This made the balloons appear like they were helium. Each balloon was tided with a satin ribbon hanging down over the table.
By doing this each table looked complete and larger then life!
Gifts and Cake Table
Unfortunately, I didn’t get any photos of this set-up. This table was for the Cake and a place to put any gifts. We also used the space above the table to display photo’s of the birthday girl through the years.
Conclusion
This party was super fun to organise, decorate and attend. I’d highly recommend the cafe-themed party to anyone looking to have a beautiful and relaxed celebration.
