Tropical Themed Birthday Party
May is one of our busiest months of the year, so I’m just now getting the chance to share Mila’s 14th birthday party, which was tropical themed! We hosted two parties to celebrate another wonderful year of her growth and to accommodate friends and family, including a dirty soda bar, DIY shell brush decorating and more! As always I’m blown away at how quickly time keeps moving, but I am grateful to document each of my girls birthdays here and to watch the celebrations shift and evolve as they do. If you’re planning a tropical themed birthday party of your own, below you’ll find creative ideas for a modern island inspired celebration!
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Tropical Themed Birthday Party
A tropical themed teen birthday party, with tropical decor, a shell themed DIY, dirty soda bar, and matching cookies and desserts.
Turning 14
I say it all the time, but Mila has been the epitome of joy since she was first born. Now that she’s turned fourteen, not much has changed. I admire her heart and the way that she so effortlessly fills a room with her light and love. She is the most thoughtful daughter, sister and friend, charming, creative, witty, stylish, dedicated and such a gift! As she closes one chapter and starts a new milestone with high school in the fall, I’m excited to see where this new year takes her, and I was so thrilled to put together this special fourteenth birthday party to celebrate all that she means to us.
Tropical & Beach Party Decorations
We lucked out with good weather for our celebrations which aligned well with the tropical and beach party theme. I admit that it took some time to wrap my head around the color scheme. I typically align bright colors with a tropical theme, but the blues were refreshing, just like the ocean and actually worked effortlessly with the rest of the party decor.
From the balloon garland with palm leaves, to the white Aloha letter balloons hanging from the mantle.
Tableware
Table decor including beach and seashell charger plates in blue that popped against the white tablecloth. Layered with scalloped beach themed dinner and dessert plates, and plumeria and sea shells for a finishing touch.
The main table was decorated with a variety of seashells, sand dollars and sea glass, many of which were local beach finds.
We incorporated fresh pineapple, coconuts and pink alstroemeria and Cala lily flowers into the centerpiece, with cute surf board decorations to tie the theme together.
The decorations for our second party were similar, however we chose yellow flowers for the main table while also using the fun DIY hair brush and accessories activity as part of the table decor and name place settings.
DIY Sea Shell Hair Brush Activity
Mila and her friends enjoyed decorating the hair brushes with seashells, letters, pearls and beads. This was an easy and engaging craft to keep them entertained at the party, while also making for the prettiest tropical beach themed party favors!
Each place settings included the bamboo hair brushes, jewelry, glue, tweezers for application and paint pallets to hold the shells, letters and beads.
This was a craft they could work on and then come back to throughout the party and the finished designs were beautiful!
I especially loved how no two brushes were alike and how each of the girls added creativity to each brush design.
Party Favors
Along with the sea shell decorated hair brushes, the girls also took home leis.
Food & Beverage Menu
We went with a tropical themed menu, featuring tropical fruits, veg, a taco bar and salad. We also created a Dirty Soda Bar which had been on Mila’s wish list since our trip to Swig last summer.
Dirty Soda Bar
The Dirty Soda bar quickly became the focal point of both celebrations with the neon sign beverage variety, flavors and toppings to choose from.
Syrup flavors included coconut, guava and French vanilla.
Paired with a variety of colas, sodas, sparkling waters and sparkling lemonade, with creamer and whipped cream for garnish.
And of course cute seashell napkins to match the party celebration.
Tropical Themed Dessert Menu
Making custom desserts and cakes for my girl’s birthday parties over the years brings me so much joy! For Mila’s two celebrations I made 2 birthday cakes, one batch of cupcakes, and two sets of sugar cookies with piped floral icing transfers.
8″ Tropical Birthday Cake
Mila’s main cake was an 8″ vanilla bean cake with passion fruit curd, and coconut frosting. I used shades of blue and white dairy free Swiss meringue buttercream to decorate the cake, garnished with a coconut and macadamia nut crumble and white chocolate sea shells. The flavors together were sublime, light, tropical and refreshing. Additional cake decorations included palm leaves, piped hibiscus icing flowers, gold dragees and a surf board sugar cookie.
Mini 3″ Cake
Every year for the girl’s birthdays I make them a mini birthday cake. The personalized mini cakes typically match the theme of their celebration and are created for them to blow out their candles, reserving the large cake for guests. This year’s mini cake was essentially a mini version of the large tropical cake with hibiscus and plumeria icing floral transfers and seas shells for decoration.
This will forever be one of my favorite traditions and I hope my girls never outgrow it.
Tropical Cupcakes
For Mila’s celebration with friends, I made chocolate cupcakes with chocolate coconut ganache filling!
The cupcakes were frosted with coconut buttercream and garnished with plumeria and starfish icing transfers.
Piped Plumeria and Hibiscus Icing Transfers
A few years ago we traveled to Oahu, Hawaii which is what inspired this birthday celebration for Mila. I used much of what we saw during our trip to tie her celebrations together. Including the plumeria icing transfers, which are not only easy to make but perfect for decorating themed treats such as cookies, cakes and more. Find the step by step recipe and instructions here.
The icing transfers are made using two tone piping consistency royal icing and a wilton petal piping tip 104 to create the 5 petal plumeria design. You use a very similar piping technique for the hibiscus flowers with additional icing to pipe the yellow center floral detail.
The tropical icing transfers looked beautiful atop all of the desserts!
Tropical and beach themed Sugar Cookies.
Decorated sugar cookies have been on the treat menu for each of my daughter’s birthday celebrations since they were babies. I love any chance that I get to decorate them, using cookies cutters from the shop to create many of the cookie designs.
We intentionally chose custom design sets to match the tropical beach theme, with beach vibes and scenes, pastel surf boards, plumeria, tiki huts and hibiscus.
I made tropical infused sugar cookie dough, with pineapple and coconut. Paired with the Pina colada flavored icing, they were absolutely delicious, flavorful and loved by all!
Check back here soon for the new sugar cookie recipe. For a passion fruit variation, you can try the recipe here.
One of the main ways I love to elevate parties is by focusing in on the special details that make each celebration unique and I hope you’ve discovered new beach/tropical party inspiration here to make your next celebration a success.
Happy fourteen to our beautiful girl!
If you enjoyed the elements of today’s post, be sure to share or save to Pinterest! You can also visit the link below to my amazon shop with a list of all supplies used for the dirty soda bar, DIY sea shell hair brush decorating, desserts and celebration decor!
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