Surprise Birthday Party for Joy | Spring Flowers & Lemony Cake

My Mother-In-Law, Joy, had a milestone birthday last week (as I mentioned in my Lemon Meringue Cupcake post) and all of the kids planned a surprise party for her.  I don't get to do too many hands-on events anymore since I hung up my event planner apron 3 years ago, so always jump at the chance to have some party planning fun.  I was in charge of all of the pretty stuff - invitations, flowers and cake. 

I did all of the prep the morning of the party and kept it all simple and fun.  Mike and Emma when to the flower market in the morning with me and we bought everything that was yellow, white, springy and smelled good.

Daffodils.  Of course.

White peonies with yellow centers.  Sigh.

Perfect lemony renunculous. 

White hyacinth.

Parrot tulips.

When I'm making multiple arrangements, I start by dividing up all of the flowers amongst the vases so I know what I'm working with.

I love putting the really pretty flowers in single vases - makes them stand out.

Some arrangements starting to take shape.  I like using the peony leaves - great shape and texture.

I used hydrangeas to fill out the large bouquet.

 Now, on to the cake.  I used just a bit of organic lemon extract to make the buttercream a little lemony.

This was my first time making real Swiss Buttercream.  It is now my new obsession.  I'll do an entire post dedicated to the method and recipe soon.  So creamy and luscious. 

Was going for the color of creamy butter.

I made the cakes the night before and put them in the freezer.

Cut each layer in half - to have a four layer base.

Used a large piping bag to make the icing application easier. 

Fast forward to the party set-up.  I started running a little low on time, so I had to forget the camera for a little while.








Here is one of the larger flower arrangements.  In the willow wrapped vases (soon to be re-stocked!).




I printed a photo of Joy from her younger years with "Joy" script that matched the invitation.

I lined the envelops with gold polk-a-dot paper.  I designed the invitations - they were printed on Paper-Source lux cream paper.






























I used Gold Celebration Candles on top of the yellow cake - and filled in all of my imperfects with flowers : )

 

Here is one of the other smaller arrangements - love the ferny looking filling... but can't remember the name!

Happy Birthday Joy!

We had the party at a restaurant owned by one of Joy's friends called Vivilore.   I wanted to show a couple of photos of the restaurant, too - they've done such a beautiful job decorating.  It is a real find in KC.

It is very "Restoration Hardware" meets fine European antiques feeling.