How to Easily Host a Barbie Birthday Party

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When my little girls came to me asking for a Barbie birthday party, I should have been far from surprised. Pink is a staple color in their wardrobe, dresses are always requested over pants, and their eyes light up every time we stroll past the Barbie aisle at the store.

If a joint Barbie birthday party (birthdays both in the month of September) is what was requested, then a Barbie birthday party is what it should be- and so the process of planning began!

Wanting to host your own Barbie birthday party? Here is how I did it!

* Affiliate links are included in this post. All this means, is that if you click on one of those links and purchase something, I may receive a small commission. However, you will not pay a penny more- promise!

Invitation

I wanted it clear from the minute my guests opened their invitation that a Barbie birthday party was in the works. Wanting to stick with the more “classic” Barbie vibes, I chose a simple black, white, and pink theme and used the Barbie silhouette to DIY my own invitations. As always, I create all my design work via Canva and printed via The Invite Shop.

Attire

Perhaps the only thing more fun than being surrounded by Barbie, is dressing like Barbie. As a result, I put extra attention into our Barbie inspired wardrobes. Despite having my own custom t-shirt design shop, I opted to avoid any copyright infringement of Barbie and ordered my shirts elsewhere. Aiming for a classic white shirt and pink font for my girls, I then purchased the opposite color combination for myself.

To finish off the Barbie inspired look for the birthday girls, I found these adorable pink tutu skirts on Amazon and paired them with heavy pink costume jewelry, and of course a large pink bow.

Wanting to make sure the whole family was donned in Barbie attire, I found this adorable, “Hi, I’m Ken!” shirt for my husband to wear at the Barbie birthday party.

If you have followed my themed birthday parties in the past, then chances are you know I love catchy themed food to correspond with the party (case in point, my Frozen Fever and Nemo/Dory birthday parties). That said, this year’s Barbie birthday party resulted in less catchy names and more pink inspiration (mind you, pink food is NOT easy to find).

My core menu consisted of:

Pulled BBQ Chicken, “Barbie’s BBQ”
A vegetable platter
A fruit bowl
Pasta salad
A cheese and sausage platter
Toss salad
Pink Starbursts
Pink animal crackers
Barbie inspired cookies as party favors
And of course two classic Barbie CAKES!

Decorations

While I do love selecting the wardrobes, designing the invitations, and deciding upon the menu… by far my favorite party of any planning is the decorating. Once again, sticking to the black, white, and pink vibes of a classic Barbie- I used the following to create my Barbie birthday party look.

Diamond inspired gems
Barbie cars to act as vases for flowers
- While the car made for the perfect outer appearance, it’s inner appearance was far from flat and practical for a vase to remain in an upright position. As a result, I simply took a mason jar, positioned it between the two Barbie seats, and used ribbon to secure it in place. Then simply add water and flowers, and you have the perfect DIY Barbie inspired vases.

Barbie silhouette cut out of a black piece of posterboard

Actual Barbies for staging purposes (i.e. Barbie’s BBQ and holding balloons)

Barbie’s vanity complete with a mirror, makeup, and jewelry (more on this below)

Balloons (though limited due to the dreaded helium shortage)

Barbie cakes
- I simply purchased matching Barbies with similar clothing to my color scheme. I then found a baker, asked her to wrap the bottom of Barbie in Saran Wrap, and create a frosting dress to go around the Barbie.

And perhaps my favorite… a life-sized Barbie box to double as a Photo Booth location.
- We located the box by calling a local refrigerator store and was able to secure it for free. We then purchased pink wrapping paper (figured pink paint would get too soggy on cardboard) and got to work gift wrapping the largest “present” we hopefully will ever have to wrap. I then used extra cardboard from cutting the opening of the box to create a platform for the “Barbie” name and a star for the classic “Mattel” label. I freehanded the Barbie and Mattel names on white cardstock paper and attached them to the boards. Lastly, I used adhesive diamond gem strands to encase the Barbie name and opening of the box for the extra bling effect.

Gift Bags

What is a party without a gift bag? WithBarbie cookies for the adults, I wanted a bag (or two) full of goodies for the youngsters at the event. Due to the events of the day, I chose to have two different goodie bags. One from Barbie herself and one from the birthday girls.

GIFT BAG FROM BARBIE

Placed upon Barbie’s vanity area, I created gift bags filled with costume jewelry, crowns, bracelets, earrings, and rings. I found a bulk party pack here and divided it up evenly amongst the girls.

GIFT BAG FROM THE BIRTHDAY GIRLS

Within the larger goodie bags, each girl found:

A Chelsea doll (aka. Barbie’s sister)
Pink nail polish
Barbie surprise box
Barbie coloring book
And for the tiniest (infant) party attendant… her goodie bag was filled with Barbie inspired hair bows.

ENTERTAINMENT

Full disclosure, I partnered with Princesses byPaolinain exchange for my review, but as ALWAYS, I only recommend brands/businesses that I truly love and all opinions included are 100% my own. In fact, I can’t stop recommending them to everyone who I speak toregarding the party!

PRINCESSES BYPAOLINA

Hands down the BEST part of the entire party was our entertainment… i.e. the incrediblePrincesses by Paolina– a children’s entertainment company. After being asked to portray Cinderella for Dream Parties during their national tour in 2015,Paolinafell in love with the idea of enchanting children and decided to start her very own business after returning to her hometown. In an effort to offer every child a memory that will last a lifetime at an affordable rate, she started Princesses byPaolinain January of 2017.

I honestly can not say enough great things about this company and its owner,Paolina. From the minute we connected,Paolinaunderstood my vision and exactly what I wanted for the party once again. After having worked with Princesses by Paolina for last year’s Frozen Party (they honestly played the BEST Anna and Elsa… and that is a huge compliment considering we just returned from Disney where we saw their version of Anna and Elsa as well), I knew when I wanted “Barbie” to attend may girls’ party there was absolutely no one I’d rather call.

Not initially part of Paolina’s standard lineup of characters, she never hesitated when I approached her about playing Barbie. Instead, she showed up in the most beautiful Barbie attire and once again in FULL character.

Paolina/Barbie has such a way of making even the shyest children warm up quickly. Perhaps it is the fact that she is a mother herself, but Paolina never fails to deliver the absolute best part of our parties… and not just for the children. In fact, my 93-year-old grandfather quickly dubbed this party his favorite birthday party of all his 93 years ;).

Since this day, I truly can’t stop recommendingPrincesses by Paolinato others. If you are anywhere in the Wisconsin area, I would HIGHLY recommend them for your next party! With a large selection of princesses and DC/Marvel superheroes… and now BARBIE; Princesses byPaolinaare available for both private and public functions including birthday parties, meet and greets, and family-oriented corporate outings.

SHARING THE SURPRISE

Making sure all guests were downstairs (plates of food made) and in position for our special “Barbie” guest to arrive, we told the little girls to cover their eyes and started blaring Aqua’s version of “Barbie Girl”… because, why not?!

We then had Barbie surprise the girls not only with her presence, but with a special invitation to her personal vanity. Barbie handed each little girl their gift bag filled with costume jewelry and one by one they waited for Barbie to apply their beautiful makeup. They’d then put on their jewelry, check out their Barbie vibes in the mirror, and pose in the Barbie box with none other than Barbie herself!