How to Throw the Ultimate Nemo & Dory Birthday Party

A few months before my oldest daughter turned three years old, she sat down to watch her first ever movie. One viewing of “Finding Nemo” later and an obsession quickly grew. In no time, she began to call herself, “Dory” (the larger fish) and her baby sister, “Nemo” (the baby sized fish). Fast forward a few months later when it came time to plan their joint birthday party (birthdays only two weeks apart)… and the Nemo/Dory theme was a no-brainer!

Wanting to host your own Nemo & Dory inspired children’s party? Here is how I did it!

INVITATION

I wanted it clear the minute my guests opened their invitation that a Nemo & Dory party was in the works. A quick Etsy search brought me to an adorable digital invitation that I was able to customize to my liking. (Be sure to check out “MaluhiaPrints” if you desire to create one for yourself!)

ATTIRE

Trying my best to incorporate the Nemo and Dory theme whenever feasible, I decided to quickly make my girls some matching dresses. (Seriously, if you have a sewing machine you can’t go wrong with whipping one of these dresses up. Not only can you make them totally customizable to your party theme, but the entire project took all of 20 minutes per dress).

MENU

When planning my menu, I wanted to make sure that catchy phrases could be connected to the theme. I’d be lying if I said I patented these cute phrases all on my own. In fact, just like with every one of my parties, I scoured Pinterest to aid in my planning.

My core menu consisted of:

• A veggie platter, “Octopus Veggies”
• A sub sandwich platter (ordering several variety platters from Subway couldn’t have been easier), “Submarine Sandwiches”
• A cheese and sausage platter, “Shark Teeth & Sausage”
• Pretzel rods, “Driftwood”
• Small bags of chips, “Fish and CHIPS”
• Goldfish crackers, “Little Nemos”
• Swedish Fish, “Minnows”
• Sour worm candies, “Fishing Bait”
• Cookies designed as Nemo & Dory for party favors
• And of course Nemo & Dory CAKE!

 

DECORATIONS

Full disclosure, I was provided with Oriental Trading decorations in exchange for my review, but as ALWAYS, I only recommend products that I truly love and all opinions included are 100% my own. In fact, I even went back and purchased additional decorative items on my own as I just couldn’t get enough!

I never can help but to go a bit overboard with decorating. Nothing says a Nemo & Dory party better than seeing it plastered over every single square inch of wall space ;). In order to create my look I turned to Oriental Trading who has an AMAZING collection of all things Nemo & Dory which can be found here. I grabbed everything they had right down to the matching napkins and forks!

I used green streamers to resemble seaweed.

I use door covers for every door, hanging character decorations for the ceilings and walls, and found a fun Nemo & Dory inspired backdrop for the base of the stairs so that guests could snap photos!

I grabbed some complimenting cardstock and cut out pink fish and blue and orange bubbles that noted facts about each child throughout the past year of their life (blue for one child and orange for another. These bubbles and fish were placed all over the home and helped to celebrate all the excitement of the past year.)

Lastly, I cut scraps of leftover fabric from creating the above dresses, along with matching tulle and created high chair skirts for both girls so that they could dig into their personalized smash cakes in style.

GIFT BAGS

What is a party without a gift bag? With Nemo & Dory cookies for the adults, I wanted a bag full of goodies for the youngsters at the event. Included in the bags were:

• bubbles
• a Nemo & Dory designed cup
• a bag of goldfish (“Little Nemo crackers”)
• a box of crayons
• a Nemo & Dory coloring book (not pictured as it was added last minute), along with Nemo & Dory individual coloring pages

Overall, the party was a ton of fun and definitely screamed Nemo & Dory!

Have you thrown a Nemo & Dory themed party? What else did you add to your party? Comment below!