AFL Party

My son Jakobi lives and breathes AFL...

He spends about an hour each night out in the paddocks practicing his kicking, handballs and of course, imagining his future as a footballer. He adores his favourite football team (Essendon) and never misses watching a game. His biggest wish for his 8th birthday was to have an Australian Rules Football Party theme.

I started by researching what designs are out there, and there just aren't many. I wanted to incorporate many of the popular team colours that play in the various football leagues and to reflect the atmosphere of going to a live game. The invitation was the first product I created, complete with grandstand and lights. I left the reverse side relatively clear to let the writing details do the talking.

The next thing I organised was the cake pops. My awesome friend Nicole at Sugar Pop Bakery is renowned for her amazing boy cake pops. They usually come complete with team guernsey, however I wanted to create my own design, so the cardboard bodies are by me. She did a terrific job as they were loved by all.

The footballs were created by Tanya of Creative Temptations. I have been lucky to work with Tanya before and I am still blown away at how cute her chocolate creations are. The pops of red and blue that her food created really made an impact.

The last, but no means least partner on this party was Patty Mac Cookies. She was recommended to me and I'm so glad that we connected. I asked Patty to create cookies that used my invitation as inspiration and then let her create her magic. Oh.My.Gosh. They were utter works of art! The detail she went into was incredible.

Other features of the buffet table were melody pops that represented umpires' whistles, lolly teeth to represent mouthguards and the biggest cheeky prop of all - a giant red easter egg as the centrepiece. Usually this place is reserved for the cake, however unfortunately for Jakobi, this party happened during Covid lockdown so we were unable to get cake and would not be able to share it. What we were able to do was create a video for guests to share in and we filled the huge water bottle props with table items and then dropped them off to all the guests.