Expert Wedding Planner | Lending a helping hand to the Costa del Sol community

Expert wedding planner lends a helping hand to create an unforgettable birthday party on the Costa del Sol.

When our very own Scott Gibbons, founder and owner of Sunshine Weddings Spain, was asked to help with the organisation of a birthday party, he didn’t hesitate to say “Yes!” Because, let’s be frank, if there is a bit of planning and partying involved, Scott can’t resist. Add in a generous helping of community spirit and a fabulous “fiesta” is guaranteed.

Any event planning requires creativity and imagination, coupled with in-depth knowledge from visualisation to execution and Scott, with more than 20 years events planning experience has all of this and more.

So when a Scott heard about Millie, a young girl who missed out on her Bar Mitzvah—a coming of age ceremony for Jewish boys and girls when they reach the age of 12 or 13—because of covid, and was holidaying in the area with her father, sister and step-mum, he couldn’t resist putting forward his expertise, with the same passion and enthusiasm he applies for any wedding event.

A Pinkalicious Birthday party fit for a princess by Scott Gibbons.

“When Sara reached out to ask for some guidance in the organisation of her step-daughter’s 12th Birthday party, I couldn’t have been more delighted to help.

Sarah explained that she wanted to do something a little bit special for Millie, and had some great ideas on what to do, so together we put our creative thinking caps on to expand on those ideas and funnel our minds onto thinking in line with 12-year-olds again.

The party was held at a restaurant located in a residential development area where Millie, her father Mitchell and Sarah have family and friends.

The restaurant owners were very accommodating and allowed us to use a private section of the establishment, a beautiful space overlooking the Mediterranean sea which was particularly calm, the waves gently lulling on the sandy shore.

We created a number of different styling and décor all around the pink & white theme. A colour party theme is super fun if you are looking for a theme that is different from the usual commercial ideas and so we proceeded to create a huge pink and white wall, with pink and white balloons as the backdrop to everything, which we felt was fitting.

Dark rustic wooden dining tables were set up opposite, dressed with elegant décor including pink runners and lace going through the centre and white chairs as the seating option.

We placed two candelabrum on each of the three tables, candelabrum which had originally been black Halloween ones, but which we sprayed white to keep with the pink & white theme. We also made a number of jars adorned with lace, each held a combination of different pink and white flowers adding a delicate touch to the decorative scheme.

In addition to that, we set up a candy floss machine and candy cart brimming with all the favourite cotton candy flavours for when all the guests arrived.

To kick-off the party vibes, we were joined by local singer and drama teacher, Laura, with one of her star students who, together with Millie and her party guests, created six hip TikTok routines of all the latest trending songs.

All 6 dance routines were then uploaded onto TikTok and we have plenty of photos as proof of the fantastic time had by all in learning the dance steps.

The energetic jive was then followed by some well deserved chill-out time, where everyone sat down for some refreshments. We had a couple of dispensers serving apple juice, orange juice and water— although one ‘youngster’ did ask about beer! Which certainly wasn’t on the drinks list, even if he was a bit older.

After the refreshments, everyone sat down at the tables and enjoyed a range of pizzas, chicken wings, chicken nuggets and hot dogs.

The birthday meal was followed by Laura who sang some tunes before animating young and old with some entertaining party games, the most popular being “Fetch this” which involves calling out something on the lines of: “Fetch a white t-shirt” or “fetch some flip flops.” A simple game which made for easy party family fun—the kid certainly loved it!

The games were followed by some popular songs sung by Laura, which had everyone up and dancing, which was really fantastic.

To finish off the super entertaining birthday party, there was artisan ice cream for all, professionally served to the children from an old fashioned ice cream cart. We had four flavours, vanilla, strawberry, keeping in line with the pink & white colour theme, there was also strawberry cheesecake (which I can personally affirm was amazing) and Kinder Bueno (kinder egg flavour).

But best of all, Millie, the birthday girl, who had no idea of the birthday party that had been specially organised for her, had the most amazing time surrounded by friends and family, undoubtedly a birthday she will never forget.”

A special thanks to Scott Gibbons for sharing this special birthday party story with us and a very Happy Birthday to Millie on behalf of the Sunshine Weddings Spain Team.