Party Starters! How to Throw a Donut Party!

Sweet donut clutches for your gal pals, an oversized donut cake, and a donut-shop-inspired paper awning make up the basics of this pastry-themed fete!

Are you ready for our Party Starter videos!? Today we’re sharing the first of four (thats right FOUR) parties we designed and shot with food.com! With three accompanying DIYs each, the next month is full of great projects that we think you will love! We shared more about the genesis of the videos, and sneak peeks of all the parties, here.

First off, let me tell you that both of us are still a bit nervous to share these videos with you (you know how they say the camera adds 10 pounds and all that?) but we are so grateful for the opportunity and in many ways we do love how they turned out so we are going to share them with you all regardless! The first one is our pastel donut shop party! The link to all the projects, videos, step-by-steps, and photos can be found right here but keep reading for some fun tidbits and inside looks!

I have talked about how much I am obsessed with donuts before and they still remain my favorite snack of all time. This was also the video we filmed last so you better believe the second it was over that I immediately grabbed like three donuts and scarfed them down.

For those of you who are wondering, the donuts are from Provo Bakery and yes they were delicious! They did a great job matching our icing requests and the lettered donuts are definitely a fan favorite! As teased last week, each party included an easy recipe, DIY favor and DIY decoration and I think the favor for this party (the donut clutches!) is the cutest one of all!

Below we’ve linked to all the videos, plus the whole party shoot! PLUS every project has it’s own step-by-step instructions with photos in case videos ain’t your thing. We’ve thought of everything you need to throw the cutest little donut party ever (and make everyone want to be your best friend)!

We’re smiling here but we were pretty exhausted at this point. I know it sounds like complaining and honestly it was so awesome to film these videos but it is way more tiring than either of us anticipated. Those lights really take it out of ya! Plus, all the energy you need to put into the presentation is a job in itself. On top of all that, these videos were filmed in Machelle’s upstairs level (shared photos of the majority of it here) which has no air conditioning at all! Even though it was March, and Utah’s winter certainly wasn’t over yet this year, we had a spring-y week and it was HOT up there!

Machelle and I aren’t ones to get hot easily so if we were complaining-you know it was really warm! I’m positive the four camera and sound men were on the edge of absolute misery haha. And add to that Machelle getting almost no sleep with a five month old and toddler and honestly I don’t know how she did it. I barely survived and I definitely got 8 hours of sleep each night! Plus, the 2 months leading up to all of this were A LOT of work.

So the weekend after these videos, we made sure to take plenty of time off and put our feet up! We snacked on leftover goodies (of which there were plenty) and watched a good amount of TV. Well deserved if we do say so ourselves. :P

In our discussions with Food.com they told us that every recipe should be simple and something anyone can do at home with few ingredients. Our recipe for this party was a giant donut cake that was so cute and so delicious. Don’t worry-we are NOT professional bakers! Trust me, if we can make a cake that looks this yummy-you can too! The pans were easy to find and we just used cake mix from the store and canned frosting, and it turned out perfect. All the instructions plus video can be found here.

I can tell you my family really enjoyed the process of perfecting this cake because I made about 5 to make sure I got it down. And you bet, I shared them all! (Not that I couldn’t eat them all myself but that I definitely shouldn’t.)

Now our decoration for this party was almost a complete disaster. The night before I accidentally ripped a hole in the example awning Machelle made and it was so bad. While I was across the country in D.C. Machelle made multiple awnings, perfecting the technique and in one fail swoop I almost completely destroyed it! My clumsiness always manifests at the worst time. Now that I write that I am thinking “well when is it good to be clumsy?! Never!”

But not to worry-the rip was not a big deal at all and the project came together beautifully! This was one of the projects that we poured our whole heart into. We could not find a similar project already done by anyone so the process and pattern was completely designed by Machelle! It took a lot of tinkering to get it just right, but the result was so worth it!

This awning is so lightweight, it can be setup anywhere! It’s made entirely from paper! No wood or piping or anything that would require a trip to the home improvement store! Best of all–it extremely cheap to whip up. One foam board, one poster board and one roll of wrapping paper! That’s it! This decoration can be saved to use again and again. We were going for a donut shop/donut food truck vibe but wouldn’t it be perfect at an ice cream party?! Or over any carnival-themed food. The possibilities are endless. And I promise this is pretty easy to make. Machelle spent the many days coming up with the pattern so you wouldn’t have to! Watch us give the run down here.

Isn’t it fun to see the behind the scenes shots of these videos?! I kinda feel like I’m giving away some highly classified secrets showing you the apple boxes under the table and our fill-in props! But that’s what I wanted these posts to be about-the process and not just the result.

Now these favors I am particularly excited about! They turned out so beautiful and I have Machelle to thank for that! Plus they are NO SEW!! I would be happy carrying these clutches at any event but if you have young kids I think they would also be thrilled to get one of these as they leave your party.

Aren’t they just adorable!? Perfect for toting around the essentials, with enough room for all the things a girl needs and plenty that she just “needs” :) Or, a perfect makeup pouch! I can hardly imagine a better party favor for girls of all ages. Find the instructions and printable pattern here!

This was another project that I was thrilled to put together as I hadn’t seen a similar design out there. I created the pattern all by myself and searched high and low for the perfect materials to make it come together. Now you just get to enjoy the fruits of my labors and still end up with the cutest little purse ever!

Now for the entire party! You can watch the whole event unfold in less than four minutes! We couldn’t believe that they’d be able to condense our months of work and hours of filming into tiny four minute videos! But they did it!

Filming was such a whirlwind of an experience and we can’t wait to share more of the videos and projects with you all! We have more little stories about how the projects came together and behind the scenes footage so stay tuned for the next month as we’ll be revealing one party (and 3 DIYs!) each week!