Whimsical Locations: Belvedere Castle in Central Park

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With the weather finally warming up, an outdoor party is a great idea for anyone making birthday plans.  And what better place to have a picnic for a young prince or princess than by an actual castle?  Fortunately, New Yorkers are in luck because our very own Central Park has just that!  

Located mid-park at 79th Street, accessible from both the East and West Side of Manhattan, Belvedere Castle is a gorgeous 19th century structure designed by Calvert Vaux (who also co-designed Central Park with Olmsted). Although it was originally built to be merely decorative, it's now used by the National Weather Service as a place to collect data. It's also host to many free activities throughout the year including "On A Wing" birding events, astronomy talks, storytelling, and even a haunted castle event every Halloween!

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Of course you must obtain a permit to have a party or picnic here, but these are surprisingly inexpensive and can be obtained here.  But first things first: swing by our website or call us at (646) 504-9824 to book your entertainment with NY Princess Party.  We offer many characters, including princes and princesses, and we're familiar with the area since we've done parties here before (just last week, Cinderella and Rapunzel paid a surprised birthday girl a visit).  

So... Check out Belvedere Castle, pick a date, contact us, and let us help you make your child's birthday a magical and memorable one!

Subscribe to our blog today and you'll be notified when we put up new posts, including more on whimsical party locations and inclusive packages!  What are you waiting for?

Rapunzel Round-up

Nowadays, one of the biggest crazes for young girls is Rapunzel -- and it just so happens, we also love the lady with the long locks and have our own fairy tale-inspired version -- available for your next event!

Since our very own Rapunzel has been invited to so many birthday parties lately, we thought we would present a round-up of fun, Rapunzel-inspired party ideas.  We searched the Internet and found all kinds of great tips and tricks, including decor, favors, invitations, cakes, food, activities, games, and more!

To check out the original source of the image or idea, just click on the link below the picture (definitely check some of these out for their easy tutorials).

Tablescape (source unknown)

Rapunzel Craft

Rapunzel Cake

Party Invitation

A collection of Rapunzel party ideas

Tablescape

Tower cake

Braid party favors

                             

Tablescape

Tower cupcakes in ice cream cones

Rapunzel Party Ideas

Royal Bunting

Hope you enjoyed that round-up!  All of this (and even more) can be found on our newly re-vamped Pinterest page.  Not only do we have themed party boards, we also have crafts for kids, ideas for cakes, and our newest board (that we're especially excited about), "Parenting a Princess."

Go check it out, then subscribe to our page to catch a sneak pick of our newest pins!

NY Princess Party on Pinterest

As you may remember, we started a Pinterest page back in February.  We've loved being able to pin ideas and put it all in one accessible place, as well as picking up inspiration from the rest of the Pinterest community.

However, this past week we overhauled our page, got to organizing, and then got to Pinning (again).  The end result is a more streamlined page with different boards for some of our more popular categories, including cakes, party favors, tablescapes, party decor, activities, games, and themed parties.  Within our themes, we have boards for Rapunzel, Cinderella, mermaid, and pirate parties (so it's not just for princesses!).

We hope that as our page grows, it can become a source for you party planning parents out there who don't have the extra time to do the research, but still want to throw a fabulous birthday party for your children.  By doing all of this legwork for you ahead of time, our Pinterest page will not only be a source of inspiration, but a timesaver as well!

The page is an ever-evolving project for us, so over time we will continue to Pin more ideas and make more boards. If you want to stay up to date, you can follow us:  New York Princess Party.  (And if you don't already have a Pinterest account, you should join -- It's easy, fun, and free!)

Go check it out, then tell us what you think!  We'd love the feedback, especially if you have ideas for boards you'd like to see or themes you'd like us to explore!

Craft Corner: Pipe Cleaner Crowns

Today we begin what (we hope) will be an exciting new, ongoing series: Craft Corner!  With this series, we hope to post monthly tutorials for crafty ideas that you can do with your kids.  Of course we'll have our share of princess projects, but we also plan to do some prince projects (and pirate projects, too -- for all the swashbuckling boys and girls out there). 

For today's tutorial, we have a very kid-friendly (and budget-friendly) craft: Pipe Cleaner Crowns. 

You Will Need:

•        2 pipe cleaners (any color, though metallics look great!)

•        4 bobby pins

•        Five minutes of free time!

1.   First, take one pipe cleaner and make a ring.  Do this by gently bending the pipe cleaner into a circular shape, then wrapping the ends around the ring.

2.   Next, the actual decorative crown part:  You can do this a lot of ways, but my favorite way is three loops.  Make a loop on the center by finding the middle of the second pipe cleaner and twisting around twice. 

3.   Then take one end and make a slightly smaller loop.

4.   Repeat this on the other side.  You should end up with three loops -- the one in the enter being the biggest.

5.   Once you're happy with your shapes, attach it to the first pipe cleaner ring by wrapping both ends around the ring.

For the princes out there, you can use this same method, but maybe instead of the loops, you could do a few points -- Something more reminiscent of a prince's crown.

Once your crown is complete, you can attach it to the top of your child's head using bobby pins on either side (I recommend making an "x" with the bobby pins that way it is locked into place).

These are great for dress-up, but they'd also make wonderful, cost-effective party favors.  You could have a "coronation ceremony" of sorts at your party, giving each boy or girl a crown -- and maybe even a special title!  Duchess Dance-a-lot... Lady Silly-Nilly, Countess Cartwheel... the possibilities are endless!

Don't miss a minute of the crafty goodness!  Subscribe today and get our newest posts directly to your inbox... Or subscribe via Reader: just find us under "NY Princess Party."

NY Princess Party now accepts SquareCard!

NY Princess Party is pleased to announce our recent partnership with SquareSpot. SquareSpot is a new online marketplace dedicated to meeting the needs of discerning moms and families. It’s where you’ll find great offers and discounts on high quality, family-centric products and services.

Now all you SquareSpot members can receive 10% off your booking with NY Princess Party by providing your SquareSpot Card Member ID Number at checkout. Find us on their site, and while you're there take a look around!

Spotlight on Costumer Liz Samuels

NY Princess Party strives to attract the best people for our team and that even applies to the person clothing our lovely ladies. Today we are pleased to brag all about Liz Samuels, our talented costumer!

Liz's love of costumes goes way back to her childhood when playing dress up was her favorite activity. Her mom always made Liz's Halloween costumes, and as soon as she was old enough she started sewing pillows and little stuffed animals. She has loved sewing ever since, moving on to patterns, fashion design, and period costuming.  Liz graduated from NYU in 2009 with a BA in Italian with a focus in Medieval and Renaissance History. Her love of history combined with her passion for clothing, color, and form are the backbone for Liz's intricate costume work. In addition to working with NY Princess Party she regularly works in the world of film designing imaginative costumes.


Of course with all this talk of fashion and costuming we wouldn't leave you in the dark about what we have in the works right now....

Liz was able to give us a sneak peek of the progress on our new Cinderella gown currently being hand made. Take a look at the photos below! We hope you get as giddy as we did to see it start to come together!!

Princess Origins Series: Charles Perrault

Photo courtesy of NNDB.com

We've reached the final chapter in our fun and educational Princess Origins series. Our last author and great great great great grandfather of some of our most beloved characters is Charles Perrault. He was a french writer of the 18th century who brought us such classics as Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood, and Tales of Mother Goose. A fun fact connecting Perrault to one of our other origin writers is that many of Perrault's works were later gathered, edited and printed by the Grimm Brothers.

Here's a sampling of his translated work:


Cinderella (or The Little Glass Slipper)

Once upon a time there was a gentleman who married, for his second wife, the proudest and most haughty woman that ever was seen. She had two daughters of her own, who were, indeed, exactly like her in all things. The gentleman had also a young daughter, of rare goodness and sweetness of temper, which she took from her mother, who was the best creature in the world.

The wedding was scarcely over, when the stepmother's bad temper began to show itself. She could not bear the goodness of this young girl, because it made her own daughters appear the more odious. The stepmother gave her the meanest work in the house to do; she had to scour the dishes, tables, etc., and to scrub the floors and clean out the bedrooms. The poor girl had to sleep in the garret, upon a wretched straw bed, while her sisters lay in fine rooms with inlaid floors, upon beds of the very newest fashion, and where they had looking-glasses so large that they might see themselves at their full length. The poor girl bore all patiently, and dared not complain to her father, who would have scolded her if she had done so, for his wife governed him entirely.

When she had done her work, she used to go into the chimney corner, and sit down among the cinders, hence she was called Cinderwench. The younger sister of the two, who was not so rude and uncivil as the elder, called her Cinderella. However, Cinderella, in spite of her mean apparel, was a hundred times more handsome than her sisters, though they were always richly dressed. Read more! 

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