The Most Charming DIY Horse Party!

My daughter was (and still is) obsessed with horses, and for her fourth birthday she requested a “horse party”. This is what I came up with: a celebration that is rustic, country, girly, and all things lovely! If your little one just LOVES horses like mine – pull on your boots, saddle up, take the reins and give them their best birthday ever with The Most Charming DIY Horse Party!

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Charming DIY Invitation Inspiration

With almost every party I host, it all starts with the invitation. I find something I personally love, making sure it has my kiddos approval, then use it as my guide for designing the party. I know these days, most people just send e-mail or text message invites but I still very much prefer to send a real paper invitation in the mail! Not only is it more fun for the guests to receive something (what kid doesn’t love getting mail?!!) but then they have something to hold on to and get excited for leading up to the celebration. I also like to frame the invitations to place on a dessert table or somewhere decorative for the party. Afterwards, I keep the invitation as a keepsake for my children.

I loved that this invite was a clean, simple and girly design with red and pink florals. I took a trip to Michael’s Craft store found some cute lace-y ribbon to tie around them. Anytime you can add something to an invitation whether it be confetti, stickers, little cut-outs – anything having to do with the party’s theme it makes it so much more memorable. Maybe just don’t put glitter – or parents will definitely hate you.

Charming DIY Horse Party Table Decor

In order to host the amount of kiddos we invited to this party, I knew I needed to find some tables that were a lower height appropriate for their ages. Our local preschool that my girls attended came through and lent me two long tables with the chairs! Such a blessing!

To create the rustic “country-cowgirlgirl” tablescape, I visited JoAnn Fabric and had them cut me a few yards of floral fabric that (you guessed it!) matched my birthday invitation! Next I added a burlap and lace runner that was leftover from a recent wedding we attended that they were going to throw out. I use it over and over a few times a year! It’s the best when you can keep re-using classic pieces to save money. I just love the look of layering burlap over top the very feminine-looking floral fabric.

Next came the off-white plates with doilies to add interest. A cute paper cowgirl-party hat to top off each plate, a couple of horse figurines lining the tables, a beautiful matching bouquet as a centerpiece along with neutral-colored horse balloons adding some height to the setup … and WA-LAH! Perfect!

Party Signage & Photo Display

This rope sign with my daughter’s name on it was something I made for her (specifically for the party), and it was so special to her that she kept it on her bedroom door for years! It was easy enough to make – I bought a little blank wooden sign and simply spelled out and hot glued her name on it using a thin, rough-looking piece of rope.

At Michael’s Craft store I found this denim and white lace vintage-style banner that I decided to attach pictures to. With some paper flower rose clothespins, I posted some of my favorite pictures of my daughter from recent years.

Most Charming DIY Rustic Horse Party Desserts

As I’ve mentioned in most of my other party posts, it’s an annual tradition that I bake with my kids leading up to their birthday parties… it gets them super excited and helps create beautiful memories… and I’d so much rather come up with the desserts together then just buying something. Thus, the reason our cakes and cookies never look “professional”, but they were certainly made with lots of LOVE! I thought the cake looked awesome on top of this big wooden slab. We found adorable horse, horse-shoe and boot cookie cutters to make our favorite sugar cookies.

Craft Table

For our craft, I bought these cute little round wooden frames- provided paint, stickers, and matching little red and pink flowers to glue on. Kids loved designing them!

GIDDY-UP! Pony Rides and Piñatas!

For this party we decided to go all-out and have pony rides! There are lots of local farms near us so I didn’t think it would be too difficult to achieve, but I remember it did take quite a bit of legwork to find someone who would come through and do a kids birthday party. Definitely the highlight of the party and worth the trouble though!

You could literally feel the excitement in the air with all of the kids knowing a REAL HORSE would be showing up that afternoon! When the horse trailer pulled down into our road, kids ran full-speed to greet the horse and it was the sweetest thing ever! The kids had a blast, and after our birthday girl rode the horse a few times, it was becoming apparent that she would not ready to part with it any time soon!

Our horse pinata was a big hit also. My girls stuck the character “Lucky” from Spirit on top.

DIY Horse Party Favors

For the party favors, I bought these cute little burlap pouches, sponge painted a little heart on each and used tiny stamped letters to personalize with each of the kids’ names. Whenever I have time to put their name on a party favor, I love to do it because it makes it that much more thoughtful. I don’t always have the time, but in this case I did and I love how they turned out! Inside, there were stickers, stamps, and pretty little horse-related items.

The horse sign is something I made for the party and it was super simple. I purchased a cheap white pallet at Michael’s craft store, printed out an outline of a horse, traced and filled it in with a matching pink color. My daughter still has this hanging in her room to this day! Just think – with any theme you could do the same type of artwork!

I hope you’ve enjoyed The Most Charming DIY Horse Party! You can find more fun party inspiration here.