Butterfly Themed Party Ideas

Butterfly Themed Party Ideas: butterfly party ideas for watercolored and gold butterfly party decorations, butterfly mini-cakes and butterfly sugar cookies.

Butterflies are the perfect theme for a summer celebration, whether it’s for big girls or little girls!  We set up the prettiest butterfly theme party in our backyard for a girlfriend get together and it was so much fun.  A butterfly themed party is so perfect for garden parties. I’m excited to share all the fun ideas and little details that made our party guests love it.    Check out all our butterfly party ideas below.

I started out with making the butterfly party supplies, by customizing some things with gorgeous handmade paper butterflies.  We wanted to use lots of pink for our colour scheme, but add in some pastels for all the summery vibes.  I watercolored some watercolour paper that I picked up at the local dollar store, and then adding gold foil wing details over top with my Cricut machine foil tool, and then cutting out the paper butterflies in different sizes with the Cricut.  If you’d like to make something similar, find my Cricut Design Space cut files here.  

If you didn’t have a Cricut you could use a butterfly template to cut out the butterfly shape by hand or use plastic butterflies.  I used these pretty pastel coloured butterflies to create the perfect DIY party decorations.  These butterflies had lots of gorgeous gold foil detail and it sparked in the sun during the party.

Paper Lantern Butterfly Party Decorations

My favourite butterfly party decoration was the beautiful butterfly lanterns we hung over our party table, covered in lots of butterflies.  We used ours over our main picnic table, but they would also look amazing hanging over a dessert table too. To make them I hot glued our paper butterflies on to the lanterns in a way that made them look like they were flying up the lanterns.  I placed the largest butterflies in the middle, and then placed smaller ones on the top and bottom.  These paper lanterns are such a nice alternative to a helium balloons, since you don’t have to worry about picking them up on the day of the party.  And the lanterns are reusable, which is nice.

DIY Butterfly Cake Toppers

We also used the paper butterflies to create our own cupcake toppers.  We hot glued the butterflies onto some wooden toothpicks.  The mini cakes are made from stacking some pink cake rounds -cut out with cookie cutters.  We layered them with jam and icing, and piped a pretty little icing flower on the top of the cakes, and added our little butterfly cake toppers to each one. We wanted to make it look like a butterfly was landing on a flower.  Our little butterfly cupcakes mini-cakes turned out so cute!  The cake toppers would also be beautiful grouped together on a larger cake or butterfly birthday cake.

Butterfly Drinks

We used the same paper butterflies with beautiful gold foil butterfly illustrations on the wings to add to each glass.  We had some gorgeous vintage pink champagne coupes and we added a little flutter butterfly to each one, by cutting a slit onto it and adding it to the rim of the glass.  You could also make these into name cards by adding the guests name on to each one.  These were such a lovely addition to the table and perfect for sipping sparking wine or sparkling lemonade and adding a little butterfly magic. 

The Butterfly Party Table

We were setting up a picnic so we used a short coffee table in our party area of the garden and then added pillows and blankets around the outside so our guests would be comfortable.  I love this idea for a picnic, because you can still set a gorgeous table with no fear of things getting knocked over, like they might on a traditional picnic blanket.  We draped our table with a vintage lace tablecloth, and then added some colorful flowers as a centerpiece.  We used flowers with the party colors for the floral arrangements, so a mix of wild flowers, and pretty pink peonies.

For each place setting we started with a small white plate and then layered on some pretty floral napkins.  I wanted to add some floral to the table and these napkins were the perfect way to do it.  I actually used two tea towels with coordinating patterns and cut them in half, and sewed a hem on the cut side to make the napkins. 

Butterfly Napkin Rings

To create the custom napkin rings, I used some clear acrylic butterflies -shop for them here, and added the guests names in gold foil cut out on my Cricut machine.  I tied them with the prettiest frayed edge ribbon -shop for it here.  The butterfly names served as a beautiful napkin ring, a place card and a sweet take home butterfly party favor after the party.  If you had little guests for a magical butterfly birthday party, these would be a great addition to their goodie bags too.

Butterfly Party Favor Boxes

On each place setting we also added a cute little butterfly favor box.  We made these butterfly party favors on our Cricut.  You can find our butterfly favour box cut pattern here in Cricut Design Space if you’d like to make one.  Each one is cut from one sheet of pink cardstock and folded together.  

We added a chocolate to each one for a little sweet treat.  These are a fun way to add a another small party favor to the table.

Butterfly Sugar Cookies

We made the beautiful butterfly sugar cookies with lots of color to match our paper butterflies as part of our party food.  We started out with our favourite sugar cookie recipe -find it here and used a butterfly-shaped cookie cutter to cut them out.  To decorate them I made a very thin white icing, and then added in a swirl of colored icing and used a toothpick to create a marble effect.  Then I dipped in each cookie.  I love how easy this cookie decorating method is and it looks so beautiful.  While the icing is still wet add on some color coordinated sprinkles, edible gold glitter, and some little bits of 24K edible gold leaf -buy it here.  Your guests will love these stunning cookies.  They’d make a lovely addition to favor party bags too, sealed in a cello bag and tied with a ribbon.

This party theme makes your heart flutter.  These butterfly party ideas would be perfect for a girls get together, bridal shower, or baby shower theme.  And also our butterfly party ideas would be perfect for birthday parties.  Any birthday girl would love all our beautiful butterflies!  How sweet would this be for a 1st birthday party?  Just be sure to add their own pair of butterfly wings for the guest of honour.  

We had so much fun thinking of creative ways to add so many pretty butterfly details. With a butterfly party ideas like this, life really is a party!