The brief
A fifth birthday at a villa with a long pool and a timber terrace over it. The family are the sort who commit — they set a dress code and their friends actually followed it — so this was never going to be a party where the adults stand at the edge holding paper cups.
What we built
The table went low, alongside the water, on black-and-white woven mats and chairs. Down the centre we ran live greenery rather than a runner — ferns, palm fronds, heliconia in orange — with raffia placemats, deep terracotta napkins and small dinosaurs walking between the plates. A balloon garland in sage, olive and white stood against the far wall, so the styling read tropical rather than plastic.
How the day went
Then the T-Rex came round the corner of the house. A full walking dinosaur, chest-high, moving on its own — and it went straight for the adults. They lined up for it, one arm over its neck, half of them holding white eggs they had been handed; three of them were still laughing too hard to look at the camera. The children ran the lawn and the pool between rounds.
What the parents got
A birthday that photographed like a grown-up party with a dinosaur in it, rather than a children’s party the adults had to sit through. Their friends are still sending them the pictures.
