The brief
A seventh birthday on a hotel lawn — palms, pool, the sea just past them, and long tables for a proper sit-down lunch. At seven a girl knows precisely which of the L.O.L. characters she likes and will notice if you get one wrong, so the set had to be specific rather than generically pink.
What we built
A pastel cloud carrying <i>Happy 7th Birthday Miroslava</i>, and four dolls cut and sculpted by hand — hair, glasses, bows and shoes all worked in relief rather than printed — standing on the grass at her height, so she could be photographed beside them rather than in front of them. A giant <i>7</i> packed with balloons, an <i>L.O.L. Birthday Girl</i> sign, and balloon clusters in candy pink, mint, lilac and white.
How the day went
The tables ran down the lawn under bunting strung between the palms — white linen, hot-pink runners, pink chiffon and gerberas in glass jars, with the pool and the sea behind. She spent the first twenty minutes going doll to doll in sunglasses, deciding which was hers. Then the cake came out: three turquoise tiers with the dolls iced onto them, pearl balloons up one side, a <i>7</i> on top and her name in a speech bubble.
What the parents got
A lunch for the adults with the sea in every photograph, and a set that looks made rather than bought. Their daughter next to a doll her own size, which is the picture that ends up framed.
