The brief
A fourth birthday at a garden restaurant in Canggu — turf underfoot, a swing in one corner, jungle behind it. The family wanted the sea at a venue with no sea in it, and they wanted somewhere the adults could sit down and eat properly while it happened.
What we built
The set was the job here. A full underwater wall — scales, a seahorse, an octopus, coral, fish and two mermaid tails — carrying her name and <i>is turning four</i> across the front of it, with a balloon garland in pink, lilac and mint running the whole width. A giant shell to sit in, a lilac four standing beside it, and string lights overhead for when the light dropped.
How the day went
A mermaid arrived in a teal sequin tail and was surrounded before she had finished walking in — the tail alone held them for ten solid minutes. Then games across the turf, a balloon pit to fall into, and the bubble show: one child at a time standing inside a ring while a bubble closed over their head. They queued for it without being asked, which at four is close to unheard of.
What the parents got
A set good enough that the photographs did the announcing for them — and a lunch they actually ate, sitting down, while somebody else ran their daughter's birthday.
