Easter is only two weeks away, so it’s time to get planning for a fabulous Easter weekend celebration. If you haven’t already, sign up for the Easter Workshop over at Martha Stewart for daily inspirations on crafts, entertaining and fun  Easter ideas.  For an Australian flavour, here’s our Easter Eggstravaganza planning strategy for a lovely Easter weekend party celebration.

Invitations

Try making your own Easter-egg shaped invitations from a beautiful selection of coloured paper.  Ask your guests to ‘hop on over’ to your place this Easter!

Setting the scene

Decorate your party space with lush hanging baskets of pastel flowers and hang eggs and bunting from the trees in your backyard. Also arrange some big baskets of colourful balloons filled with helium to really get your guests into a colourful Easter mood. The ones above are available from Pink Frosting.  Alternatively, your kids might even like to paint plain balloons to make them look like decorated Easter eggs. Ensure your guests have been asked to wear an Easter bonnet to the occasion so there’s plenty of colour and activity for your party.

Decorating and styling

Set the table with snowy white linen for a festive Easter brunch.  For a simple and stylish centrepiece that the children will love, scatter some straw down the centre of your table and then nestle a collection of mini blue, yellow and pink sugar eggs.  Add crisp white napkins tied with blue, yellow and pink ribbon, silver cutlery and white crockery for a timeless feel.  Of for a touch of kitsch, tuck a little yellow chick into the fold of each napkin.  The kids will ooh and ahh!

For a more adult (but time consuming) centrepiece, try making your own birds’ nests from coconut fibre, birch branches or pussy willow.  Simple instructions are available online.  Line the interior of the each nest with decorated eggs, or for a real statement, add a beautiful bouquet of flowers.

This amazing Easter inspirational decorations above are from our friends over at Pink Paris Studio – gorgeous, huh?

Entertainment

The highlight of the party – for young and old – is an Easter egg hunt.  Scatter mini chocolate eggs throughout the house and garden and give each guest a little basket to fill with their glorious finds (if you are worried about potential mess, then secure the eggs in plastic wrap first).  Ensure you leave some ‘easy targets’ as well as some more difficult ones and let the hunters know how many eggs are hidden as this helps them work as a team.  Another way to make sure it’s fair for everyone is colour code your eggs to each age group, so that the littlies can get their share of the spoils!

Alternatively, you could set up a table with hardboiled eggs and a collection of vibrant food dyes and encourage each guest to decorate their own Easter egg.  Or offer up raw eggs to be blown and turned into weird and wonderful creatures.  Provide glitter, pipe cleaners, pom poms and glue to help your guests make rabbits, chickens and a menagerie of other animals.  If you’re game, use the remaining eggs for an egg and spoon race!

Don’t forget to give all of your guests some Easter Egg hunt bags to collect their eggs in and to take home with them.

Menus, catering and cocktails

Serve a selection of Easter-inspired food (seasonal fish and beer battered chips is always a good option for Easter) and include a decadent buffet of sweet treats, including hot cross buns, Easter bunny biscuits, chocolate truffle Easter eggs and chocolate and coconut birds’ nest with tiny eggs nestled inside.

Favors and gifts

Send each guest home with white takeaway boxes filled with delicious Easter eggs and tied up with personalised ribbon.  Alternatively, we love the Easter cookie cutter sets over at Pink Frosting (you can split them up and give one cutter to each guest tied with a ribbon and tag) or the fun egg timer favours which are designed for baby showers but work so beautifully for this time of year!