The brief
A second birthday in a hotel — marble, white walls, glass from floor to ceiling and cool air. For a two-year-old that is often the right call: no sun, no insects, no walking her back and forth to shade, and the older cousins can still run.
What we built
An underwater set in the softest end of the palette — a sleeping octopus, a jellyfish, a turtle and shells painted rather than printed, her name and <i>2</i> across the middle in her family’s own language. Corals cut in white and mint standing free on the floor, plinths draped in mint sequins to sit on, a balloon garland running pink, lilac and white with clear bubble balloons through it, and a standing <i>2</i> packed with balloons.
How the day went
Photographs first, while she was still fresh — mother and father either side of her on the sequin plinth. Face painting for the older ones, who came away with a spider on one cheek and a pink mask across the eyes, and then a show they sat through with popcorn in both hands. She spent most of it on somebody’s hip, watching, which at two is exactly the correct amount of party.
What the parents got
A cool room, a set that reads as expensive in every frame, and a second birthday that stayed calm from beginning to end.
