Mario Kart 5th birthday bash in South Sydney
If you are a big Mario Kart fan, you would not want to miss how guests raved for days about this Mario Kart 5th birthday party in south Sydney!
The venue was initially booked at Mortdale Community Centre, as it was very spacious inside, with lots of car spaces outside. Mortdale Community Centre has indoor air-conditioning, which made setting up (before the event), throughout the event, and pack down (after the event) pleasant (it was a 40 degree day!). This space also has a large playground behind for kids to roam around.
The kids and adults arrived at a large backdrop, containing Mario torso, character cutouts and bold colours used throughout Mario Kart. This setup was completed with a black and white checkered mat.
There were also adults and kids tables, each table having a centrepiece of a racing track and cutouts of popular Mario Kart characters. To maintain the Mario Kart theme, I had gaming-themed tablescapes, Mario placemats and favour boxes. The favour box itself is the item box, which randomly appears throughout the Mario Kart race game. In the race, when a character catches an item box, they receive a random item; these items, including mushroom, red shell, green shell, and star, are inside the favour box (as fondant cookies, stickers and keyrings) to keep well into the Mario Kart theme. On the adults table, there are cups containing Nintendo Switch cutouts (and if you look closely, there is an image of a Mario Kart race inside too).
There was plenty of food to share for all guests and event professionals who were present throughout the event. To cater for dietary requirements, some dishes were vegan-friendly, so that no guests walked out feeling hungry. These vegan-friendly dishes included fruit platter cups, tomato bruschetta mini bites, mini vegetable spring rolls and pesto pasta salad. The catering table was also styled by the catering business.
We even had a coffee cart to keep the adults energised (and refreshed) with hot coffee, iced coffee and iced chocolates (for the kids). The coffee cart was a big hit!
Mario himself arrived at the birthday party 15 minutes after the party started. For 1 hour, he played lots of activities, which involved kids running around, and even had adults engaged and involved. As there were less than 15 kids present at the birthday party, Mario took the time to remember all the kids' names and kept them entertained the whole time.
As we gathered within the last 30 minutes of the party to sing happy birthday and take group photos, we all wound down together to enjoy cake before finishing the event.
The walkthroughs of this celebration are shown further in Part 1 and Part 2.
My favourite memory of this birthday party was when the birthday boy, although shy, warmed up very quickly and was able to run around, giggle, talk with his friends and being entertained by Mario!
As an event planner who values family time, I understand the importance of family and friends to enjoy and have fun themselves at their own kids’ birthday parties - instead of having to remember and remind their loved ones to bring items and feeling stressed while talking to several suppliers at the same time before the fun even starts.
Event professionals involved in Mario Kart 5th birthday party:
Event Planner & Management: Special Events by Tracey
Event content creation: Captured BTS
Venue: Mortdale Community Centre (Georges River Council)
Photographer: Mavis C Photography (all photos in this blog are by Mavis C Photography)
Prop Hire: Tiny Tots Event Hire
Balloons, backdrop cutouts and prop hire: Beas and Honey
Mario torso cutout and kids stationery: Katrinah’s Kreations
Kids entertainment: Superheroes Inc
Cake: Das Makes Cakes
Fondant cookies: MDC Creations
Coffee cart: The Coffee Counter Sydney
Mushroom stickers: Stickeroo
Catering: Floating Graze