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About Catherine Holt

Catherine Holt is the founder of Smart Party Planning. She is a stay at home mum with a passion for celebrating life’s little moments, with creative yet budget friendly ideas. Catherine often has a camera in hand capturing everyday events and is a self obsessed chocoholic! She loves connecting with other mum's on the blog and sharing party planning tips and tricks. Get all the answers to every aspect of party planning with her eBook today! If you want to hold a party with that ‘wow’ factor and have it tailored to the person you’re holding it for then this eBook is for you. Let Catherine take the stress and headache out of organizing your next party or event.

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Comments

    • Catherine Holt says

      Hi Stacey

      You want to staple together the top of the tablecloths, so depending on the area that you are wanting to cover and how your tablecloth’s fit to this area, it would depend on whether it’s the width or the length.

      For the purposes of my backdrop I needed the length in the tablecloth to cover the entire area to the floor as it was quite large. I therefore stapled the width’s together, and used three sets of tablecloths to cover the entire width of the backdrop.

      I hope that makes sense?

    • Catherine Holt says

      Hi Tammy. I used 1 staple through the braid and that was sufficient to stop if from unwinding. You can see an example in the picture under step 4. You only notice the staple in the picture because it’s close up. As a whole, you wouldn’t even know they were there 🙂

  1. Liz says

    Hi Catherine,

    Thanks an awesome idea. I’m planning to celebrate my daughter’s 1st bbq bday party at a park. I’m just wondering what you do in the bottom to prevent them from moving from the wind?

    • Catherine Holt says

      That’s a good question Liz. I put the backdrop against a blind I already had there. You could put it up against a wall?

      I’m not sure how to really stop it from blowing in the wind though if you are choosing to place it in an open area. Unless you ensure the lengths touch the ground and then tape the bottom to the floor (on the back of the backdrop so you can’t see it from the front). Otherwise i’m not really sure you really can stop it from blowing in the wind.

      Have you had any other ideas?

    • Bev says

      Dollar Tree sells bags of clear glass gems that could be glued to the bottom of each strip or set of strips. Even cheaper would be attaching zipper bags to the bottom of the strips and adding anything with weight, such as water, rocks, or anything rather flat.

      • Catherine Holt says

        That’s a great idea Bev 🙂 Just make sure that the lengths of the strips are longer than they need to be, otherwise it would cause the strips to snap. If there is plenty of give, then having weights on the bottom would work perfectly 🙂

        The last party I held was super windy, so I literally put some sticky tape on the bottom of each strip and tapped to the floor! You couldn’t see the tape because of the table infront 🙂

    • Catherine Holt says

      Hi Cindy. To be honest, I did not measure this at all. That’s the beauty of it, you can literally just cut it up really quick and it still looks great. I just cut where I thought looked about right.

      But, I would have cut each strip to be roughly 6-8 inches in size.

      Hope that helps 🙂

  2. Melody says

    I love it! Id like to make this at home before taking it to the party venue place. Any tips on how to transport without getting too tangled?

    Also could this stay up using painter’s tape to attach to wall?
    Thank you!

  3. Jenn says

    How would you stick it to a wall indoors? Clear packing tape doesn’t seem to cut it. Please help! Thank you!

    • Catherine Holt says

      Hi Jenn

      I have never actually hung it indoors, but if I was I would use some removable hooks. That way you won’t damage your wall or leave any marks. Hang enough of them to take the weight and to avoid the tablecloths from tearing. Then I’d punch some small holes in the top of the tablecloths (once all stapled together) and hook over the hooks. Once the party is finished simply remove the hooks from the wall.

      I hope that helps 😀

  4. Pallavi says

    I really loved this idea. My daughter’s first birthday is coming in Aug and plan to use this backdrop.

    A quick question, how does the pictures come when you are behind the table for cake cutting? Do you have pictures to share so I can get an idea?

    And again thank you so much for sharing this amazing idea.

  5. Pallavi says

    Hello, I have to tell you our party went awesome and everyone just loved the backdrop 🙂 .. I will share pictures soon as well.
    Thank you for such a great idea and sharing it. I would love to follow you and any other ideas for my daughter’s next birthday 😀 ..
    Thanks again. 🙂

    • Catherine Holt says

      That’s fantastic, I’m so pleased to hear the backdrop worked for you. I would love to see pictures, thanks for sharing. You can either tag @smartpartyplanning on Instagram or share on our Facebook page 🙂

  6. ruby says

    This is a great idea for “fun” parties! I wish I could see a big picture, but in your opinion, could this be used as a wedding reception back drop & not look too “Kiddy”?

    • Catherine Holt says

      Absolutely it could Ruby. Just change the colors to what is appropriate for the wedding and it would look great. In fact, I recently did this for my daughter’s tropical party. I used the colors gold, pink and white. A friend actually mentioned that it would make the perfect wedding backdrop 🙂

  7. Missy says

    Hi Catherine!

    I am planning a 50th wedding anniversary party and plan to use two gold tablecloths with one white tablecloth in the middle. Do you think this will look okay or do you have suggestions? I am trying to stay with the color theme for 50th anniversary. I tried to complete one already and my braids did not all look the same and had to remove the staples from the tablecloth in order to braid the strips. Can you please tell me what I should be doing different? The space we are using for the party has 6 garage doors which I would like to cover. Do you think decorating 6 garage doors is too much. I am not that crafty and would really appreciate your feedback. Thanks so much!

    • Catherine Holt says

      I think the colors you have chosen will be fine here. There really is no ‘rule’.

      I would put the white in the middle of the two gold and braid from there. When you do the braids try and keep them loose so they give the puffy look at the top. You also don’t need to braid too much, just 3 braiding folds would be sufficient. Keep an eye on the one you have done and then try to do the next one the same size. As you work across the sheet they should all be roughly the same size.

      6 garage doors is a lot, but it’s not impossible and it would still look good. The space I decorate would be around the size of approx 2 garage doors and I use 3 sheets for that (with 3 in each set). So Id guess you would need to use around 9 separate sheets. I think the end result would look pretty impressive 🙂

  8. Ashley says

    Hey Catherine! This is beautiful! I was wondering though, plastic table cloths are sooo wrinkly out of the package. Did you do anything to smooth them out?

    • Catherine Holt says

      Hi Ashley. The tablecloths are always terrible when they come out the packet arn’t they! But don’t worry, you don’t need to do anything to them. The great thing about this backdrop is that it doesn’t have to be perfect to look amazing. Wrinkles in the tablecloth, or cutting gone wrong, doesn’t affect the overall look at all.

      Literally every single time I have created this backdrop, I have taken the tablecloths out of the packet and put them straight up. I always create my backdrop the day before the party, so maybe some of the creases fall out overnight, but to be honest I don’t notice any difference one day to the next!

      So keep it simple. Open the packets, staple them together and get it up on the wall. It will look great 🙂

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