I have mentioned before that I am a Pinterest junkie. I did my back yard wedding with Pinterest inspiration and I LOVED my wedding! So of course where else to turn when planning the FIRST birthday? What I did and how I did it BIRTHDAY 101:
Pick a theme- Pink Lemonade
The high chair - bought on Craigslist. Paid more then I wanted to because I let another one slip by and I was a little over a week away from the big day. Paid $35. Its a nice retro wooden high chair. Did have the great turned spindles but all in all I think it came out well. I used a left over low VOC can of paint from her nursery. I cheated it and didn't refinish it. I sanded it down. Washed it down. Painted 2 coats with a fairly dry brush to get a purposeful streaked distressed effect. Didn't coat the tray so I would not recommend placing cake right on it unless you coat it with a food save top coat. But our cake was attached to the cardboard plate beneath.
Pick a theme- Pink Lemonade
The high chair - bought on Craigslist. Paid more then I wanted to because I let another one slip by and I was a little over a week away from the big day. Paid $35. Its a nice retro wooden high chair. Did have the great turned spindles but all in all I think it came out well. I used a left over low VOC can of paint from her nursery. I cheated it and didn't refinish it. I sanded it down. Washed it down. Painted 2 coats with a fairly dry brush to get a purposeful streaked distressed effect. Didn't coat the tray so I would not recommend placing cake right on it unless you coat it with a food save top coat. But our cake was attached to the cardboard plate beneath.
The props - I bought the pre-painted letters at Micheal's. I used them to make a fun collage pic that was a total Pinterest steal. You can see it in in the very first blog post. The banners were fabulous. I found a woman who does paper crafting on a local FB Exchange site. You can reach her at [email protected] We did one for the highchair and one for the wall.
I did a small candy bar. BEST advice came after I had acquired a few apothecary jars at Home Goods- Good Will. I was able to pick up 4 more glass containers of various shapes and sized for $1.25 each. The table cloth was princess fabric from Joanne Fabrics. They have amazing Princess materials there.
I ordered all of the candy online from various stores. Rock candy was the biggest hit. NOTE TO SELF if you ever decide to do a future candy bar DO NOT set it up the day before when your 3 and 6 year old cousins are coming over for dinner. It was quite the tease.
The cake - we were so lucky that one of the teacher's at daycare makes fantastic cakes as a side business. If you live in MD email me and I will hook you up. You won't be disappointed. We opted for vanilla and lemon cupcakes with a vanilla smash cake for the baby. And yes before you ask both designs were a Pinterest steal. loved loved loved them.
The cake - we were so lucky that one of the teacher's at daycare makes fantastic cakes as a side business. If you live in MD email me and I will hook you up. You won't be disappointed. We opted for vanilla and lemon cupcakes with a vanilla smash cake for the baby. And yes before you ask both designs were a Pinterest steal. loved loved loved them.
Custom candle bought on Etsy from TheCraftyPair.
General First Birthday Advice.
The Invites - I used Paperless Post and did pay a small fee for upgraded email evites. I thought it worked well except one of my guests never received the evite so follow-up with those who do not RSVP. She made other plans and was disappointed not to attend. I ordered one copy of the evite in paper form for her baby album. I so glad I did that. I put it out on the cupcake table for display. Was worth the $5.00.
Smash Cake Pictures- I read somewhere to consider doing birthday smash cake pics on a day other than the actual party. We didn't and I think having 30+ people staring at her did impact her smash experience. She was DAINTY and barely ate any cake. But, we got some cute pics and everyone had fun. If you want the SMASH you might want to do it a day before or after. Also, we have not done professional photos. I enjoy taking her pic and they come out pretty well. I tend to over expose a bit. For her smash cake I set the manual setting on my digital and handed it off to a friend. Worked for us.
Presents- I specifically ask people NOT to bring presents. Think about this based on the amount of people you invite. We did her birthday in combo with a big annual BBQ that we always hold so we have over 30 people. I didn't want to be inundated with toys (we have so many already) BUT people still brought them. We were very thankful but I was glad I stated no gifts in the invite or we would have been overwhelmed. Consider picking a charity for people to donate to. We may do this for future parties while she is so young.
Activities - We knew we would have young children and toddlers there. Luckily we have a pool so the older kids had built in entertainment . The Water Table- this was a gift from Auntie although we had actually bought one for baby's gift from Momma and Papa ( we returned ours) It was prefect for the day. We used a Summer baby gate system to make sure that the water table and toys were a "safe place" for our little ones. Also, I went to 5 Below to pick up some inexpensive activities for toddlers. Pool noodles- amazing how just carrying them around can be entertainment. Bubbles- both big wand and small wand. Beach toys - fun to chew on and inexpensive. Rubber bouncing ball any age can play.
General First Birthday Advice.
The Invites - I used Paperless Post and did pay a small fee for upgraded email evites. I thought it worked well except one of my guests never received the evite so follow-up with those who do not RSVP. She made other plans and was disappointed not to attend. I ordered one copy of the evite in paper form for her baby album. I so glad I did that. I put it out on the cupcake table for display. Was worth the $5.00.
Smash Cake Pictures- I read somewhere to consider doing birthday smash cake pics on a day other than the actual party. We didn't and I think having 30+ people staring at her did impact her smash experience. She was DAINTY and barely ate any cake. But, we got some cute pics and everyone had fun. If you want the SMASH you might want to do it a day before or after. Also, we have not done professional photos. I enjoy taking her pic and they come out pretty well. I tend to over expose a bit. For her smash cake I set the manual setting on my digital and handed it off to a friend. Worked for us.
Presents- I specifically ask people NOT to bring presents. Think about this based on the amount of people you invite. We did her birthday in combo with a big annual BBQ that we always hold so we have over 30 people. I didn't want to be inundated with toys (we have so many already) BUT people still brought them. We were very thankful but I was glad I stated no gifts in the invite or we would have been overwhelmed. Consider picking a charity for people to donate to. We may do this for future parties while she is so young.
Activities - We knew we would have young children and toddlers there. Luckily we have a pool so the older kids had built in entertainment . The Water Table- this was a gift from Auntie although we had actually bought one for baby's gift from Momma and Papa ( we returned ours) It was prefect for the day. We used a Summer baby gate system to make sure that the water table and toys were a "safe place" for our little ones. Also, I went to 5 Below to pick up some inexpensive activities for toddlers. Pool noodles- amazing how just carrying them around can be entertainment. Bubbles- both big wand and small wand. Beach toys - fun to chew on and inexpensive. Rubber bouncing ball any age can play.