So your baby has a first birthday coming up? How exciting! Congratulations, you did it! Your little one has grown exponentially over the past year and you have gotten to witness it with your own eyes. It's so remarkable to watch a baby grow and reach so many milestones. And it is definitely worth celebrating. 🥳
In this post, I am going to discuss the details of my little girl's first birthday. I will touch on the following topics: theme, decor, guest list, food, and logistics of the day.
THE THEME/DECOR
I feel like there is so much pressure about "the theme" for first birthdays. As our daughter got closer to turning a year old, I found myself in conversations and then suddenly being bombarded with the question "what is the theme for her party going to be?". Like there is some rule that a baby's first birthday party has to have a theme. Don't get me wrong there are tons of cute and festive theme ideas for a first birthday. If a specific theme is what you want to do- then do it! You know your baby better than anyone. You know your family dynamic, and financial situation, so if having a specific theme is what you're planning- then you should totally do it.
For us, we decided that her turning one should be the theme. It was a very simple theme that left us plenty of opportunity for open ended creativity. I was not as stressed trying to adhere to a specific theme. The two defining concepts of her party were the number one and the color pink.
I purchased the backdrop fabric from Hobby Lobby. To hang up the fabric, we used two command hooks and then tied a wire between them and draped the fabric across the wire. The balloons were probably the most time consuming part of the preparation, but I was so happy with how they turned out. Follow this link for the balloon kit I purchased off Amazon. We did add a couple extra balloons to the arch that I purchased from the dollar store.
I made the tutu that was on her high chair. I actually opened an Etsy store and make these as a side business. If you would like to check out all the designs I offer, you can follow this link or click the picture below.
And finally that cute little birthday hat you can see sitting on her highchair is this one on Amazon. Her birthday outfit was also this tutu dress. It was a hit and super cute on her.
Overall, with the theme being super simple it was very easy to be creative and not stress about adhering to a specific theme. It turned out great and she was the happiest birthday girl.
THE GUEST LIST
This was probably one of the easiest guest lists I have ever had to create. Before our daughter's first birthday, like you, I read various blogs from other moms seeking their ideas and opinions about organizing my baby's first birthday. One unanimous opinion was keeping the guest list limited. There was one main reason we decided to take this route for our daughter's first birthday.
In my opinion, more people equal more stress. Obviously, it is great to be loved and supported by a lot of people. If you have tons of family and friends and they are involved in your baby's life regularly, then by all means invite them. If you have only a handful of people who are regularly a part of your daily life that's okay too. My point is don't stress about "finding people" to invite just for the sake of having a large guest count. Your sanity will thank you. For our daughter's birthday we had a total of 10 people and it was great. I was able to spend time with the birthday girl and not stress about making sure everyone else was happy constantly.
THE FOOD
Planning the food for her party was pretty simple since the theme was so open ended. For the main course we provided Chick Fila nuggets, french fries, and some mixed fruit. I ordered the chicken nugget platter a couple days in advance and the day of the party my husband went to pick it up while everyone was arriving. We bought some frozen french fries from the grocery store that I popped in the oven while he was picking up the nuggets. The fruit was also super simple, I already had the fruit cleaned and cut the evening before so I just poured it into a fancy bowl for serving. I am now just realizing I never took a picture of this set up, sorry!
For dessert and her cake we kept it super simple also. My sister made the "smash cake" and then for everyone else we purchased cupcakes from a local bakery. My mom also found a local baker who makes gorgeous personalized cookies for different types of celebrations. The cookies along with all the other desserts are shown in the photos above.
THE LOGISTICS
I recommend a couple things leading up to the day of your little one's party. These are a couple things I did in advance. This is assuming you've already acquired most of your decor and party supplies.
3-5 Days Before:
Pick up any last minute decorations or party supplies you may have missed.
Make sure any catering orders are placed and the pick up date/time are correct.
1-2 Days Before:
Organize/tidy up areas of home visitors will be gathering.
Go grocery shopping/ pick up bakery order
Prep non-perishable foods or anything that can be made ahead of time.
The night before her party we did all the decorating for her party once she was in bed for the night. It was super fun once she woke up the morning of her party and have her decorations ready for her to admire and explore.
We scheduled her party around 1:00 pm. At 12 months old she was still taking two naps a day so we planned her party to fall in between both naps. In hind sight, I would consider having her party near the end of the day. I know this can be tricky if you plan on having friends over who also have children and they have specific bed times or evening routines that are pretty rigid. But for us, as the party hosts, it may have made more sense to have the party after her last nap so she would be wore out for the day once all the festivities were over. Since we had her party in between naps, it was difficult to get down for her second nap because she knew there was a party going on downstairs. This is were being dynamic and adaptable parenting comes into play. She basically took a power nap/rested for her second nap and then rejoined the fun. Overall, it worked out just fine, especially since we didn't have a large group of people over and it was family. They weren't expecting an extravagant party, but mainly wanted to spend time together celebrating our daughter's first year of life.
My main piece of advice for first birthday party planning (well any party honestly) would be to have a plan, but be adaptable. Have a general flow of how you'd like the day go, but dont be too rigid. Rarely does anything every go to plan, and adding a one year old into the mix probably won't help make things less bumpy. Just have fun and go with it, and enjoy this special day celebrating your baby.
Congratulations again on this huge milestone. I hope you have the best time celebrating and make so many special memories. I also hope this post was helpful and provided you with ideas on how you'd like to celebrate your baby. Or maybe you already celebrated you kiddos first birthday and somehow stumbled upon this post. If that is the case, I'd love to hear about how you celebrated and any other advice you have for fellow moms and caregivers. Send your message in the comment section or visit the EMAIL ME section to send a message directly to me. Thanks again for using your valuable time to read over this post!
Until next time!
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