Anatomy of a First Birthday Party...

Hi Everyone! :)

Remember this post about birthday party inspiration that I wrote awhile back? Well, I realized that I never actually came back to share the details of Mirielle's First Birthday Party! I decided when Miri was about six months old that I wanted to have a Hungry Caterpillar themed party. I researched decorations and cakes and invitations. But as the date grew closer, I realized that to choosing a really specific theme would really mean a lot more work for me. Instead I decided to pick an easy theme. My 30th birthday party was a carnival theme, which I really liked, but we couldn't do exactly the same thing for Miri. So I started thinking about other possible themes. And if you can believe it, the entire party ended up being based on an outfit!

I have known since just about forever that Miri would wear a birthday tee by Resa Design. We have a number of other shirts from her and are big fans! For the bottom, we would use the ever popular tutu!! Miri has three different tutus (all were gifts!) in blue, pink, and red. After looking at fabric choices on the Resa Design webpage, I knew that my best bet was the red tutu with an blue and red "1". And that is how the theme of the part was born!! Here she is in her birthday outfit. :)

The invitations were from Photo Affections, which is the same site that we had previously used for our birth announcements and Christmas Cards. I think this was technically the "boy" invitation, but it worked for us!

Decorations included party hats, gift bags, and cupcakes toppers made by The Polkadot Pinwheel etsy shop. To be honest, I probably could have made this all myself, but I figured it would save me a lot of time and energy and stress to just pay somebody else to do it! I ordered the matching paper (which was really difficult to find!!) and made some homemade banners. We also had some gorgeous red tulips. :)

I even made a banner for her chair! :)

To eat we served basic appetizers, but included some fun treats like shaped sandwiches for the kiddos and jelly beans in the party colors.

Our tasty cupcakes were made by a local bakery, but I purchased special cupcake liners from another etsy shop, Cupcake Confessional. They were really inexpensive and helped tie everything together!

The gift bags included bubbles, crayons, cookies, and candy. Everything in the bag fit the red and blue theme. :)

So there you have it! A not-too tough to throw together first birthday party. I think Mirielle enjoyed it! :)