The Party

Since I've been talking about it long enough, I am going to finally post the photos from Sophie's 1st birthday party. The party was great - I think everyone had a blast and we are so happy that we were able to throw this for her. She is really amazing and deserves 1000 parties (do I sound like a mom yet?). Happy Friday!

With the loose theme of the party being photos, we decided to go with a photo favor. During the year, I take tons of photos of family and friends at parties and events - with all my client work, I don't get to work on them as often as I'd like. So, Tim and I went through all of our photos from 2010 and found a photo of almost every guest (or their kids) at the party. There were more photos than guests, and a few extra of Sophie mixed in. We framed them all and let everyone take their favorite(s). It was a huge hit and people were picking and trading and choosing the entire time.

Birthday girl!

Here is the 365 book and our 'guestbook' for the party - I ordered a print from Etsy and everyone left soph a note. We plan on framing it and adding it to her art wall.

My nephew :)

Vendors

Location: Bykenhulle House (beautiful venue for a party or wedding)

Caterer: Eddie Kowalski/Lola's Cafe (love Eddie, he catered our wedding as well)

Music: Outtake (they were awesome!) Cakes: Pastry Garden

Napkins: Target

Crafting supplies (scrapbook paper, cupcake wrapers, etc.): Michaels

Online resources

Balloons: Balloon express (remember if you buy round balloons, they use way, WAY more helium than regular ballons :), and they take up a lot of room in the car...see below)

Guestbook print: Etsy (thewheatfields)

Cutlery: Greenfeet

Kraft paper/cups: Amazon

Cupcake decorations: Etsy (fondant 1's: ClineffsConfections, tulle poms picks: shortcakepartypicks)

Straws: Shop SweetLuLu

Everything else is diy - we made the goodie bags, cupcakes & all other desserts besides cakes, set-up drink table and all decor. Let me know if I missed anything, I'm happy to help!

Party Inspiration

So, Sophie's party was a week ago and it was awesome! I'm finishing up on the photos and will be posting in the next few days (mostly decor photos), but first, I wanted to post some of the inspiration I used for the party.

Since we had a good amount of people invited, we needed the party to 'be' somewhere, as in, not in our house. Once the party is somewhere, then you need tables, chairs, decorations, etc. I was really excited for that! I've been waiting all year to plan this party :), but I had a few considerations. First, it had to be relatively inexpensive. I didn't want to buy flower centerpieces, or have to rent an insane amount of things for the party. Second, I wanted to make a lot of things (of course) and I wanted it to reflect us. I didn't want a mickey mouse theme, or princess theme or anything too artificial. Not that there is anything wrong with that or that when she is 4, she won't force me to embrace barbie or something, but for now, while I'm still in control :), we were going with a 'lack of characters' theme. So, the theme of sorts was photos. Of course. I have another post in the works that you guys will love showing a recent project that really was the basis for the party theme, but for now, you know I take a lot of photos and I really wanted to incorporate them into the party somehow. Also, the last thing - I didn't want it to be green (the color). I know it seems ridiculous, but I am a green fanatic (my house, my business, my wedding), so I really wanted to go in a different direction (at least once).


Sources:
pink ruffle cake
burlap runners (unknown)
dessert table (unknown)
swatches
bamboo plates
photos
gable boxes

Here is a close-up of the invites I created - I was going to make a really involved photo invitation, but I decided to spend the money on the party instead of the invitations (really hard decision for me, b/c I love all things paper) when I found these awesome printable invitations from target. I added the twine and mini-photo and that satisfied my urge for homemade invitations.