I can’t believe I’m blogging about my baby’s first birthday! It felt just like yesterday when I first held her in my arms. Fast forward a year, here we are, planning and executing her first birthday party. I was pretty stressed a few days before the celebration but so thankful for the people in my life who helped made the party a smooth one - you know who you are :)
Emm’s favourite song since she was a few months old is ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’. So I thought why not make that the theme for her birthday? But I didn’t want it to be so literal. I decided to go with pastel hues for the theme. As usual, I was on Pinterest a lot just curating her birthday mood board and getting ideas. Oh the possibilities are endless!
A lot of the things/decor that I want, I couldn’t find the exact image with the exact colours. Lucky for me, I found vendors whom I could trust and everything turned out like how I imagined it to be. I knew I wanted an elaborated balloon arch at the dessert table. So my focus was to make the dessert table area look good, the rest of the venue stayed as is without much decor.
I even thought of a brilliant idea for party favours when I came across these Kmart star cups. Initially I wanted to put fruit juice in it but thought Berries Infused water was a better option. It turned out NONE of the kids liked it! HAHA! One even came up to me and insisted on giving me the cup back cause he didn’t like the water at all. Oh well I tried! The cups were also personalised with ‘Emmaline is ONE’ stickers which I ordered online [will be linking all the vendors I used at the end of this post] and at the back it has the names of all the kids who attended the party.
Now for my favourite part - the BIRTHDAY CAKE! Another easy task that I ticked off my list early on during the planning process. I wanted a cake that’s pretty naked on top so I could put a fancy cake topper on it. But I also didn’t want it to look completely naked. Jess from Little Madame’s Gateau nailed the design and the colours. I wanted a watercolour buttercream cake with stars accents and in pastel pink, white and lilac hues. So in love with cake! It tasted so good as well. I ordered their Coconut cake with Raspberry Cream. It was DELISH!
I got this wooden name plaque pretty much at the VERY last minute! I can’t believe this one slipped off my mind and it’s one of the main decor for the dessert table. I ordered this from Etsy, from Mint Graphic Designs 5 days before the event and I’m so thankful it came on time. It’s so beautiful and very well made! We’re keeping this in her room.
The only thing I decided to DIY this time around, with a baby pretty much attached to my hip, is this high chair garland/bunting. It was really EASY to make but unfortunately for me, Emm still doesn’t sleep through. On the night I was making it, she decided to wake up every 30 minutes after 8pm right up til 12am. I was slowly, but surely going insane. I got there in the end. Only took me 5 hours that night to complete it. No regrets though, it complimented the decor really well.
My other option was to purchase on Etsy but they didn’t have the colours that I wanted. So I bought all the ribbons and tulle from Spotlight and followed this tutorial on YouTube to make it. And thanks to my bestie Cheryl for pushing me to do it, but NEVER again!
I also recently came across Little Party Play in Melbourne. They basically have really stylish toys for hire like this Scandi slide from Jupiduu. I wanted the kids to have an area where they can play while their parents mingle and eat in peace. Gloria, from Little Party Play was so easy to communicate with and she even let me have the slide for a few more days so Emm can play with it in her own personal space. Because, well look at her expression in the picture above.
That says it all.
I hired a slide, a teepee, an invisible play pen and a birthday board from Little Party Play. The invisible play pen was an instant hit! The kids loved it! They loved it even more when the balloons were in it. It made me so happy to see the kids enjoying themselves as well.
Oh I also hired this monthly birthday photo banner from Little Party Play for the Grazing Board area. I didn’t want everyone to crowd in one area so I decided to set this space up since it was empty. I ordered the board from I am board Melbourne. They delivered it to the venue on time and my oh my, it was so delicious.
We added some gum leaves and fairy lights to give this space some character.
I’m so happy we managed to pull it off. We were so close to hiring a planner/stylist to organize the whole thing but so thankful we didn’t because I really wanted to do it myself, for Emm, but really more for myself hehe! I really do enjoy hosting and planning small parties.
Thankful for a supportive husband. Without him, this party wouldn’t have happened.
Thankful for a supportive family. Without them looking after Emm while I was busy prepping for the party, decorating the space would have been impossible.
Thankful for supportive friends. Those who came earlier to help me really eased the load off my shoulders, so thank YOU! You know who you are.
Also, a big thank you to Asma’ who flew down to Melbourne from KL just to help me capture Emm’s birthday. Forever grateful! She also helped with the finishing touches to all the decor. If there’s one person that I can count on to make things even prettier than they already are, it’s definitely Asma’.
As promised, here’s the list of vendors/things I used for the party:
Venue - Torissong, Carlton
Balloons - Leona Party & Home
Backdrop stand - Ali Express
Backdrop curtain - Spotlight
Wooden Name Plaque - Etsy, Mint Graphic Designs
Cake - Little Madame Gateau
Cake Topper/Mini Confetti Balloons - Poppies for Grace
Flowers - Casa Verde
Cookie Cake - La Manna
Toys hire (Slide, Playpen, Photo Banner, Teepee,Birthday Board) - Little Party Play
Table Cloth- Kmart
Cupcakes - Cupcake Central
Cookies - Kek & Co
Grazing Board - I AM BOARD Melbourne
Moon and Stars Wands - Cotton On Kids
Star cups - Kmart
Highchair Garland - DIY/Spotlight
Emma’s dress, Headband & Party Hat - Bardot Junior
My outfit - Shop Hanya
