Having two boys and then a girl I am still relishing in all things girly. I knew I wanted to make Ava’s first Birthday beautiful so took to Pinterest to get some ideas. I created a board of first Birthday party inspiration and quickly got overwhelmed by the amount of amazing ideas. My favourite theme was the pink and gold 1st Birthday. I love throwing a party on a theme and have done some great ones for the boys over the years, Teddy bears picnic and Super Mario were some of the best with crafts, games and themed food. I enjoy doing it but often end up feeling a little stressed trying to make it perfect.
With going back to work and feeling like everything is a huge juggling act I decided I would try and not do too much! I picked a theme of pink and gold and instead of having it in a hired hall we had it at home. We set the playroom up as a baby room with a ball pool, tunnel, lots of toys and some soft play. For the older kids we had a bouncy castle and garden games outside. We then had the lounge as an adult space where we set up the food table and I created a backdrop and hung decorations. I was really pleased with the outcome and it was relatively simple to achieve, so I thought I would share how I did it and what I used.
The little extras where what made it special. The cake topper, table confetti and straws were all made by a lovely seller on Etsy – ConfettiDay. I messaged her as I had left it a bit late to order and she assured me they would arrive in time. They did, beautifully packaged and I was so pleased with them. The links are at the bottom of the post. Check her out as there are lots of designs for many different occasions.
I made the marshmallow pops using pink and white straws from Wilkinsons. I used pink melts from Asda and edible gold stars. These are so easy to do that my 4yr old helped. I’m going to do a post soon showing just how quick and simple they are.
The food was tricky to do as we catered for adults, children and Ava’s allergies. We had an indian selection, nuts, tortilla chips and dips and spicy jelapeno and cheese bites for the adults. Jam and cheese spread sandwiches, cucumber sticks, grapes, cherry tomatoes, mini sausages, mini sausage rolls, potato bites, hula hoops, party rings, oreos, haribo and cheese and tomato pizza for the kids. I am going to be doing a post on allergy free party food which will go in to more detail.
The pom poms were beautiful. I have saved them for her bedroom, detached the sparkly number 1’s and have put them in her memory box. For the photo’s I used an APP to make them look like polaroids, added a caption and then printed them out at Boots. If I had been more organised there are some great companies that will print them for you.
I was on Instagram and I saw a Birthday crown pop up on my find. A few messages later and I had a custom crown designed for Ava and matched in colour to her dress. Made by the super talented Max and the Star it received lots of comments and looked really cute. It’s also something that we can keep for her, I loved it!
The bouncy castle outside was so much fun. Frozen themed with a slide it tired out the boys and me. We also had giant jenga, giant connect4 and sack races. We were very lucky with the weather with it being October and made the most of it. The babies loved the soft play along with the tunnel and ball pit that I already had. All the items were provided by Bedford Inflatables who were a pleasure to deal with.
Party bags
In the babies party bags they had a bath duck, either pirate or princess. A flashing spikey ball and bubbles (Tesco).
Please note I haven’t been paid and nor was I gifted to talk about and include the items below I was so pleased with them all that I wanted to make sure that I included where they were from.
Decorations
Pink tablecloth
Pink and gold paper plates (placed alternately)
Pink and gold napkins
Pink and gold paper cups
Pink and white striped paper straws with gold star decoration
Table confetti, Pink and gold stars with gold sparkly 1 decoration
Gold hanging star garland, cut into three and hung as a backdrop
3 pink pom poms with pink glittery hanging 1, hung from the ceiling
Pink and gold balloons
Pink and gold serving trays
A montage of photos from bump, newborn to age 1. Hung on gold string with wooden pegs.
Food
Marshmallow pops dipped in pink melts and sprinkled with gold glitter stars.
Handmade dairy, soya and egg free chocolate cake with pink ombre icing.
Pink and gold Tinkerbell, bunting cake topper.