Everything went perfectly for Grace’s 1st birthday celebration on Saturday. In the week leading up to it, the weather report had forecast nothing but rainclouds and I was worried that our plans may have had to change to having the party indoors. However despite a chilly start to the day, we had bright blue skies and lots of sunshine.
Following the advice many of you gave me, I tried to organize most details in the week before the party so I had as little to do as possible on the morning itself. All of the decorations were done with little expense and as I enjoy crafty projects, I had great fun making them.
Having seen numerous beautiful dessert tables on the many party blogs I had been browsing recently, I was inspired to put a bit of thought into this part of Grace’s party. I made some polka dot paper garlands to string along the front of the table using details I came across
here. This was super easy using a circular punch I borrowed at the local scrapbooking store and then I stitched the shapes together on my sewing machine.
The three pink rice paper lanterns were bought cheaply off eBay from
here. They added a nice burst of colour above the food table.
The children’s party favour bags contained a little cellophane packet of chocolates (Freckles) and some bubble mixture. I made the tags on the front and the cute mini pegs were from
kikki.K (I had been looking for an excuse to buy these!!)
The ‘vases’ were old jars covered in decorative paper and the flowers were either from my Mother’s Day bunch or our garden.
For the cake table, I made simple polka dot bunting using some left over paper I had in my stash, alphabet stickers and red and white string.
The cake itself was a traditional #1 cake smothered in buttercream frosting and decorated with Smarties. I made the cake a few days before and froze it and then took it out and iced it on the morning of the party. I used the CWA Hi Lite Cake recipe (recommended by both Paul’s aunty and my friend Kylie) and the mixture was perfect. I also made cupcakes (thanks for your tips
Karyn – they were delicious) and I made polka dot cake toppers from paper I found at our local craft store.
As a photo display, I used
Poladroid to ‘age’ a photo of Grace from each month of her first year which I then re-sized, printed out and hung up. I also had a digital photo frame displaying photos of Grace inside next to the tea and coffee making station I set up.
Grace’s polka dot dress is one I actually bought from
Little Styles last year (it is still currently available). I had bought it in a larger size hoping it would be suitable for Christmas this year, but when I settled on the polka dot theme, I decided it would be perfect to use for Grace's birthday instead.
All in all, we had a great morning with a nice number of guests, beautiful weather and yummy treats. Thanks you to everyone who helped us on the day either with food, taking photos or cleaning up and thank you to all my fellow bloggers for all the tips and advice you gave me.
