Fabulously Theme-less First Birthday

Description

Hello Again! As if my Wilhelmina's "Fabulously Theme-less Nursery" wasn't enough, I decided to go for a "Fabulously Theme-less First Birthday" to celebrate our glorious first 12 months with our girl. We decided to throw a fairly simple party, on a beautiful November day, in the shade of the trees in our side yard. Our home is right next door to a neighborhood park so it was an ideal location for all of W's friends to join us for some cupcakes and BBQ and a fun day of playing in the park.

Design Inspiration

I stayed with what we know and love, just plain fun. Lots of color, lots of texture, lots of handmade goodness. Our girl loves things bright, shiny and fun and I think we achieved just that! I totally admire those mom's that take a theme and run with it, whether it be for a nursery or a party. I'm sure one day W will have a favorite doll, book, animal (s) etc and will run with it. But for now, we just kept the inspiration at strictly whimsical and bright!

Decorating Style

Eclectic, theme-less, fun, colorful, Anthropologie meets the Children's Museum :)

Project Details

Streamers: Hours before the party started, I climbed ladder and hung lots and lots of colorful streamers from the trees above the party to create a colorful canopy for the wind to sweep through. http://www.partycity.com/product/hot+pink+crepe+streamer+81ft.do?sortby=ourPicks&pp=60&size=all&page=2&navSet=170245 I also took a large quilting/embroidery hoop and draped streamers through the loop to create a streamer chandelier.
Fabric Banners: I enlisted the help of some fantastic etsy.com artists for our "Happy Birthday" signage. The Happy Birthday banner on our ivy wall came from Bliss Banners. We'll use this banner for years and years and kiddos to come! https://www.etsy.com/transaction/99720887 Our adorable Yay for One banner came from Jppinkdaisy. It was a perfect match with the multi-colored fabric on our Bliss Banner. https://www.etsy.com/transaction/99912268
Pom-Poms: I've been on a pom-pom making kick lately and have recently made some fun garlands for name banners for friends and just for fun. I hung a few pom-poms with the year in photos banner I created and then just draped some pom-pom garland around the flowers I arranged. Pom-poms are so fun and super easy to make with one of these gadgets. They come in all different sizes too! http://www.joann.com/clover-pom-pom-maker/prd45955/
First Year & First Birthday Photo Banners: I threw these quickly together by printing some of my favorite photos from each month of W's first year and an impromptu first year photo shoot with http://www.mpix.com/. I attached the photos to scrapbook paper with glue dots and strung them up to fit the length of our party tent.
Golden Foil/Streamer Backdrop: I will completely admit that idea came from Pinterest. http://pinterest.com/pin/245868460876655390/ I didn't make mine quite as layered or intricate, but I still loved the effect, especially behind W while she gobbled up her first birthday cupcake in front of all of her friends and family. Basically I just layered/attached the colored streamers that I used in the trees to the front of one of these http://www.partycity.com/product/gold+foil+doorway+curtain+8ft.do?sortby=ourPicks&size=all&from=Search&navSet=gold+foil+curtain I'll definitely do this again for future parties and add more gold and more streamer layers.
Cupcakes & Digital Photo Cupcake Toppers: Our delicious cupcakes came from a local shop near our home. We had fun flavors like Banana Pudding (the birthday girl's favorite), Maple Bacon (a big hit!), Peach Cobbler, and Milk and Cookies. And to top them off, each cupcake was graced with our girl's adorable face thanks to cupcake toppers from CakeFace! What a fantastic idea! We will definitely incorporate these every year. https://www.etsy.com/transaction/100617647
Rainbow Fruit Kabobs: Another Pinterest steal, but worth mentioning. They are easy and fun to make and so bright and yummy! http://pinterest.com/pin/245868460878168667/
Ice Bowl: A friend of mine and I happened to do an entertaining class the week before the party and we learned lots of fun tricks... most importantly how to make a fabulous ice bowl. You basically seat two stainless steel bowls together tape them down, put something heavy (and freezable) in the top bowl to weigh it down, fill the space in between the two bowls with water, fruit, glitter, really anything freezable. Throw it in the freezer (don't forget to pull out your freezable item after the bowl has begun to set) and a few hours later... voila, you've got a fun and decorative ice bowl. I filled mine with lemon slices, cranberries and glitter. Then we filled the finished bowl with fresh ripe strawberries. The best surprise was as the bowl melted, the strawberries took on a yummy, strawberry lemonade flavor.
Other Decor: My awesome friend loaned us her adorable (handmade) polka dot high chair cover from her daughter's first birthday along with some beautiful table linens and flowers. I arranged some deliciously scented fresh garden roses and ranunculous. These are some of my favorites, I'll admit, but they added a nice little touch to the cupcake table. Speaking of which, the vintage table we used for treats is a find from a few years back. It's an old painted industrial table topped with an old school desk top. The paper straws came from BHLDN. Love, love, love the party/invitation room at the BHLDN shop in Houston!

Favorite Items

I think my favorite items were all the pictures of my girl, Wilhelmina. We can't get enough of her beautiful face so I tried to incorporate photos of her anywhere I could, even on the cupcakes.

Advice

Once again, I'll go back to my advice from our Nursery post on PN... theme-less is A-OK. Sure, a good zoo or pirate themed party is super fun and put together. But theme-less does not necessarily translate into thrown together. Lots of color + lots of love = LOTS of FUN!