AndreaAnderson

With winter still lingering, but being so ready for spring, I decided to create spring with a bright, flower-themed party for my daughter’s first birthday. But since we’re also a kitty-cat loving family, I just had to throw in a little kitty silhouette into the theme as well, and thus, a floral-cat themed party was born!
I first started with a custom design party pack from VonnLou Designs on Etsy (who was so FUN to work with, by the way. I highly recommend her!), who provided me with printable PDF’s for the invitations, signage, banners, cupcake toppers, etc. Once I had those, the rest was just embellishment! Most of the decor was made up of DIY tissue paper flower kits from Martha Stewart and Dollar Tree floral bunches that I turned into balloon strings and a floral wreath/chandelier for above the dessert table. For the balloon strings, I just detached the faux flower blooms from the stems and hot-glued them together around some yarn at various lengths (Tip from experience though- the flowers really weigh the balloons down! We found that we really couldn’t do more than 2-3 flower bunches on each string to hold up 4-5 latex balloons…any less balloons or more flowers and the balloons would sink to the floor. Boo!)
All of the food was homemade by me and my amazing mama. It was a labor of love, as we ended up needed to feed over 30 people (!!!), but having lots of elves on the day of to help assemble made it happen! I definitely suggest minimal hot foods- it’s just too hard to pre-prepare with enough time…and of course, keeping them hot is another challenge, unless you have chafing dishes. So in my opinion, room-temp foods are the way to go. ;)
It was a last minute addition, but I’m so glad that I did the little “time capsule” project, asking everyone to fill out a little card that Gracelyn won’t read until she turns 18- I think it will be so fun for her to open in eighteen years and see who was at her party and the wishes they made for her at her first birthday. :)
I know that my daughter won’t remember her 1st party, but I know she’s going to love looking back at the photos and seeing how much love surrounded her on this special day! <3

I’ve been dreaming about decorating a nursery for years; when we found out we were expecting (and a girl, no less), I couldn’t wait to get started! I had so much fun bringing this room to life for our little Gracelyn. <3

I threw a co-ed baby shower this October for my very best friend in the whole world and her husband who are expecting their first baby, a boy, in December. We’ve been friends since 7th grade and I’m pretty sure I’ve been planning her baby shower in my head since then. I had so much fun planning a fall-themed party full of personal touches, yummy homemade food, and lots of love.