Liesl’s 1st : A Butterfly Garden Party

Description

Welcome to Liesl's Butterfly Garden! This is the first birthday party I created with lots of love, sweat, and sleepless nights for the littlest love of my life :)

Design Inspiration

Ever since little Liesl was born a year ago, I think I was already secretly planning her 1st birthday party ;)  The butterfly garden theme was born out of her love of a butterfly mobile that hangs above her crib.  From a very early age, she would point to the mobile when we said "butterfly".  I knew this HAD to be the theme for her 1st party.

Decorating Style

Contemporary Traditional - I like bright and light spaces, clean lines, and hints of traditional detailing.

Project Details

I had so much fun creating Liesl's 1st birthday party!  I'm a graphic designer as well as a mom, so I was excited for the chance to use my trade in creating a wonderful party for her!

Color Scheme: Pastels - Mostly Pink and Mint, with hints of lavendar and yellow.

Things I made myself "DIY":  the invitatons, pennant banners, high chair banner, table tents with food names, centerpieces, front door wreath

 

Favorite Items

Hard to choose - I think I have two favorites.

1.  The centerpieces - these truly were a labor of love.  I went with a friend of mine to the flower mart in downtown LA to purchase all the flowers, wet foam, and vases, and assembled each centerpiece myself.  My car was completely full of hydrangeas, carnations, and roses, I could barely see to drive home!  I saved so much money by doing them myself - each table's centerpiece cost me about $40!  I received a ton of compliments on them, with guests asking who made our centerpieces.  "Me!" I replied!

2.  The pastel paper lanterns with butterflies - I bought these on a whim at Party City a few months before, not quite sure if or how I would even incorporate them.  It was a last minute decision to hang them from the ceiling around the buffet table, and I attached a bunch of butterflies to them.  I really liked the epheral quality they added to the room.

Advice

Planning a butterfly garden party in the spring time (near the Easter holiday) was oh-so fun, but also a little dangerous!  Everywhere I went, I saw butterflies!  I really had to resist the temptation to buy EVERYTHING I saw at Michaels, Party City, JoAnn's, etc.  My best tip is to start early - plan ahead!  I slowly purchased the items for my party for about 4 months.  If I saw something I thought could work, I would buy it and add it to my stash.  Be paitent - you will find good stuff!  I also looked to Etsy for inspiration, and then ended up creating many of the things myself and tweaking them so they were perfect for my event!