It’s A ‘Onderful World – First Birthday Party

This past weekend we celebrated a first birthday party for our son and it was such a special weekend celebrating all of the JOY, LOVE, and laughter the past year of his life has been! We just had a small, simple gathering with family, and a few close friends and it was the sweetest way to celebrate what a year it has been. It was so crazy to me that on the day of his first birthday party, was exactly one year to the date of when we were discharged from the hospital (at 11:55 pm) that is; feel free to read about our wild birth story here! Now, a year later, all settled in and nested as a sweet family. Most definitely worth a reason for celebrating.

I am so excited to share with you all the details of our first birthday party for our son in hopes of giving you a little bit of inspiration for planning your own first birthday party. Later this week, I will be publishing another blog post on tips and tricks for planning a first birthday party, so stay tuned for that. Until then, enjoy this sweet recap of all the details of our son’s “It’s A ‘Onderful World” first birthday party.

First Birthday Party Details

It’s a ‘onderful world

There are SO many different theme ideas for a first birthday party floating around the internet, Pinterest, and social media. I wanted something that represented our lifestyle and came across this beautiful It’s A ‘Onderful World invitation on Etsy and fell in love. l was able to purchase the template, design in Canva, and order the prints through Prints of Love to which they arrived within the week. I was very impressed with the quality of the invitations and how easy it was to get them in time, and how affordable.

Once I was able to decide on our theme, “It’s A ‘Onderful World and had our invitation template saved to my phone, I was able to send the invitation to all the different vendors that we used. This was such an easy and simple way to be sure that all the decor and details were within the same color aesthetic and theme.

Balloon arch

My absolute, most favorite detail of the entire first birthday party was the balloon arch. I worked with Woodstock Balloons and Designs to which Madison and Shelby completely exceeded all of my expectations and more. They color matched the balloons to the invitation so perfectly and were able to create the most beautiful statement piece, and focal point to our entire party!

Decorations

For other party decorations, I created a milestone sign that I placed in a large frame and positioned on an easel right when you walked into our house. This was such an easy and beautiful way to celebrate the first year of life of our son. I ordered the sign off of Etsy, customized it through Templett and ordered it through Walgreens. Quick tip for you – ordering the poster print through Walgreens was SUPER easy, fast, and very affordable. I was able to have the poster printed within 24 hours for less than $15. In addition, Target poster frames are incredible quality and at an amazing price point.

Another easy decoration that I used to add another sweet and simple touch were these hot air balloon decorations from Amazon. They added a tasteful touch to complement the decor. The other major decor element to our party was the display of the month milestone photos. As many mamas do, I documented each new month with a milestone picture using these milestone cards that I purchased from Etsy long before baby was born. For the party, I used the same milestone cards and attached a photo to each one and displayed as a garland, in front of the window in our kitchen. I thought this was such a neat way to display photos documenting Macrae’s growth throughout the year!

Flowers

The absolute sweetest flower shoppe is only 15 minutes from our house. Over the course of the past year, my son and I have had some sweet adventures going to the Flower Shoppe and picking out flowers. Michaela and Jessica are incredibly talented and absolute sweethearts and always make the most gorgeous arrangements that can truly make any day amazing. They made the most beautiful arrangement for our son that matched the details of our party. I added in a one cake topper to the arrangement and it made for the perfect centerpiece. Be sure to check out 89th and Autumn the next time you find yourself close to Canton, GA.

Photo Backdrop – Outdoor Arch

A local yard sign company, Yard Jubilee reached out and wanted to make a custom yard sign for our party. They recently added wooden arches to their rental collection and they were absolutely perfect for our party! We placed them right by the front door and it provided the sweetest welcome and a perfect photo drop for the birthday party!

Yard Jubilee came completely customize their yard signs, and wooden arches to match your theme and are available to rent for any special occasion. They dropped off the sign the morning of the party, and picked it up later that evening. Installation was extremely simple and easy and they literally took care of everything! I was so happy to have Yard Jubilee make our first birthday party so special!

Sweets & More

I knew way in advance that I wanted to have decorated sugar cookies to match the theme of our party. I used a cookie decorator local to Woodstock, GA called Sugar Bakings and I was blown away by how beautiful the cookies were and how delicious they tasted. Rebecca did an amazing job!

Additionally, I wanted something else for dessert for the guests of the party so we ended ordering the mini bundtinis from Nothing Bundt Cakes which were the perfect compliment to our menu.

For our smash cake, I had been going back and forth with what to order and from where and decided to get the Confetti mini bundtlet from Nothing Bundt Cake which happened to be the perfect size and was absolutely devoured by my son.

The Menu

Our party was at 1:00 pm, therefore our menu consisted of lunch items. We picked up a medium sized nugget tray from Chick-fil-a which ended up being the perfect size for our small group of 20. In addition the menu consisted of a pasta salad, fruit salad, charcuterie board with an assortment of meats, cheeses, but also pimento cheese and bacon jam! I decided last minute to make crescent roll ups with cream cheese, bacon, shredded cheese, and peppers. So glad I decided to make these as they were a huge hit!

This recipe was super easy to make and only took 20 minutes from start to finish. I took a little shortcut and used bacon bits as opposed to actual strips of bacon and that saved some time as well. I thought the menu was simple and easy for entertaining our small group.

Plus, it made for easy food for our son to eat during the party. We were able to serve him pasta salad, fruit and chicken nuggets from his high chair while everyone else was eating and it was an easy mess to clean up!

Shop The First Birthday Party Details

Overall, it was a wonderful party full of so much love, joy, and celebration. What a miracle life truly is and the ability to celebrate the first year of our son’s life with our family and close friends meant so much to us. This weekend and this first birthday party is definitely one we will cherish in our hearts for a very long time!