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The phrase that kept echoing in my mind when thinking about Graham's 1st birthday was "we love you to the moon" and as I kept thinking about throwing his party I knew I wanted to include stars too so the inspiration came from the combined sentiments of "we love you to the moon & more than all the stars". Once I have a theme figured out, I like to think through the different party elements and put together a mood board to help me visualize it and get inspired.
After that, I tackle the invitations first. As a graphic designer, I love to design my own invites usually. But as a busy mama of 3, I often can't manage to do the designing for fun that I want so then I look to Minted for the cutest invitations.
I love that I was able to find several options for star themed invites and even choose gold foil printing to get them that little extra sparkle! I knew I wanted a photo card so it was easy to filter through their designs and pick exactly what I wanted! Probably my favorite feature is that Minted will include matching addressed envelopes for FREE if you just enter in your addresses! I love love love the way these turned out!
I also try to give myself a budget to stick with for parties so that I don't go overboard. One of my favorite ways to make a statement for not a lot of money is to do a balloon garland. I already had the garland threader and the balloon pump so I just had to buy some balloons! Here are my go-to items for making a balloon garland.
The other thing I knew I wanted for sure was a backdrop of sorts - our house is small and we really have no blank walls good for taking photos so this Gathre Night Sky mat was perfect for covering a window and making a perfect photo backdrop!
The other way to decorate for a birthday party and not spend a lot of money is to use printed pictures! I had done a monthly photo of Graham for his first year and these made for a perfect little display!
Then I just updated some of the existing frames with photos of Graham that were already decorating the area where we would have the party. Such an easy way not to have to undecorate the whole house for a party!
Another thing I like to do when trying to stick to a party budget is to throw a 3pm - in between mealtimes - party and just serve cake for food. This definitely helps to keep costs down and who doesn't love an excuse for a mid-afternoon slice of cake! But that means the cake better be good! I had gotten a couple quotes for having a cake made after finding some really cute night sky cake inspiration images but they were definitely gonna break my budget. So I watched some video tutorials and researched some different techniques and tried my hand at making the cake myself! I saved some videos on this over in my Instagram story highlights in you're interested.
It's far from perfect, but it was so fun to try my hand at something new and it tasted amazing so that's really what matters. Plus, Graham LOVED his first taste of cake! We had to cut him off cause he would've kept eating it!
Overall, we just had the most wonderful time celebrating our sweet boy turning ONE!
You can find more sources like his high chair, fabric crown, and other party details in our Amazon Favorites shop.
Leave me a comment or find me on Instagram - always happy to answer any other questions!
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