Baby Turns One: Decorating for a 1st Birthday Party continues the mini-series of posts dedicated to my great-niece’s recent birthday party. For a peek into the actual party participants, and of course, photos of the adorable guest-of-honor, check out these earlier posts:
Quick recap: my sister, Gail, and I took a one-day road trip from Southern California to Arizona to attend our great-niece’s 1st birthday party. Our younger sister, Dawn, and her family of adult children and grandchildren, all live in Arizona, a three-hour drive from our homes in Southern California. While we were invited to spend the entire weekend, Gail and I elected not to because our mother is in hospice now and we didn’t want to be gone from her for that length of time.
We arrived at Dawn’s house just minutes before the scheduled start time. Dawn and her daughter, Nicole (baby’s mother), spent hours and days decorating Dawn’s patio and backyard for this lovely event and I was glad that I brought my camera!
They chose pink, of course, as one of the palette’s main colors, but wanting to convey a more rustic and yesteryear vibe, they rented burlap tablecloths and used smaller white lace tablecloths and doilies as overlays.
This is the dessert table, which they festooned with flag garland they made themselves. Treats included mini powdered-sugar frosted donuts, candy in small bowls, pink-frosted chocolate and vanilla cupcakes, a pink Smash Cake, pink and white frosted animal cookies in homemade paper doily cones, pink taffy and pink rock-candy wands.
Here’s a close-up of that adorable flag banner, with pre-made letters and rosettes for the finishing touch.
The frosted pink cupcakes were bought at their local grocery store and then personalized with chalkboard flag toothpicks. A laser-cut “birthday girl” pick was purchased from their local crafts store.
Here’s the Smash Cake, made by a local bakery and decorated with a gold “one” mini balloon.
Dawn and Nicole also made this adorable “One” banner from burlap, pre-cut alphabet letters, rosettes and kitchen twine and attached it to the high chair.
Each table for eight had a bouquet of roses, baby’s breath, a mini balloon inside a mason jar, decorated with a lace-covered burlap ribbon, finished off with a small strip of pink satin ribbon tied in a bow. Also on each table were:
- a laser-cut frame, painted either some shade of pink or turquoise, with a photo of Nicole’s daughter, either by herself or with one of the party guests.
- tea cups filled with “baby chow” for snacking
- votive candles encased in lace and tied with kitchen twine
- mini mason jars filled with pink M&M’s as party favors for each guest.
Here’s a close-up of the adorable votive candles…
And a close-up of the baby chow in the tea cups…
And a close-up of the pink M&M filled mini mason jars.
And, another photo of one of the table centerpieces.
In addition to the little party favors, Nicole and Dawn had larger treat bags for the little guests – the cousins and friends of baby Belle. They made these from brown paper lunch bags topped with a white paper doily, with a chalkboard sticker that said “thank you” and sealed with a thin gold ribbon tied to the bag by punching holes in the top.
Some of the other party decorations included a banner strewn across the patio’s main beam made with twine and clothes pins. Nicole took 12″ x 12″ scrapbook paper and glued a photo of her baby from birth progressing through each month up to 12. In between the photos, she made round paper doily signs indicating the month. So cute!
A lighted “Love” sign in gold set the mood perched on top of a small wooden crate covered in a white lace doily.
It was all so beautiful and made the day so special for family and guests!
Tootles,
Related Posts:
(other party posts)
What a nice overview! We had just as much fun planning and crafting; and the end result was worth the hard work.
Dawn
Well, everything you and Nicole was just beautiful! You are both so talented and creative. I’m glad I could share your handiwork on my blog! Hugs!