A First Birthday Garden Party

Well guys, the day has come and gone. My littlest baby, Emma, turned one and I still can’t stop crying about it. Didn’t I just announce that we were expecting her arrival? Wasn’t I just sharing my hump day bump day pics? Didn’t I just bring her home? Ugh, the agony. Time is so dang selfish! Ok, I’ll stop the pity party to get on to the fun garden party we had to celebrate her.

Since I first started thinking about Emma’s birthday, I knew I wanted to do a garden party theme with soft pinks and a relaxed vibe. She is just the easiest baby, so sweet and always smiling and I wanted the party to reflect that. We’ve also had a bit of a floral theme throughout her first year with her nursery, monthly photos, and clothes I’ve leaned towards when shopping for her so a garden party was an obvious choice. We invited just our families to celebrate her big milestone, which still makes over 30 people, and since it was a small gathering, it was nice to really sit and visit with every guest. It's so easy when you're hosting a party to be so busy that it feels like you didn't get to really talk to anyone. I loved that we were able to enjoy the party and catch up with loved ones. We even stayed up till 230 with a few of my cousins just chatting and eating late night pizza around our fire pit. It was a great end to a perfect day!

At parties, I always like to know what people serve at parties and this year we kept it simple with sandwiches, fruit, veggies, broccoli salad, potato salad, and various chips and dip. Dessert was vanilla and chocolate cupcakes with white frosting and sugar crystals. They were so yummy! For favors, we had pink chocolate dipped rice krispie treats (with pearl sprinkles!) wrapped individually for our guests. I'm glad I made extras because nearly everyone wanted to take one or two extra home. We had them at the dessert bar at Eleanor’s first birthday party and they were gone in minutes so I knew everyone would enjoy them. We set up seating outside, had a bounce house, our guests played cornhole, and we just talked, ate, relaxed, and had a great time!

Emma didn't care much for her cake, even after sissy showed her what to do! We put some on her lip, but I think there were too many eyes on her for to check out the cake for herself. It was so cute and she smiled so big when we sang happy birthday! It was really a beautiful day and the party turned out fabulously.

For her party, I partnered with some really great shops for decorations. Without them, the party wouldn't have had the same feel and I just love how everything looked! The toppers, balloons, florals, everything was beautiful and I saved them for keepsakes or for future decorations in Emma's room and the girls'  playroom. They were all a dream to work with and helped make her party a success!


Floral Headband // Floral Highchair Garland – Enchanted Bow Shop
Tissue Garland// Emma is One Balloons – LoveGarlands
Cake Topper – Rustic Daisy Designs
Cupcake Toppers // Happy Birthday Emma Banner – Good News Lane Get 15% off using EMMA15
Felt Flowers (used for photo clips) – Wholesale Bow Supply
“One” Highchair Garland – Sugar Daisy Doo
Moss Table Runner – Amazon
Pinwheels – Hobby Lobby
Chalkboard signs – Amazon (from our wedding!)

Ellie's Bubble Bash!

My little girl turned 3 at the end of May and we celebrated her birthday over Memorial Weekend with a huge party, lots of food, and even more fun! I had been planning her birthday for a few months, bought decorations, planned out the food and activities only to ditch it completely a month before. Craziness I tell you!

We decided to ring in the big 3 with a bubble bash! It all started with the adorable invitations from ElementDStudio. I fell in love with her invitation and the theme had more range for fun and creativity. I would think of one thing and then another, and then another. I like parties that are fun, relaxing, and have just enough to keep everyone entertained with activities people can do at their own pace. We had about 60 people (including kids) at the party so it was a pretty big party, but a ton of fun! It was definitely less stressful than her first birthday party, I've learned to start early and keep the DIYs simple.

I had ElementDStudio create matching coloring pages from the invite to use for bubble painting. It was so much fun! A drop or two of food dye in bubbles and voila! It's such a fun activity and something different for the kids to enjoy. I picked up these cute craft aprons for the kids to wear to protect their clothing and the colors matched great with our bright theme.

These fun popcorn boxes were at the Target $1 spot and I knew I had to get them! The tables were covered in different colors and matched with different boxes. I picked up some flowers in the morning from Costco, used some tin cans from IKEA for snack mix, and filled small cups with bubble gum.

We also had a big bubble station for the kids with a ton of different wands (I bought two sets of these and picked up some more at our dollar store). For favors, the kids each got a bubble set with a net to catch their bubbles (it was awesome with our bubble machine) and ElementDStudio created matching tags "Thanks for POPPING over and making my party BUBBLICIOUS!" They were my favorite touch!

A few days before, I thought it would be a great idea to make a photo backdrop and it turned out really great for being a last minute craft. Matt had built the PVC pipe stand from a previous party and I used $1 table cloths and garlands I already had. It turned out so cute and I love it in all of our pics! I'll definitely be doing it again for Emma's birthday at the end of summer.

For food, I made tissue poms (so easy!) and balloons for decorations and we served pulled pork sandwiches, coleslaw, watermelon, and baked beans. Matt had been making the meat since the day before and it was so tender and juicy! ElementDStudio made matching food labels as well.

Danielle of Pretty Posh Shoppe made Ellie the cutest hat and cake banner! She's made a hat for Ellie every year and I've kept all of them as a keepsakes. They're adorable and perfect for the birthday girl!

I just wanted to give a HUGE shoutout to Marin from ElementDStudio! Marin was so easy to work with and made all my party dreams come true with the invites, coloring pages, food labels, and favor tags. I love all the colors and they helped bring together our theme so well. They added such a nice touch to the details and I couldn't be happier with her work! If you're planning a party, definitely check her out! It was nice to have one shop to get all matching items to pull the party together.

We had so much fun celebrating her big day! Last year, we just had a small family party and plan to only do big parties every other year instead. It was fun to go all out for her, she was so excited and talked about her "happy" for weeks!! Thank you so much to all our friends and family who came and celebrated with us!