Thinking back to Emmett’s first birthday, I wouldn’t have changed a thing! Every detail was spot on and I will always remember how much fun he had with all of our family and friends!
While all moms are excited to celebrate their little one’s first birthday, it is bittersweet for sure. I mean he’s my baby! I remember bringing him home from the hospital like it was yesterday. Aweing over how cute and innocent he was. And now he gets into everything, throws his food down, spills milk all over my floor! He’s a toddler now! And while it’s absolutely beautiful how much he’s grown, time needs to slow down!
So even though you wish your baby could stay little forever, they’re turning one. And now it’s time to plan their very first birthday party! And if you’re anything like me, you’ll be so overwhelmed with emotions you’ll need a little help of where to begin.
Here are a few things to keep in mind when planning your child’s first birthday:
Location
Having Emmett’s first birthday party at our house was not an option. We live in an apartment and we were expecting around forty guests so we knew we needed more space. Since Emmett’s birthday is in November, being outside wasn’t an option either.
So I narrowed my options down. My top ideas were my parents house, my fiance’s parents house (oh yeah did I mention we got engaged in October?!) and a local church. We wanted Emmett’s birthday to be special but we also couldn’t justify breaking the budget on a venue for his first birthday.
We decided on a local church. The year before that we had celebrated Thanksgiving there and I had my baby shower there. So most people were familiar with the location.
Time
Time is very important if you are sticking to a budget! If you have the birthday party around lunch or dinner time, you’ll be expected to provide food for everyone. We did not have a meal for forty plus guests in our budget! So we decided to throw the party between two and four. This time slot also allowed a big enough gap for Emmett to take an afternoon nap.
I can not stress this enough, let your child sleep when they want to! Emmett slept in a rocker in the middle of the gym floor where we were setting up for about an hour. Even though he was still asleep when people were arriving, he was playful and happy when he woke up!
He was so worn out after the party, I can’t imagine how grumpy he would’ve been had he not taken that afternoon nap.
Theme/Decorations
This was my favorite part! We had known for months that the theme for Emmett’s birthday was going to be dinosaurs. I started shopping for decorations about a month in advance and I was able to buy a lot of orange decor because of Halloween.
To save time and stress, you may want to find a big set of decorations that you can order online. This also goes for party favors!
If you’re very particular like me, this will not work for you and you’ll just have to buy things you like when you see them and hope for the best!
Invitations
Once you have decided on a location, time and a theme you can start making invitations! I sent these out about four weeks before the party and almost everyone showed up!
To save money I would recommend ordering some on Amazon and filling them out yourself. Or if you don’t want to spend any money on invitations, you can plan your party on Facebook and invite your guests to join the group! Same would go for a group text message! Whatever works for you!
Food
As I mentioned before, I did not want to spend a lot of money on food for Emmett’s birthday party. However, we did have snacks and drinks because that’s something you expect to have at a birthday party.
To keep it cheap, we made our own fruit and veggie platters! We were able to get exactly what we knew would be eaten. Oftentimes no one eats the raw broccoli and cauliflower that come in premade platters so why waste your money on it? Don’t!
Another budget friendly tip is to also buy a few packages of cocktail weenies and barbeque sauce, throw it in your crockpot and let your guests serve themselves! We did this and they were a hit! It’s almost too easy!
Make sure to grab some chips and a variety of drinks that are good for the kiddos and you’ll be set!
Activities
Yes you have to have activities at a one year old’s birthday party! Chances are, your child will not be the only child at the party.
Rest assured we did not break the bank on activities! We borrowed some corn hole tables and basketballs and all of the kids seemed pretty content. For younger kids, like your one year old, just bring some of their favorite toys from home!
There were only a few kids at Emmett’s party though so if you’re expecting a lot of kids, you may have to spend more money on activities.
You can go big with a bouncy house that’s sure to keep the kids busy, or you can hit up the dollar store and buy some bubbles and pin the tail on the donkey.
Outfit
Of course I bought a special outfit just for Emmett’s birthday! But he also still wears it all the time because I do not like wasting my money! All of the blue icing surprisingly came out in the wash!
But seriously, buy whatever outfit you want to for your baby because this day truly is so special!
Pictures
Designate someone with a good camera to take pictures of anything and everything! As a momma, you’ll want those off guard pics with your baby. Oh yeah, you also won’t get to relax for the entire day! Have someone reliable to take pictures of the whole setup so it relieves some stress off of you!
We had actually planned to pay a pretty good amount of money to have professional smash cake pictures taken. However, my best friend needed to build her portfolio so we paid her to take Emmett’s pictures. They turned out beautiful!
I wrapped some boxes in dinosaur wrapping paper and used dollar store tablecloths as a backdrop. Then I bought a little green cake from the grocery store as Emmett’s smash cake. We had a pretty solid set up!
Emmett surprisingly hated being messy and did not want icing all over him. It worked out for me though because I only spent about $10 on his smash cake! I saved the pricey cake for his party!
And that’s it! At the end of the day, whatever you do will be great and your baby will be happy! Soak up every minute with your little one because they’re not little for long…