Sloanes 1st Birthday Party Details
OUR WILDFLOWER’s 1ST BIRTHDAY!
On July 14th we celebrated our sweet girl Sloane to her first of many Birthday parties. We had a small get together with about 15 of our friends and family members and she loved every minute of it. Celebrating Sloane is NOT challenging, but throwing a 1st birthday party definitely can be. Where to begin? what do you need? Should there be food? what time of day? Who will come? What food should I get? Should there be drinks? Do I get games? The anxieties started to set in. But one task at a time I managed to check things off the list and it turned out even better than I had hoped. First thing on the list was to pick a theme. OUR WILDFLOWER turning 1 was easy because it meant I could use the flower I love the most, Sunflowers.
Sunflowers were the easy part. I got them all from our local grocery store HEB and arranged them all myself. Something about arranging flowers is incredibly therapeutic to me. I threw in my earbuds, turned the music up to 10, and ended up creating floral arrangements that I could spread throughout our home. The vases I made from clear vases I got on Amazon and Terra Cotta paint that I also purchased through Walmart. I created a video on it as well that I’ll link here. I knew I didn’t have enough vases for all the flowers I wanted but finding what I was looking for proved to be a pricey challenge. The DIY allowed me to get creative, have all the vases I needed, keep it under $40 bucks, and create something that was on brand for our home.
Then my friends… Is any birthday or celebration really complete without balloons? They’ve always made e smile. Who do you know that gets a balloon and frowns at it? Ok there might be some, but just try it. I bet you get a smile. I knew for Sloane’s birthday I wanted balloon garland. Now, I think the businesses that do these are incredible and they should choose whatever price they want to charge. HOWEVER, I was trying to stay on budget, and the prices I was being quoted for balloon garland was MIND BLOWING to me. So, I hopped on Amazon, bought the “balloon garland kit” that fit my color scheme, and there was no looking back. After phoning in a friend, who’s a party guru, and watching a few Youtube tutorials, I gave it a go and all in all, I give it an A minus. There’s a learning curve and an electric pump you 100% should use, lol, but looking back, it really wasn’t complicated. If anything I would say it required time and patience. If you have those 2 things (I usually don’t have patience), you’re already half way there. The good news, you really can’t mess it up, and if you did it the way I did, you’re only out about $50 bucks.
Next up… LET THEM EAT CAKE!! Truth be told, I don’t even care for cake necessarily. But who has a 1st birthday party without cake? For Sloane’s smash cake I kept it VERY SIMPLE. I chose a local grocery store called HARVEST to bake Sloane's cake. She had a confetti 6 inch cake with buttercream icing. and for the topper, I used some of the live sunflowers I got for the arrangements and gently nestled them on her cake. It turned out exactly how I hoped. Then there were THE COOKIES. I thought about going through the same grocery store for her cookies but decided to google local small businesses in our Montgomery, Tx area and came across a small shop called FROM SCRATCH. From there I was greeted by Pamela, who responded promptly to me emails with efficiency, ideas, and so much help executing my vision. The cookies turned out incredible as far as design went and they tasted SO GOOD! The next time you’re planning an event, try googling local ventures. The support for their small business will be worth it.
When it came to the food, I had a million ideas. Tacos, fajitas, pizza, breakfast tacos, sliders, charcuterie etc. All I knew was I wanted quick and easy. I’m not sure it gets quicker, easier, or more efficient than Chic-Fil-A. Ordered it the day before to be picked up at 10 am the day of. Kyle showed up at 9:58 and he said he was paid up and out the door with EVERYTHING at 10 am on the dot. Showed up with all the disposables needed, piping hot, and not a single thing was missing. The entire thing ran me about $175. Which compared to the other quotes I got for the other ideas I had, this was a steal. When it came to drinks I went with the basics… tea, lemonade, water, capri suns etc. And lets be serious there was 100% a mimosa bar and a Yeti filled with cold beers.
Our girl truly had the best day, and all the DIY’ing was definitely worth the anxiety it was paired with. Sometimes it’s easy to just hire people to do things for you, and other times you find yourself with a budget, some spare time, and an idea to do it on your own. Just give it a go, I bet you surprise yourself.
