first birthday: it's in the details

I started planning BG's first birthday months ago. It didn't take too long to narrow it down to a "spring" theme and from there I came up with "Spring has sprung, Ella's turning one" and ran with it. Colors, decorations, and food ideas to go with that theme were easy to come up with and I had a blast getting it all together.

My friend Jessica did the invitations for me and they turned out perfect. I could not have loved them anymore or found an invite that fit my theme any better.



We had the party at my grandparent's house in Savannah. When we got there on Thursday, it was COLD and I was freaking out about the weather, but the day of the party the weather was amazing. We had the party out on the back deck with the food and drinks inside.


Not a bad view huh?

The back porch:



Breaking it down a bit more..

I printed out Baby Girl's monthly age pictures and framed one of her one year pictures to put out. The terra cotta pots were a big part of my spring theme.

My friend Emily made that amazing wreath and had the tablecloth done for me as well. How awesome is that wreath?!? We loved it!

I put water bottles outside because it was actually pretty hot. The labels were made for BG's party by my friend Sarah. They matched her invitation perfectly.



We put out a copy of Guess How Much I Love You to serve as a guest book. I love the guest book idea and I am so glad we did it. The notes people wrote in there will mean a ton to her some day.


Gifts' table


We didn't serve sit down food, but I did want to have a few tables where people could sit down with their finger foods and talk. I used live flowers and pictures of BG's one year shoot for the centerpieces. Oh, and I scored those amazing bird houses out of the T*arget dollar bins.




We set up the food and drinks indoors. We used my grandparents' dining room table for the main food; finger sandwiches, cucumber sandwiches, fruit, crab and shrimp dip, and about a billion other finger foods were laid out. My Grandma and Aunt did an amazing job on the food. I didn't have to lift a finger in this department.

I painted the one canvas in the background to match the theme. We rolled plain pink plastic silverware to put in the terra cotta pot. And my friend Karah made the amazing "Happy Birthday Ella" banner.

The favor station:

Each of the kiddos went home with a flower cookie made by my parents and a terra cotta pot with a bag of seeds to plant later. The favor tags were also made by Emily and said "Thanks for coming to celebrate with me as I SPRING into year two! Love, Ella". This picture was taken before the party as those water bottles went out on the porch.

We set up the dessert table in the breakfast nook area:

I made a few of the poms but then realized my Mom was way better at them so she ended up making these. They would have been the death of me. Karah made the adorable cupcake toppers and a friend of mine from high school made the cake which was oh so delicious.

I ordered the candy from Economy Candy. I cannot say enough about their excellent customer service. I had these set up to go to our house but then realized we would have left for Savannah before they ordered. A few emails to them and not only was the candy headed to Savannah, but she gave me a cheaper shipping price and two day shipping! Then I messed up one of the colors and a girl called me at home to make sure before she shipped it out. Amazing customer service!

My friend from high school makes these cakes as a "hobby". She's crazy. She needs to go into business. This cake was awesome. I gave her number to quite a few guests that day!

This is the tv cabinet that holds the tv that should have had my slideshow playing on it. But since that didn't happen, I had to put something cute on it, so I made this banner to go on there. I think it turned out pretty decent.


Some other touches on the end table; framed invitation and another picture of BG I took in Savannah a few weeks ago.


And.. the most important detail of all..

BG's dress was made by one of my Twitter buds. I love this SheSheMade dress and it turned out just like I wanted.

She changed into her SheSheMade t-shirt for smash cake time.


I got so many ideas and so much help from my amazing blog/Twitter buds. Maybe it's just where I'm from but we usually don't do tons of details and stuff like this for kid's parties around here, but I am so glad I did. I loved every bit of the planning and making process. I heard multiple times how great everything looked and how much fun everyone had. Love it. I'm so, so glad that Baby Girl's special day turned out so perfect.


And even though this was a ton of pictures, there's way more. To be continued...