Madeline’s 1st Birthday Planning – The Invitations

My little munchkin pictured above is about to turn ONE – How is this possible???  This picture was taken when she was just three months old (image courtesy of the great @kacycierleyphotography), and I cannot believe that time has gone by so quickly!  We are just a few short weeks from Miss Madeline’s first birthday party, and I have had SO MUCH fun planning the festivities!  If you cannot tell by my previous posts, party planning and crafts are something that I really enjoy doing!  Since I don’t get to do this sort of thing in my regular job, I really enjoy planning things in my home life.  🙂  Another thing I REALLY enjoy is pretty paper.  I don’t know why, but I have always loved beautiful invitations, so I wanted to make sure that Madeline’s were super special.  I realize that a lot of people are not into paper, which is totally fine!  However, this is one item that I place a lot of importance on, so I wanted something super pretty!  🙂

When I was visiting my parents a few weeks ago, my mother showed me my first birthday party invitation – How cool is that!?!?  I had no idea that she had kept it, so it was a real treat to see!  The theme was Strawberry Shortcake, which was huge in the 1980’s, and was one of my favorites as a child.  The invitation, of course, featured pink (one of my favorite colors) and was super cute!  Take a peek below:

Isn’t it precious!?!?  I love a good vintage piece of paper!  🙂

Below is a picture of myself and my mother at my first birthday party.  This was obviously before digital photos, so sorry for the picture being a little bit fuzzy!  LOL!  🙂  To this day, this picture is sitting out on my mother’s kitchen counter – PRECIOUS!!!

As an homage to my first birthday theme, I actually dressed Madeline up as a strawberry for her first Halloween.  🙂  

She was so tiny!!!  XOXO!!!

So, I decided that Madeline’s theme was going to consist of my two favorite things – bonnets and bows.  🙂  Madeline is known for being a bonnet baby, so I thought that it was super appropriate to have this be a part of her big day.  I also love a bow on just about anything, so this part was for me.  🙂  Actually, who am I kidding – the first party is completely for us parents, but that is another story……  🙂  I worked with the company Paper and Play to design Madeline’s invitations (make sure and check out their Instagram page – @paperandplay – the designs are GORGEOUS!!!!), and I was SO pleased with the final product!  Below is the final invitation (I have cut off the bottom half of the invitation to not disclose the address of the party, but you can still see the design):

My favorite part of the invitation is Madeline’s monogram on the bonnet – so precious!  Shannon, the artist, actually watercolored the bonnet, and it is absolutely beautiful.  Madeline’s party colors are baby pink and gold, and this invitation encapsulated everything I wanted to about the party – YAY!!!!  

I have had so much fun planning for this event, and we have more fun stuff to come.  I am such a sentimental person, that I want the day to be filled with lots of memories and keepsakes.  I have some more party ideas swirling in my brain, so stay tuned for my future birthday posts.  It was such a treat to see the invitations from my first party, and I hope Madeline enjoys seeing hers one day when she is older too!

 

 

P.S.  Please see my Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest pages for more fun ideas from One Cheerful Mom!