Before Madeline was born, I knew that I wanted her 1st party theme to be “Bonnets & Bows.” LOL!! I also decided that her second birthday is going to be “Pancakes & PJs,” but that is an entirely different story. 🙂 #CrazyMommy #CheckOutMyPinterestBoard
Since I already had her theme, it was really easy to go to her room and borrow a bunch of stuff to use as table decor. Madeline is famous for her bonnets, so I thought that it was a really appropriate theme. I wanted her color scheme to be baby pink, vintage gold and white, so I have been collecting items throughout the year. I highly suggest that you pick your theme early, so you can find everything on sale (especially with those Hobby Lobby and Michael’s coupons)! I also made several things (all very simple, but cute), which makes the decor both original and cost effective. 🙂
Below is a picture of the princess with her daddy! Notice that she has a bonnet on her head and a huge bow on her back. I thought that her party outfit needed to match her theme as well – LOL!!!
Below is a picture of the decor for the dessert table. I used a frame from Madeline’s bedroom to display her invitation, and I borrowed one of her actual presents as well. 🙂 I also borrowed two of her bonnets and hat stands to use on opposite sides of her cake. To the left, you will see her little party hat that she wore when we sang “Happy Birthday” to her. You can’t really tell, but the “1” on the right is painted vintage gold, to match her color scheme. I only paid a dollar for it at Hobby Lobby, and I used some paint that I already had in my craft room. A good thing you could do while picking your color scheme is to look around at what you already have, and build around that color. I have quite a bit of pink stuff left over from this party, so you better believe that Miss Madeline’s second party will have pink somehow involved. 🙂
I made all of the cupcakes, and used gold liners, gold sprinkles and pink chocolate bows to stay within our color scheme. These liners were excellent and were worth the little bit of extra money! They are greaseproof, and didn’t change color after I baked the cupcakes. You can find them here, and the sprinkles here. The bows are simple melting chocolates that you can find in any craft area, and I picked up the candy mold at 80% off at Michael’s during their “After Valentine’s Day Sale.” The pink candle holders are from the Dollar Spot section of Target, and I bought the plates at Hobby Lobby for 40% off! I will do a separate post on the rice crispy treats to the right, but they are super easy to make! All you have to do is buy the pre-made treats, heat up some of the melting chocolates, pour them over the treats and let them harden. They are one of the easiest things you can make, and they are SUPER cute! I stuck fun paper straws in them and used some ribbon that I already had to make some tiny bows. You could also just set them out on a pretty plate, and they would look lovely as well. 🙂
Below is a picture of Madeline’s smash cake, which I also made. It was actually a $0.99 cent box cake and store bought frosting – woot, woot!!! I used one of my decorating tips to apply the frosting, which made it look a little nicer. It was by no means perfect, but I refused to have someone make something that I knew my daughter was about to stick her hand in – LOL! 🙂 It sat on a cute paper plate that I found on clearance at Home Goods, and the “1” is from Hobby Lobby. I needed something small, and I loved that these plates had gold around the rim. My friend made Madeline’s high chair sign (but this is something that you could totally make yourself if you wanted to), and I had the bib made from a shop on Etsy. Although the bib is super cute, this is one area that you could easily cut, because you really couldn’t see it in pictures. Oh well, it still made her cake eating experience a little more festive! 🙂 Since it didn’t get too messy, I am totally putting this in Madeline’s memory box. See the post here to read about the box I keep for all of her special items.
Below is a pic of Little Miss in action! 🙂
This one is totally my favorite (below)!!!!! We decorated Maddie’s high chair with some balloons that we already had, and they really made a cute touch to the overall room.
Below is a better view of the balloons. I bought the “1” balloon from Amazon, but I would actually not recommend the package I purchased. The pink balloons that came in the package were not baby pink, so I ended up just using ones that I had left over from another party. I loved having a “1” balloon, but you should probably hunt to find an individual one at a much better price (just being honest here folks 🙂 ). The bunting at the top of the plantation shutters was actually made out of wrapping paper!!! The banner that I purchased from Amazon turned out to be peach, not light pink (as it was advertised), so I simply covered the existing one with leftover wrapping paper. 🙂 This was actually a good quality banner, so I am going to use it for other events and just put different paper over it to match my new color schemes.
My father-in-law actually bought me flowers the day before, so I put them in a vase and tied gold ribbon around them. They really added to the decor and made a nice touch to my food table! The gold frame was purchased at Home Goods, and I had the signs made via Paper and Play.
Here is a side view of the room. The table runner is pink seersucker, and matches the birthday hat. Luckily, the hat didn’t get too messed up, so I now use it as decoration in Madeline’s room. 🙂 We used an 8′ folding table that we already had, and the pink tablecloth can be found here. The tablecloth was a little bit of an investment, however, it was really nice quality and can be reused over and over again. 🙂
We bought a couple of packs of pink and white balloons from Walmart, and we had them blown up at our local grocery store. It is MUCH cheaper to take balloons to the store to add helium, versus buying them all there. You can get balloons for really cheap, so this is a great way to save some money! If you don’t watch out, you can REALLY spend a lot of money on balloons (I know this sounds crazy, but it is totally true). We allotted a $20 budget for all of the balloons, so we had a few extras to place around our house. We decided to tie them to the staircase, and they were a fun touch to the entryway.
At the front of the house, we simply bought a cheap “1” from Hobby Lobby at 40% off, and painted it pink with some leftover room paint that we had. I borrowed a frame from our bedroom to put Madeline’s sign in, and then borrowed the bunny and bonnets from her room. I had some leftover gold ribbon, so I tied it around the “1” to complete her color scheme. 🙂
All in all, we were able to throw this party for not a lot of money. If you are working on a budget, make sure that you try to make as many items as you can yourself! This goes for both the food and the decorations. All of these items can REALLY ADD UP, so watch out! You can totally throw a nice party on a budget, if you are willing to do a lot of the work yourself. The biggest piece of advice that I can give you is to USE THINGS YOU ALREADY HAVE (frames, balloons, napkins, etc)! Before you pick your colors and theme, look and see what you have, and build around those items. This is a great way to throw a party inexpensively, because you aren’t starting from scratch. 🙂
Now, Madeline’s party might look fancy, but this is only because we threw it in our formal dining room. If you really look, it is an optical illusion because there aren’t many things that are fancy at all. It is mainly a bunch of home-made crafts and food that have been placed on pretty plates. 🙂 If you are wanting a more formal event, throw the party in your house where the room is already decorated nicely (like a dining room). It elevates the look of the party and doesn’t cost you any additional money – yay! Click here and here to see another party that we threw for Madeline in our dining room.
I am so pleased with Madeline’s first birthday party, and all it took was some time and thoughtful planning. Although we were on a budget, we were still able to throw Miss Madeline a fabulous first birthday party (not that she will remember any of it – but I still have my pretty pictures – LOL!) 🙂 If you want to see more posts that cover other areas of her party, then click here and here.
What party planning tips do you have? Please feel free to leave a comment below, because I love hearing from you guys. Thanks for reading, and Happy Party Planning!!!
P.S. Check out my Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest pages for more fun ideas from One Cheerful Mom! 🙂
