I was inspired to give my little girl the sweetest first birthday party without spending a ton of money or exhausting myself. Read on for ideas for a simple and sweet first birthday party for your daughter!

Three great reasons to celebrate

I have three little girls. Three adorable precious little girls. I love celebrating them and making them feel special. I love honoring the day they were born. So their first birthday is usually a really big deal in our home. However, my two older girls have birthdays three weeks apart. That’s tricky. What else is tricky is that their birthdays are smack dab in the middle of the holidays. Halloween and Thanksgiving.

 

Enter Pinterest.

Don’t get me wrong I luvvvv Pinterest. I wish I would have been on it when I remodeled my kitchen and bathroom. Or heck, when I was planning my wedding! What better resource to collect all my likes and favorite looks and ideas. I love the organization of it. As most of us know though, Pinterest can also have its challenges. Like when we collect too many ideas and end of up just overwhelming ourselves. Or when we set out to plan a first birthday party and get super excited so we start pinning all these adorable decorations and crafts– only to completely exhaust ourselves trying to duplicate the “perfect” party we saw where? On Pinterest.

In the beginning I did just that.

You will inevitably see some of the parties I painstakingly put together. As a new mom who was staying home to take care of my baby it was a creative outlet for me. I’m a project kind of girl so a birthday party was the perfect excuse to stay up late and dive in. Now that I have three though.. Ohhh let me tell you. I have learned to pick and choose which projects are the best use of my time. I have learned where to cut corners that don’t really matter. And have chosen to focus my efforts on what will give me the biggest “bang for my buck” with the least amount of effort.

 

Pick and choose. You can have it all just not all at the same time!

Another thing I do now is to pick one kid each year to give more of an elaborate DIY decorated party too. For example, this year my oldest daughter really wanted a sleepover birthday. So we picked up a couple of sushi platters from Whole Foods since that’s her fav and ordered some pizzas. We ate at home and then created an ice cream bar with all the fixins and let them go to town. After we sang Happy Birthday we took them all to see a movie then back home for a long night of giggles. It was simple and it was so fun. She loved it and I loved that I wasn’t up the whole night before hot gluing something. I literally just hung a few paper lanterns over the dining table and twisted two intersecting strands of crepe paper “Prom style” in the living room. Crepe ribbon folks is one of the best investments you could ever make. Oh, and if you have ever used a Christmas light projection on your house this also makes a great effect for a dance party in your living room!

For my middle daughter we threw a  huge more elaborate party with friends and all the cutesy details. Even that party though I managed to keep the DIY to more of a minimum and it still made a huge impact. You’ll see that in another post!

 

Out-sourcing can be a God-send!

And come spring I outsourced my youngest daughter’s party to our local My Gym  and boy was that easy! They do an incredible job and she had a blast.

 

It’s all about compromise!

This compromise has kept me sane, kept it fair and alleviated a lot of stress, mommy guilt and not to mention saved money. Cause lets face it, no matter how hard you try parties hosted at home usually end up being the most expensive. At least they do for me because inevitable the earlier I start to plan and the longer I look on Pinterest the more elaborate my details become. How does that even happen?! But it does!

 

Everly’s Daisy Theme First Birthday

All that being said when my youngest daughter was turning 1 I wanted her first birthday to be really special. Her cousin is only 30 days younger so we decided to make it a combo birthday. The details you’ll see here are so cute and sweet and so so easy. I want to inspire you that you can still have an adorable “Pinterest-worthy” party without being super crafty, great in the kitchen or staying up all night. See the pics and tips below!

I’ve also included a tutorial on how to make a lace birthday crown.

Here’s a free video tutorial!

 

For this theme we wanted something happy and to me happy means sunny!

Cupcakes Don’t Have to Be Homemade To Be Cute

I found these cupcakes at our neighborhood Ralph’s! Yep, that’s right I did NOT make cupcakes for this party. Nor, did I spend a small fortune at a bakery for them. Ralph’s carries a brand called Kimberley’s and they come in a pack of six- and they are delicious! For the cupcake toppers I found daisy stickers (similar ones found here) and stuck a toothpick to the back of them! I loved the idea of fence cupcake wrappers because it gave the cupcakes a sunny daisy “garden feel.” Find similar ones here.

 

Sugar Cookies Double As Food And Decor For A First Birthday

Another thing that can make a big impact for a little girl’s birthday party is sugar cookies! This is a perfect example of outsourcing to friends! I’m not a sugar cookie expert. I think its an art that takes a lot of practice to perfect, and let’s face it some of us do not have the talent or patience to pull this off well. A friend made these for us and she did such a cute job! She used the birthday girls’ initials and also a cute flower daisy to fit the theme. If you don’t have a talented friend who can make these Etsy is another great resource for finding affordable custom made baked goods.

    

Invest In A Statement Piece You’ll Use Again and Again

A long time a go I found this adorable cupcake ferris wheel stand online and decided to spray paint it white. I thought it was the perfect complement for decor for a little girl’s birthday party.

    

Easy Party Food For A First Birthday

For the kids we cut out pb&js’s in the shape of daisies and served quiche to the adults. For the food labels we just used a burlap colored cardstock and put them in mini frames from Michaels that we can use again and again.

 

 

Decorate with Lanterns!

I love lanterns! They’re affordable, fold down flat for storage and make a huge impact. I buy them in lots of colors from Oriental Trading co. We also made a a garland with pics from each month of their first year. I just clipped them to twine with a mini clothespin. So easy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DIY Garland

For this garland you can either find a clip art of a triangle online and print it in the size you want, or you can trace the outline of an existing garland. Pick the cardstock you want and cut out. I attached the triangles to burlap twine using mini clothespins from Michaels. Burlap twine is a staple in my pantry- and my craft room! Its useful for working in the kitchen of course, but is also so cute to wrap gifts or baked goods. Another idea for burlap twine is to wrap bread in parchment paper, tie it with twine and put a sprig of rosemary or lavender behind the knot. So cute and so easy!

This was such a sweet, easy fun party to host. Everly Elle was happy and at the end of the day that’s all that matters. I hope you found some inspiration! Thanks for checking us out!