I’m still over here crying that Graham is officially ONE. This past year went so fast but we were able to celebrate with a fun big birthday party for him!! I started thinking of themes in late winter because I knew time would fly by…which it did.
The day of Graham’s birthday party went by so quickly and the party was such a blur. Steve and I were both running around the whole time being hosts that we really didn’t get to enjoy it but Graham and all the kids invited had a blast and that’s all that matters! I was so busy I barely got any pictures but I am so glad that our friends and family took some great ones for us!
I wanted to detail the day and help give inspiration for your baby’s first birthday party so keep on reading about the whole day!
The Theme
The entire birthday party started getting planned once i figured out what I wanted to theme to be. I couldn’t really decide on one specific theme but I loved the idea of ‘our sunshine is one’ and the O being a sun. When I looked into this theme a bit more, I started seeing so many other beach and surf themes and I loved them so much too! I decided to mix some sun and beachy vibes together for the theme. I found some sugar cookies that I loved the look of on Pinterest and that’s what I went off of for the rest of the party! I focused the colors to be yellows, oranges, and blues .
The Invitations
I created Graham’s birthday invitations in InDesign and made some sketches on my iPad with Procreate. I loved how they turned out! I kept the idea of the sun for the O and added in some beach/surf drawings.
The Food & Drinks
To go along with the beach part of the theme, I decided to get some catered food that added to the summer vibes. A local restaurant, Surf Taco that has some catering options with great options. We chose their Luau which includes Steak Fajitas, Hawaiian Chicken (has pineapples!), a layered dip, rice, a Hawaiian salad (also has pineapples!), and chips, salsa, and guac.
We also got platters of sandwiches from a local deli (Lenny’s Colonial Ranch in Point Pleasant is the best!) and did a mix of their sloppy sandwiches and regular finger sandwiches.
I wanted yellow lemonade to go along with the sun part of the theme and wanted that near all the blue decor to balance off each other. We did the typical assorted drinks in large coolers and I got two beverage tubs (only $15 each!) to put wine in one and juices in the other for kids.
For dessert, I got custom made sugar cookies which was the first thing I ordered to go along with the theme. I had used Kiersten’s Creations for a past event I attended and couldn’t wait to use her again! She nailed it with these cookies!
I made Graham his cake with just basic Betty Crocker yellow cake and made buttercream icing. I don’t bake so I didn’t put too much pressure to make this cake any big deal…especially because it was just his own smash cake.
The cupcakes for everyone were from Sam’s Club…shout out to my best friend and her husband who are members there and picked them up for us!! Their cupcakes are AMAZING and so incredibly cheap- $15 for 30. I called to order them and got white and amaryllis yellow icing.
I put together a s’mores board and was so excited for everyone to make their own s’more their own way but it wound up down pouring and lightening as soon as we were ready to get a fire started.
The Playlist
Steve and I take making playlists very seriously. We both love to make the perfect playlist for any occassion and this was no different. We would have music inside and outside so we both made our own playlists. Mine consisted of songs that fitted a certain criteria: summery, meaningful to us and meaningful as being a parent, and then songs that are just crowd pleasers.
The Decorations
My mom and I (mostly my Mom) made our wedding backdrop and it was perfect to reuse for the birthday party! From there I figured out the rest of the decorations and how I wanted to set it all up. I decided the deck area would have the wedding backdrop and since that had all different blue colors, we would have the blue shades outside and inside I would create another backdrop that had yellows and oranges.
The other DIY backdrop I made inside was out of honeycomb tissue paper decorations and I love how it turned out! I have all the details on making that backdrop over here. It was very simple and can be set up any way you’d like which made it so fun to create!
I didn’t want to go crazy with decorations so I found little details that could be used around the party on Etsy and Amazon. I got a ONE sun sign, a one banner, a new tablecloth that can easily be used for regular use, some bud vases that can also be used regularly, fresh flowers, and cake toppers.
I forgot to put the cake toppers out right away (that’s a very me move) but eventually my mom remembered and my cousin helped put them all out!
Shop all of the birthday party decor items we had at Graham’s first birthday party!
