Stella's First Birthday Party

Days and weeks of preparation, and it's over. Just like that. Days of making and putting up decorations, to all be taken down in a few hours. It was worth every minute. Her party was a mix of purchased things and DIY things that I made. I didn't want a theme to her party just yet. As selfish as it may sound, I wanted to create this party more for myself this year. As she gets older I will have less and less say as far as decor and theme go. So after searching color schemes, I chose her colors to be a pastel combination of mint green, baby pink, and gold with a splash of lavender. I loved it. I also wanted our guests to see quite the collection of pictures of our little miss throughout her first year of life. and that they did. 

I made two shutterfly photo books and put them out on the main table to our guests to flip through. The first one was a collection of Stella's 0-6 month photographs, and the second was 7 months to present. In each book I wrote her a letter from Rick and I, hoping she enjoys flipping through them and reading our letter when she gets older.  good keepsake for her to always have. 

These are the favors that I also made. I ordered the mini scalloped popcorn boxes from oriental trading and filled them with a flavored popcorn that I made. It was called pink trash popcorn. Recipe here. I also made the tags. I bought them pink, but with a little Elmers glue and gold glitter, I bedazzled them a bit, wrote the thank you with a gold Sharpie and used twine to close up the bags. 

This is our table right near our entry way. I popped one of Stella's invitations in a frame with a sheet of mint green scrap book paper and cut a gold 1 out of gold scrap book paper and glued it on a wooden chop stick. I also placed pink carnations in mini mason jars all around. They added a nice touch. 

This was a collage I put together of all Stella pictures. They are all cell phone pictures that I printed out on mpix.com. The tassel garland I ordered off of a mini shop on etsy called Project Paper and I absolutely loved it. I actually hung it in the playroom after cleaning up after the party. You can't really tell from the pictures, put a dipped all of the mini clothes pins in gold glitter also. Consider them bedazzled. :)

more Stella pictures...

Her cake was ridiculously beautiful and delicious. It came from Sweet Cakes by Lissette. The top layer was carrot cake with caramel filling and the bottom layer was chocolate and vanilla cake with bavarian cream filling.  I made Stella's smash cake. It was indeed sugar free...except for the natural sugars in the bananas, apple sauce etc... I also made her smash cake topper using scrap book paper, paper straws and twine.

Her hat was made by me :) It was also gold and mint green scrap book paper, with pink pom poms glued on the top and around the bottom. Stella's height chair was decorated with some baby pink tulle bought from SwankNotion on etsy, and the banner that said one that I made with some more scrap book paper :)

Her outfit was ordered off of BelleNwhistle from etsy. It was a long sleeve onsie, a tutu, and the headband was also included. It fit her perfectly and the colors were perfect. 

I used Stella's nap times productively :). I graffiti'ed the chalkboard wall downstairs in the pub! All about Stella at 1 years old....I had a blast doing it!

I am sure there are things I am missing and forgot to mention but all in all Stella's party was a success and I was happy how everything turned out. 

Now onto my next DIY...Stella's costume?! This could be a success or a bust! We shall see...