Emery’s First Birthday Party

April 5, 2014

Well now that it’s been almost a month since Emery’s party, I think it’s about time I finally post pictures from it! I’ve really been slacking on posts lately and I promise it’s on my to-do list to get more up! (The problem is it’s a very long list!!) So without any more delay, here’s how Emery’s party went down:

After looking through many websites and getting ideas off Pinterest, I decided I didn’t really want to do a theme for her birthday. I think themed parties are really cute, but I was worried it would limit the decorations too much. Instead I chose a color palate of pink, mint, and gold (mostly) and played with adding in some geometrical shapes (mainly triangles). The first thing I did was go out and find balloons in the exact colors of the party, then filled up Emery’s crib with them for a photoshoot! Those are the ones I posted of her on her birthday. I did the shoot a little ahead of time so I could use them on her invitations! I designed them in InDesign (as always) and got them printed up and sent out a few weeks before her party. Here’s how they turned out:

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Now for the day of the party! The front door wasn’t anything too exciting. I threw up a small tissue paper tassel garland, along with my chalkboard that I had written “Happy Birthday to You” on:

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Then when guests walked in, they saw my entry way table lined with pictures of Emery and a little quiz I had designed for guests to fill out. Originally my plan was to have multiple tables set up outside, each with a picture of Emery on it, quizzes, and other decorations. But of course it stormed that day (doesn’t it always?) and so we had to do some last minute rearranging before the party started. Instead I moved all the pictures and quizzes to the table and strung some tissue paper pom poms up above to complete the look.

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Once they continued into the kitchen, I had the food table set up in the corner. I wanted to keep it simple and clean looking, so on top of a white tablecloth and burlap table runner, I used mostly white platters. I made up the “ONE” glitter letters by getting cardboard letters from Hobby Lobby, painting modge podge all over them, and then dipping them in gold glitter! So easy and I love the way it turned out! I also made a ton of triangle garlands that hung down as the backdrop behind the table, and a burlap banner that said “EMERY” strung in front.

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Sorry, I know that’s probably way too many pictures! But it’s so hard for me to narrow down which ones to share! Next, I had the drinks set up on the bar, with more of the tissue pom poms on a garland above and a tissue paper tassel garland strung underneath. I cut out another burlap table runner and used another chalkboard to write “Grab a Drink”. I considered serving fancy drinks, but in the end totally took the easy way out and bought a bunch of sodas and water bottles from the store! I tried to make the water bottles cute, at least, by sticking washi tape around them.

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On the higher bar (connected to the one above), I set out more pictures of Emery from all across the past year:

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Then in the living room, I decorated our mantle like a shrine to Emery—because that’s how it should be on your birthday, right?! I used two canvas pictures I had printed of her, letters spelling “EMERY” that I made last year for her nursery, and another tissue paper tassel garland and balloons! Super simple, but I think it was really effective!

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And across the room from the fireplace/mantel is a giant wall that I knew I wanted to decorate somehow. I decided to make a timeline of Emery’s past year in photos, with each month having a different column. I thought it would be fun for our guests to see how much Emery has changed, month by month! I cut out the letters with my Silhouette and glued them on to other pieces of cardstock. I then used regular string to tape pictures onto and hang down from the correlating month. Then I used paper and cardstock to make the paper fans that I hung up above. And I don’t know if you’ve ever made paper fans, but out of all my decorations, these were by far the most frustrating!! What is the secret?! Everyone says it is so easy but 1) they took forever to do and 2) they kept coming apart! Luckily they lasted through the party but I don’t think I’ll be attempting them again in the future!!

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And that’s pretty much it for decorations/set up! On their way out, guests also got to pick up a little “Thank You” goodie bag near the back door. This was another quick DIY: I just picked up some brown paper sacks, stickers in the right colors, and used washi tape to close the bags off when I was finished stuffing them with candy!

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Now for my favorite pictures from the party: Emery eating her cake! She wasn’t quite sure what was going on because I’ve never let her have anything sweet before (even her apple juice is pretty much 90% water, 10% juice…I know, I’m not a fun mom). So at first she kind of patted the cake with her hand, not understanding what it was. Then after the first taste, she dove in! I’m sure she was in heaven, tasting something so sweet!

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And now for the candids/shots of the guests! We had a really good turn out and even though it stormed and we had to stay inside, everyone still had plenty of space and (I think) a good time! The food was delicious (and I can say that because my mom pretty much saved me and made everything herself!!) Everyone was so generous in the gifts they got Emery—Grant and I were really surprised and so overwhelmed! I know she’s only one so she doesn’t quite understand, but it meant a lot to us for everyone to come out to her party and then bring such thoughtful gifts! At this point in the party, I kind of abandoned my camera to enjoy everyone so I only have a few pictures worth posting. But to everyone who came out: a giant Thank You!!

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And I think that about wraps it up! After working so hard for so long on Emery’s party, mine will probably not be anything too special this year! Now that I actually have a child to throw parties for, I’m feeling like maybe I’ve crossed over that line and I’m not supposed to throw myself parties anymore? But don’t worry! That just means I have MONTHS to prepare for our annual Halloween party!! And yes, I already know exactly how I’m going to be inviting our guests this year! Get excited, because it is  G O O D ! ! !

UPDATE: I’ve now opened an Etsy shop! If you are interested in the design I did for Emery’s invitations to her birthday party, please check out my shop and message me about any questions! I will completely customize it for you! And if you’re looking for a particular design that you don’t see, I’m always happy to do custom work as well—just shoot me an email!

5 thoughts on “Emery’s First Birthday Party

  1. Wow, you are as good as or even better than Martha Stewart! What a party planner! So creative and the food look amazing and soooo beautiful. My favorite things are the pictures of Emery’s life by month and her eating her birthday cake. What a cutie! You are such a wonderful mother!!!!!!!!!! Can’t wait to see you guys in early June! Love ya,
    Sharmaine

  2. Ditto to everything Sharmaine said…YOU ARE AMAZING!
    One question: why aren’t you doing this professionally? Seriously..you should.

  3. The pictures are just as beautiful as it was in person. My favorite picture is Emery doing her duck face. Hilarious! Great shots! You’re pretty amazing Callie.

  4. I just ran across this post on Pinterest and all the ideas are SO cute! What’s even better is that my little girl’s name is Emery too!! She will be one this coming Valentine’s Day so I’m going to use a lot of your ideas for her party

  5. I just found this post on Pinterest to find ideas for my little girl’s birthday and I love these ideas! My daughter’s name is also Emery!! I was also looking at a few of your other posts and saw the one about the Washington DC LDS temple and wanted to mention that I’m LDS as well! Small world

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