We moved around some furniture and pushed our dining table (which became a dessert table) up against the window which really allowed us to create an even more open space. We also moved our dining chairs up against a wall in our living room and moved the long tufted bench from our kitchen up against a stair railing we have and so many people sat there, it was fantastic! We set up the food on our kitchen island and that worked really well.
I'll share a post with party photos more focused on fun and family tomorrow, but I wanted to create a separate post just focusing on the decor and DIY projects so it's all in one place for anyone who is interested in knowing where I purchased something or what I used to make something.
I absolutely loved planning this party and I was able to get a few DIY projects incorporated, though I also purchased many items from Etsy. In terms of theme, as I mentioned previously, we didn't really have a theme other than "it's Harper's first birthday!" For color scheme, I went with mint green, baby pink, lilac and gold because I didn't see that exact combo a lot.
Most of the photos in this post were taken by my co-worker and a few are from my phone. I'm lucky that our in-hospital videographer has a side hobby in photography so I asked if I could hire him to shoot Harper's party after seeing a few other friend's parties he had shot. It was the best decision ever because I never had to worry about taking photos. I was able to interact with our guests and just enjoy myself and be in the moment versus worrying about missing a shot that was important to me.
Inspired by cake bunting/banners I saw on Pinterest, I created this one myself using scrapbook paper sold at Michael's Arts & Crafts and twine. The paper straws are by PuppyCatCrafts on Etsy.
I ordered these scalloped-edge popcorn boxes from Oriental Trading Company and filled them with strawberry shortcake popcorn from Poparazzi. They have so many flavors, I highly recommend them. The decals on the boxes were designed by Rachel from Planned Pretty. I absolutely loved working with her and how open she was to my ideas. It was truly collaborative and I'm so pleased with how she brought all of my ideas to life!
These letters are by Land of Nod. I spray painted them gold using metallic gold spray paint I purchased at Michael's Arts & Crafts. You can also get it on amazon.
I purchased my poms from FancifulChaos on Etsy and the pomwheels are from PomTree on Etsy.
Water bottle labels are by Planned Pretty. The beautiful party hat is by PrettyPoshShoppe (Danielle made it custom for Harper!). Harper's birthday Crown is by my sweet friend Megan of Willow Crowns.
I used Prinstagram to print Instagram photos and created a banner using mint green baker's twine from FancifulChaos and gold glitter mini clothespins from AnastasiaMarieShop on Etsy. The beautiful custom tissue tassel garland is by Project Paper.
I created the window covering using streamers and tulle purchased at Arnes Warehouse. This was kind of a bigger project, but worth it, I think. It was the perfect backdrop for the dessert table! I can share a tutorial of how I did it if y'all are interested. (PS- Oh look, it's Megan!)
I created the "one" bunting/banner using scrapbook paper from Michael's Arts & Crafts and ribbon. The highchair skirt is made from the same tulle I used for the window backdrop and ribbon. Harper's bib is ? FHJ Baby (LOVE!) and her dress is ? Little Kennedy Boutique.
We had 50 balloons to add a little fun to our space---I love the way balloons look with our high ceilings. I also had a gold "H" and "1" but they weren't blown up with the helium correctly and didn't hold form well.
I used Prinstagram to print some additional IG photos and did a mini gallery wall near the food.
For food, we kept is simple and did the following: 200 nuggets from Chick-Fil-A (we had the nuggets in warmers on the kitchen counter so they aren't in this photo) a fruit platter, a veggie platter, chips with guacamole and macaroni salad.
For the kids/babies I had the fruit and mini cups of baby goldfish and puffs. Thank goodness because all of the kids and babies loved them!
The dessert table featured cake (made by the same local baker as our wedding cake---and she threw in Harper's smash cake for free!) and gourmet popcorn. I also gave JellyBelly jelly beans and Reeces Pieces in my favor bags and left a bowl of JellyBellies out for whoever might like some.
The mint heart garland on our chalkboard is by FancifulChaos on Etsy.
I loved all of my DIY projects, but by far the dumbest one was hand-painting polka dots onto these kraft paper bags that I used as favor bags for our guests. Fist of all, the dots were a little sloppy (though I think they look decent) and secondly it was an annoying project. The reason I painted them was because I couldn't find what I wanted on etsy. Anyway, it wasn't a huge time suck, but I didn't enjoy it. The gift tags, on the other hand, were super fun to make. I cut them out using scrapbook paper, applied glue with a sponge applicator to form a line at the bottom and dipped each tag into Martha Stewart's gold glitter. So cute and easy!
I used these as food picks--- they're designed by Planned Pretty, who did all of our birthday printables.
That is everything I can think of DIY/decor wise, but if you spot anything else in our photos or have any questions feel free to leave one in the comments below! Coming up tomorrow is a post with party photos that focuses on the event, highlights and friends and family. Thank you so much for reading and I hope you liked Harper's party!
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