First Birthday Party! (part 1)

We have a ton of pictures from Eliza's party that I don't even know where to begin with sharing!  So to start, I'm going to post pictures of the decor and explain a little about what I did and what vendors we used.  I had a great experience working with two etsy sellers and a local cupcake shop!  I'll share the details below.

Soon after Eliza was born, I started being drawn to rainbow-themed parties that I'd been seeing.  I don't know how people planned parties with fun decor before pinterest!  :)  So that is what we went with, but more in an abstract way--we didn't actually have rainbows per se, just the colors.

First, here's a picture of our living room decorated.  I took down any picture that didn't have Eliza in it--there were two maternity photos, but the baby was in my belly!  In the corners we hung a mixture of paper lanterns (from a friend and extra from Eliza's nursery), swirl hangings (Target), honeycomb globes (Target), and personalized labels on yarn (more on those later).  On the mantel is a month-by-month picture banner of Eliza mounted on scrapbook paper and strung up with yarn.  I also made two ribbon topiaries for the mantel.  Also on the mantel is birthday hats and votive holders filled with sprinkles!

We also decorated outside!  My mom picked up the rainbow colored pinwheels from Dollar General, I believe.  The banner I ordered off etsy from Less Pinning More Doing (she also did a high chair banner for us, see below).  I made the wreath.  The lantern on the light was my mom's idea and it looks great!

This wreath is actually a failed Christmas craft attempt that I was able to salvage into an adorable birthday wreath!  It is a styrofoam ring wrapped in yarn.  I then made a bunting banner out of scrapbook paper to hang in the middle.  I used more scrapbook paper to make the "Eliza is 1" cards on the wreath; those are hot glued on.  I love the way it turned out!!

This project (behind my dad!) was a riff from something I saw on pinterest.  We took our kitchen curtains off the tension rod hanging at the sliding door and looped circles of streamers onto it.  Then we taped those into place so they stayed looking pretty like below!

This "chandelier"-like grouping hung above the island and the cake.

FOOD!  :)  I used food tents I got from the same etsy shop as the cupcake toppers linked below.

From to to bottom:
 Rainbow slushie--made from freezer pops (the one in plastic sleeves).  Another pinterest idea!  To make this, you cut open all the popsicles of each color (about 6 is all you need for each layer).  Smash up and put in the trifle dish.  Pop in the freezer after each individual layer so it gets nice and frozen--if you skip this step the colors will melt altogether.  I am in love with how this turned out!!! (I used THIS tutorial).
Fruit rainbow--we used strawberries, cantalope, kiwi, blueberries, and grapes; pretty self-explanatory!
"Confetti Pretzels"--white chocolate dipped-sprinkle-covered pretzel rods.  My sister Alissa dipped all of those and I added sprinkles!
Rainbow Goldfish
Mema's (Diana's) Deviled Eggs
Basic slaw
Rainbow pasta salad

The cake!!  I made Eliza's confetti cake from a box mix.  It was four little layers and I like how my lame attempt at a frosting design turned out!  The "Happy Birthday" candles are from Target--what a great find!  The "1" is from Party City.  The beautiful and fun tutu table decoration was made by my friend Jenna, and was another pinterest inspired piece.  The cupcakes were done by the local cupcake shop  The Cupcake Tree in Zionsville.  I had multiple people ask me who they were from and they were a big hit!  

I made the toppers with labels from Sweet Scarlet Designs on etsy.  Elise, the designer, is from Brisbane, Australia where I studied abroad for 4 months.  I really enjoyed messaging back-and-forth with her about Australia and traveling!  With the aid of my mother-in-laws Cricut machine, I mounted the labels on scrapbook paper for added depth and detail, mounted them on lollipop sticks (found at Michaels), and stuck them in the cupcakes!  I loved loved loved this detail.

Above the highchair we hung more of the swirl hangings and labels on yarn.  The print I got awhile ago (and I can't remember the illustrator) off Zulily.  I love it and thought it was a sweet and festive touch!  The banner is also from Less Pinning More Doing.

In our entry way, I recruited the family to blow up balloons in rainbow colors then tied them onto a piece of yarn in rainbow order.  We hung them in front of our office doors it welcomed our guests in a festive fashion!  By the door are the skittles party favors, featured below.

This was the sign-in table in the entry.  My mom bought Eliza that rainbow onesie a few weeks ago and I immediately knew I wanted to get a picture of Eliza with her beautiful grin to display at the party!  Next to it is the guest book.  I read a suggestion somewhere to use a story book as a guest book, and I found a book called "If I Could Keep You Little."  I read two pages in Target the day before the party, started crying, stopped reading, and threw it in the cart!  It's the perfect book to commemorate Eliza's first birthday.  There's the skittles again, too.  They roamed.  :)

Here's a closeup of the mantle, along with Eliza's birthday dress (from Gymboree).  For the topiaries, I roughly followed THIS tutorial.

Detail shot of the cupcakes.

Detail of the skittles--the box is from the dollar spot in Target.  We found those the day before the party and I knew they'd be perfect; especially for only $1 each!  The labels are again from Sweet Scarlet Designs.

This was the outside decoration.  I like how the streamers show through!  On either sides of the door is a foam core board with 4x6 photos of Eliza from her professional sessions, newborn-9m.   I saw this on pinterest and it was a Martha Stewart idea.  That lady, full of good ideas!

I forgot to get pictures of the water bottles with their special labels from Sweet Scarlet Designs.  They looked great!

If you made this far reading, congratulations!  If you just looked at the pictures I don't blame you!  But in case you are also thinking of plans for a kid's birthday party I wanted to be detailed!  All of the vendors I used were amazing to work with and The Cupcake Tree even delivered the cupcakes the night before the party!  I highly recommend all of them.

Tune in later and I'll share more pictures from the actual party!