Emersyn turned 1 last Thursday(March 2) and we celebrated in princess style with a party with our family on the following Saturday. It was such a special day for us to all remember, can’t believe my baby is 1!
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Party Planning: I started thinking about her party in January ahead of time because I knew it would take some time planning and I’m so glad I did! It literally consumed my life for awhile! I spent probably 2 or 3 weeks just scouring Pinterest (of course!) getting ideas. I ended up choosing as cliche as it is, a pink and gold princess theme. Nothing else seemed to fit so I went with it! You can find my Pinterest inspirational board for her party here. There was a post in Pinterest in particular that I came across that really sealed the deal for me and gave me so many great ideas so thank you Jenny Richardson! She did my sign that I hung behind Emmy’s highchair too since I loved hers so much! After choosing a theme the first thing I did was order the invitations. I’m such a terrible decision maker! Seriously there are SO many cute ones to choose one that I finally just picked and never looked back. I finally chose this one from Etsy. I did my own little photo shoot with Emmy (she was NOT thrilled about) to choose a picture for it since I hadn’t taken her professional year photos yet. Let’s just say I won’t be taking up a career as a photographer anytime soon!
Birthday Girl’s Outfit: by far the most fun to pick out! I ordered her custom onsie on Etsy. I did have an issue with company as they sent me the wrong order and it misspelled but they quickly corrected their mistake and rushed me a new one. I got her princess leg warmers in Liberty at Wild Child, ADORABLE! I also got her bubble necklace there that she wore during her cake smash. Her bow was totally unplanned because she pulling off her crown headband so in a panic I just picked a pink clip! I made her tutu myself using this tutorial from the Pinning Mama. It was a great tutorial! I used the same method to make her high chair tutu, only I made this one a little longer and I also used gold glitter tulle. It is true that gold glitter tulle is a MESS, it gets EVERYWHERE! So there’s your fair warning. For her tutu I combined light pink, dark pink, and gold (NOT glitter) tulle, so 3 pieces for each tie. I was really happy with it, the fullness and length was perfect and she look SO CUTE!
The Decor: I’m not super big on themey stuff so I wanted it to have a general theme but not go all out crazy where EVERYTHING had to be princess. So I stuck with having gold crowns as my main princess decor and somehow along the way roses got added in even though it wasn’t planned at first but I think it made such a pretty touch! I was really adamant on doing most of the party stuff myself. I got offered a lot of help (which I total appreciate) but sometimes I’m stubborn like that because I want to do it all. In the end I realized I can’t do it ALL so I did have some good help on a few things!I also wanted to try and save some money. I LIVED at Hobby Lobby this past month. And yes I made SEVERAL trips where I waited till things were either 1. on sale or 2. I could use my 40% off coupon.
I bought wooden letters “ONE” at Hobby Lobby and painted them to match and glued a spray painted crown onto it.
I knew I wanted a big crown at the top of the window with sheers behind my main cake table but it cost like $30 AND I would’ve had to paint it. So I found the picture of the crown online and my mom had it blown up and printed off the size I wanted it so I used that as my tracing template guide to make my own on poster board!
I made her 1-12 picture banner that hung on my fireplace but cutting out numbers that I traced on poster board, printed pics from Walgreens, a hole punch and string… SO easy. Probably the thing that took me the longest and caused me the most anger was her “Happy Birthday Emersyn” banner sign. I traced, cut, painted, glued, hole punched every little thing on there…..but I was proud of it when I was done so it was worth it! I used shape templates for free online, and I bought some pink and white card stock in a pack. I refused to buy individual card stock sheets or even the gold glittered sheets at 99 cents to $1.99 a sheet no thanks. Anything I wanted gold I painted with a 99 cent bottle of acrylic gold paint. (spray painting poster board does not work well FYI) I did buy the gold glitter blast spray paint but I used it on SO much stuff so it was worth it. Everything else that I used I have listed at the bottom on where I got them. If I don’t have it listed it means it was borrowed or I already had it.
Probably one of my favorite things I added was a Time Capsule where guests would write a message to Emersyn that she would open and read on her 18th birthday!
The Food: I wanted to keep it simple and since it was an afternoon party most people had already eaten lunch, so desserts it was! I’m SUPER lucky that I have a mother in law that makes great cakes and also a sister that makes gorgeous custom cookies so I did ask for help on that DUH. I was more than happy with how they both turned out, the pink princess cake was perfect and the cookies were almost too pretty to eat and they went fast. If you live local here is my sister’s website, you will not be disappointed! I made the gold lace crown using this tutorial and Stiffy. I decided to try my hand at making Emerysn’s smash cake, I just thought it would be a special thing for me to do for my daughter’s first birthday. On her actual birthday I discovered she liked chocolate so I decided to go with a chocolate cake and I didn’t want a too super sweet icing so I went with a white chocolate icing that I could color pink. The icing was delicious! Here is the recipe. I used a 4″ cake pan and did 2 layers. I watched a few tutorials on how to do rosettes. I’m definitely not a professional cake decorator but I was SO happy I decided to do this for Emmy and she loved it! She really got her hands into that cake! I also made a funfetti dip and a pink princess punch, both of those are on my Pinterest board also.
The Party Day: I originally planned the party time around Emmy’s nap schedule but lo and behold she started dropping her morning nap and sleeping in the afternoon instead! On top of that she had a runny nose at the beginning of the week and then I (who has gone all winter without being sick while everyone else was) I got a bad cold like the day before! Luckily Emmy started feeling good by mid-week, my plan of waking her up early at 7:30 that morning so she would take a nap before the party WORKED, and I stocked up on Alka Seltzer and zipped thru the day as planned, WHEW! We made it! The day turned out to be a nice warm but windy day. So it was nice to be able to have the windows open and for people to get to sit outside some.
We did cake and when she got her smash cake she enjoyed tasting and smashing the crap out of it! It was literally the highlight of my day! She was squeezing that cake in her hands as hard as she could and making her classic Emmy scrunch faces that always cracks us up.
After cake we opened presents and enjoyed visiting with family. We were so thrilled that almost all of the family made it to be part of her special day. Emersyn is such a happy, sweet, easy going little girl and I know she is just so loved by family and we appreciate each and every one who came to her party. Emmy was a champ and stayed happy through the whole party. However after everyone left she crashed hard core for a nap and the next morning she slept till after 10am! A big big THANK YOU to our family and also to my mom, mother in law, and sister April for all your help with the party!
Happy birthday my sweet sweet girl! We love you!
DETAILS
Once Upon a Time picture frame- Wal-Mart (frame only)
pink plates and napkins- Dollar Store
Gold forks- Hobby Lobby
pink sheer- Hobby Lobby
princess carriage- Hobby Lobby
flowers- Hobby Lobby & Michaels
pink glitter 1 candle- Hobby Lobby
pink & gold jewels- Hobby Lobby
Customized Onsie– Etsy
Time Capsule– Etsy
Invitations– Etsy
Confetti Balloon– Etsy
My floral blouse- CW Boutique
Anything else you are wondering where I got it or how I did it, just comment below and ask! I’m happy to share the love!
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Crown Cookie Cutter
Behind the scenes prepping:
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