How to Throw a Party You Will Always Remember

What an exciting year this has been for me and my family. A time of changing, learning, growing and celebrating. Over the past few months, I have been thinking about Laila’s first birthday party. I knew I wanted it to be a celebration of HER! She has been such a BIG blessing in our lives, so I wanted it to be BIG.

Every baby deserves to have an Extraordinary First Birthday Party! What special blessings they are … it is only appropriate to celebrate THEM and the joy they bring into our lives. Today I am going to share with you a few tips and ideas to help you plan a party your baby will LOVE and your family and friends will never forget.

1. SET A BUDGET: I just wish money grew on trees and we didn’t have to worry about how much we have and are able to spend. I know we all can afford different amounts for parties, so I suggest to plan ahead and set a limit based on your income. If you are really thinking ahead, start saving now. Make an account and put a little bit in it each month. That way when the time comes, you already have money set aside to play with. Don’t forget that money adds up QUICK when planning a party. Invitations, a venue, food, decorations, games, prizes… it gets expensive. So decide how much you can afford and stick with it.

2. DECIDE WHO YOU WOULD LIKE TO INVITE: Honestly, I wanted to invite the whole city of Las Vegas…and I am not kidding. I had a list a mile long of people that have helped and supported us the past few years. Unfortunately, inviting that many people was out of our budget, so we had to slim the list down to people in our little area and ward (church) boundaries. It ended up being PERFECT with that many people and I think more than that would have been too overwhelming for Laila {and me} anyways. Make a list of people you would like to invite and keep your baby in mind. Will too many people overwhelm him/her? Maybe overwhelm you? Keep it small… or make it big. That is the beauty of being the planner… YOU get to decide!

3. CHOOSE A VENUE: We really wanted to have her party at a park because a park is FREE! But, it is January and still pretty cold so that got checked off the list pretty quickly. We looked around and were blessed to be able to rent the clubhouse in our neighborhood for a decent price. Don’t forget to browse around your options. FREE places are always the best, that way you don’t take money out of your budget, but if that isn’t an option for you {like it wasn’t for us} look around at other places and pricing. I think you will be surprised at some of the decent prices you will be able to find.

4. SET A THEME: Does your baby love something specific? Girls maybe like princesses and boys maybe like trains. Whatever your baby loves, that could be a theme. Play off of it and be creative. If you go to Party City, they have TONS of themes to choose from. Laila LOVES pink. She is my girlie-girl and I love it. Anything that sparkles is good for her. We decided to throw a PINKALICIOUS Birthday Party. As girlie as girlie can get!

5. MAKE INVITATIONS: Making the invitations are one of the funnest parts! We went and took Laila on a professional photo shoot for her invitations at Moments Like This Photography. The pictures turned out unreal. Heidi did an incredible job capturing our little Laila as she smashed her cake. She is amazing with babies, passionate about photography, and the quality of the pictures were incredible. I used the pictures to make her invitation. I highly suggest taking your babies photos for the invites… it adds so much personality!

6. BRAINSTORM ACTIVITIES: Once the invitations are ordered, it is time to PLAN. Decide who your audience is. Are you catering to adults, children or babies? We looked at our list of people we were inviting and the majority of them were children, so we decided they would be our audience. We came up with several games about Laila. Remember, it is THEIR party, so make it about them!

We had a welcome table with the children’s book Pinkalicious for her guest’s to sign as they walked in with a cute pink feather pen.

A Photo Booth with pink dress ups, a backdrop and a sign to hold wishing Laila a Happy Birthday. It was fun to see everyone dress up and I love that Laila will be able to keep the photos forever, to remember who celebrated with her.

Laila is famous for her BOWS. So I put some of her bows in a pink box and had each guest guess how many bows were in the box. The answer was 114 and a few people were almost RIGHT on! The winner got a prize.

Every child loves face painting! My mother-in-law is amazing and set up a little face painting booth. The kids absolutely LOVED it and it was so fun to see what design all of the kids had on their faces.

Laila LOVES bath time, so to incorporate that we had a Duck Pond. By far, the most popular game we had. The ducks were floating in a little pink bucket and they closed their eyes to pull out a duck. Each duck had a number on the bottom, matching up with a bucket with a prize. The kids loved pulling out the ducks to see what prize they received. Everyone was a winner!

What is a party without Pin the Tail on the Donkey? Instead of a donkey though, we wanted it to be about Laila…so we played Pin the BOW on LAILA. Each person had a bow that they wrote their name on. They were then blindfolded and spun around. It was hilarious to see where the bows ended up! Every person who participated got a candy necklace and the person who got the bow closest to her head won a prize.

Our last activity was our “LAILA Game” which was such a fun idea and I loved it! It was challenging with so many people, so I would suggest playing it at a smaller party. We made a board that had LAILA on top and numbers on the sides, set up like a BINGO board. My mother-in-law was the host of this game and drew names out of a bucket to see who would get to be on the spotlight. If your name was drawn, you went up and chose a square…ie: L1. Under each slot their was a question about Laila. The questions ranged from how much did she weigh when she was born to what was her first word? It was fun to talk about Laila and everyone got to learn a little bit more about the Birthday Girl.

We then sang Happy Birthday, had a cake smash and opened presents.

7. GO SHOPPING: Once the activities are planned, it is time to go shopping! Make a list of all the materials you will need so you do not have to go back out to the store several times. Make sure you remember your budget… it is easy to go over once you are there and see all of the fun “extras!”

8. SET UP: The day is here and it is time to set up. Be sure to allow yourself PLENTY of time. We started setting up at 10am thinking we would have a lot of extra time (party started at 230pm) And we honestly had 30 minutes to spare by the end of it. SO crazy! Little things make the party pop. A few jewels here and there, sparkles, balloons and extra things like that make it really stand out. We blew up the pictures from our photo shoot and placed them around the room. The quality of the poster sized pictures were so beautiful! The banner was so fun to make and really completed the whole feeling in the room.

We put together a dessert and candy table full of oreos dipped in pink chocolate, chocolate chip cookies with pink drizzled on top, rice krispy treats dipped in pink chocolate and sprinkles, cupcakes and pink candy. Even the water bottles were covered in sparkly tape and pink ribbon.

I also made a timeline of Laila’s life through pictures. Things like that add to the room and celebration! I loved that it made it about HER!

9. HAVE FUN: It is easy to get stressed when planning a party and it takes away the fun. Don’t let it happen! Remember why you are doing it… for your baby! It doesn’t have to be perfect. It isn’t going to be flawless. All that matters in the end is that you are celebrating the life of your little loved one. As long as they are happy, your job is done!

As a favor, we put together little bags of Laila’s favorite treats: oranges and fishy crackers. Everyone got to take a bag home with them!

I hope these 9 steps of tricks and tips help you as you plan your next party! “Life is to be enjoyed, not endured,” said President Gordon B. Hinckley. So ENJOY it! Have fun! Make a memory! And make your baby’s birthday… THE BEST DAY.

Danielle is the owner of Today's the Best Day. She strives to provide creative and uplifting content in order to enrich the parenting experience for women everywhere. Danielle hopes to help you and your family to make every day the best day!

January 7, 2014 by Danielle Davis | 3 Comments