April 22, 2011

ryann's first birthday party

Sit back and relax.  This is going to be a long one!  Sorry about that :o).  I thought about breaking a lot of this up in to different posts, but... well I didn't.  So here you go!  (All photos by Anne Pendleton Photography)

First up, the invites.  I meant to take a picture of them with the envelopes, but I haven't yet.  And I wanted to publish this post today.  So... you get what you get and you don't throw a fit, ok?  :o)  Have I mentioned my love for chevron?  I finally was able to fit it into an invitation design.  The little owl I designed myself.

RyannFirstBirthdayInvite

Oh the dessert table.  I think it came out pretty fun.


Our desserts consisted of pink velvet cupcakes with brown sugar cream cheese frosting, lemon cupcakes (er, from a box I believe), chocolate crackle cookies, cheesecake pops and owl sugar cookies (made by a local bakery).  My friend Jenny made the adorable little cake.

My mom had the yellow polka dot table cloths made, I felt like they really added a ton color to the room.  Oh my goodness, can we talk about the adorable owl cake topper?  I ordered it from an etsy shop, KidsCakes, and was so excited when it arrived in the mail.  I was a little worried about putting it on the cake because it was made of fondant and very heavy, but the cake was pretty dense and held up.  The cupcake liner pom balls were the ones my mom made for my baby shower (the entire reason for the pink and yellow color scheme, I wanted to reuse those guys!).  For the backdrop I quickly 'framed' some photos of Ryann, and hung them up with command strips.  The middle frame holds the onesie she came home from the hospital in.  I can't believe that thing was so huge on her.  I found my four cake stands on amazon.


I can't forget to mention who made all the delicious food for this party... my amazing mother.  I seriously couldn't do half this stuff without her.  Usually I come up with all of the ideas, and she does the cooking and helps make everything else happen.  The party was at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, so I felt like we needed heavier appetizers since it might run in to some people's dinner time.  We had fresh fruit, spring vegetable pasta salad, chicken fajita dip, cocktail shrimp and Mongolian beef sticks (recipes for the beef and the pasta salad coming soon!).  As far as I could tell everything went over pretty well.  I highly recommend the pasta salad and the chicken fajita dip.  I've had the fajita dip a few times and it never fails to satisfy.  We also put together some raspberry lemonade punch, but I never had any.  Chris seemed to like it though.  Oh, and the water bottles were adorned with some cute little labels I made.


Some of the decor... We got some bright flowers and balloons to dress up the front porch.  It was so cold that weekend (hello, it snowed!) that we had to bring the flowers in and out of the garage to keep them from freezing.  I talked about how I made that pink wreath here, and yarn wrapped R here.  Um, should we talk about the birthday banner?  I made it with my silhouette machine, but do you notice anything?  Yeah, at some point I flipped the a and the d in birthday.  As far as I know, no one noticed.  I didn't even catch it until the morning after the birthday party.  [smacks forehead with palm]  Whatever.  I used an owl pitcher as a flower vase, the little pink R I happened to walk by at Hobby Lobby.  In the family room I used some cute ribbon I found at Michaels to string Ryann's monthly photos on the mantel.  The only other decor in the family room was balloons.


Ryann's shirt came from The Chidren's Place (on sale!), and the skirt I ordered online, but can't for the life of me find the website right now (The particular brand of pettiskirt seems to be a bit shorter than others, which is good for itty bitty girlies with short legs, if I ever figure it out I'll be sure to let you know!).  The oh so adorable diaper cover was made by the etsy shop Stitcheroos.  She used the owl graphic I created for the invites for the design, and she was amazing to work with.  It is a good thing we got that cute little cover (I almost decided against it) since she threw up all over herself less than halfway through the party.


For all of the adult guests I made snack mix bags for them to take home.  I swear it was like the ultimate snack mix (ok not quite, but it was pretty dang good).  We got peanut butter filled pretzels, chex mix, chocolate covered raisins, animal crackers and pink & yellow m&m's.  There were several bags left over, and it has taken lots and lots and LOTS of willpower for me not to sit and scarf down a ton.  Oh and the silver tub they are in?  We had it at our wedding (honestly, can't remember what for).  At the last minute I couldn't find a tub big enough to put them in, and then remembered I had a few of those in the basement.  My mom quickly ripped off the coral ribbon and stuck on some pink pom trim.  Bam.  Cute favor tub.  For the few kiddos at the party, we grabbed some polka dot buckets from the Easter section at Target, as well as some bubbles, crayons and a couple other goodies.

I think that about covers all the details.  Let me know if you have any questions about all of the party stuff.  I hate to admit I've already started pinning things as inspiration for the next birthday party.  :o)

Oh wait, do any of you like the party printables?  I hope so.  Because if you've made it this far on the post you have the chance to win them.  One commenter on this post will win a set of Ry's party printables (invites, food label cards, thank you tags, name tags and water bottle labels), customized to your party color scheme.  You won't win the actual product, but I'll send you the files.  You have until 10pm CST on Monday to comment!

Happy Friday everyone!

33 comments:

Ashley said...

Ahhh you know I'm computer challenged and Miss Lilly turns 2 soon. So i really hope i win!

Everything looks so great!!

kaley said...

omigosh girl - everything turned out amazing! i LOVE LOVE LOVE owls! you should look into party planning because you definitely have the knack for it!
and, how awesome you're giving us party-challenged people a chance to win! hope it's me! :)

Breanne said...

What a beautiful party! I am in the process of working on Mollie's party...and I still have 5 months!!! :) Would love to win those labels!!!!

christine2781 said...

What a beautiful party! Now...what color scheme do I want for my next party?

Erin said...

Never too early to start planning for a 2nd birthday party, right???

This seriously was the BEST PARTY EVER!!!!!!! I love it so much! So many cute details... I can't even pick a favorite because I just love it all!

Stephanie Doyle said...

The party looks like it was perfect! :)

Marie said...

Such a cute party! Loved the color choices.

Heather said...

Such a beautiful party! The owls are adorable. I can't wait for my little girl's first birthday!

Jennifer said...

The pink and yellow scheme is perfect! Love everything! I would love to win the custom files!!

Brandy Stewart said...

Absolutely loved Ryann's party. I am doing a blue owl version for Isaac's first birthday next month! Would love the help!

Jeane said...

OMG!!! You did an amazing job!!! Everything looks great.

I love the color scheme and that owl is just too cute.

Thanks for all the inspiration!!!

Momfish said...

everly's birthday is coming up soon so we'd love to have the printables customized to her theme! how fun :) I think everything turned out terrific - so sad that she got sick halfway through though. :( My favorite thing is her bloomers... but I also LOVE the dessert table! Great job!

Sharstin said...

wow girly~ everything looks perfect! i love all the little details--amazing! happy weekend!

Melissa said...

Beautiful party! Nice job!

Kim3278 said...

Everything does look so great. I can't wait for those recipes. And the birthday banner? My favorite....maybe after the beautiful cake. You have some amazing talent! I can't wait for the next one too:)

Melissa P said...

awesome party! looked beautiful and probably took a long time to plan! Can't imagine what you have stored for her 2nd birthday! She has a pretty talented mommy!

emily barkemeyer said...

You have truly inspired me to start thinking about Maggie's first birthday! Not that I could pull off anything as fabulous as you! What a great party to celebrate Miss Ry's first year. Congrats on surviving the first year!

Steph R. said...

Lot's of cute things incorporated into the party. I hope I win the party printables. :)

Amber said...

Thanks for the great ideas for party ideas. Now Im seriously having to rethink Morgans decor for her party next month! Looks like a great party and you did such a fabulous job!

Tara said...

So dang cute. I can't believe you put that much work into everything but I like it!

Sharla said...

I never knew I had a love for owls until now. Those are the cutest decorations ever, especially the cake topper, pictures of Ryann and of course her onsie (it's crazy to see how much they have grown in such a short time).

Ps. This is only my second time commenting on your blog. I would have commented either way as I wanted to tell you what an amazing 1st birthday party you had for Ryann, she is one LUCKY girl. And also I would love to win some party decor as we also have a big number ONE birthday coming up soon :)

Meghan said...

OMG seriously one of the best birthday parties ever! You did an amazing job with the decor! I can only hope that I can do the same for my little one. It's always amazing when a designer offers up their files too, thank you so much for the opportunity!

April said...

Everything looks adorable!!!! I would love to win!!! You should teach a class on how to make little things like that (even if they are smaller scale then yours) Love it!!!

Robin said...

Adorable! Definitely some great ideas for me to borrow for my little guy's first birthday in September!

Julia C said...

What a beautiful party! Love the pettiskirt, too. I could sure use some printables for my little man's 1st birthday party in only 2 weeks!

Cubbies and Nooks said...

I wonder if these printables could be done for a baby shower? :) Very cute job! You're too freakin' creative.

Anonymous said...

My son's first birthday is in 2 months! I can't get enough of looking at 1st birthday ideas and you have some great ones. I'm trying to figure out how I can do a ruffle cake for a boy - any ideas? LOL!

Amber @ Happiness is Eva said...

Wow!

I love all of the little details! This is definitely inspiration for my daughter's 1st birthday : )

- Amber

Carry Grace said...

You did such a great job with all of the little details. Everything was beautiful!

Kristin said...

This is awesome! You did such an amazing job! My girls first birthday is coming up so the timing couldn't be more perfect!

Libby's Life said...

That is an adorable birthday party! And I LOVE LOVE LOVE that tutu! Too cute!!

Lee Marc said...

Happy birthday Ryann! You're party looked fabulous! Your parents are truly amazing with choosing yellow! I love you "eleven" shirt! :)

zerry ht said...

I am so pleased to see these pictures from first birthday. I too am looking for an affordable venue Houston TX for my daughter’s first birthday party. We want to celebrate her birthday in a princess style. Please provide some recommendations a good party planner for arrangements.