And just like that, she's 1! I thought I'd take a break from chatting about decor and share the vintage strawberry picnic birthday party we threw for baby girl last weekend. I can still refer to a one year old as a baby, right? Please say "yes", because I don't think this mama's heart can handle saying good bye to this infant stage quite yet (well, except for the not sleeping part!)
I settled on a vintage picnic theme for Brielle's first birthday about a month ago and then as I started searching for party ideas, the theme quickly started to evolve into a strawberry picnic theme. I just love how sweet and fun it turned out!
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Picking birthday invitations is always the first thing I do when planning my kid's parties. As some of you may remember, I use to sell invitations on Etsy, and so usually I design my own invites but due to time constraints I was looking for any and all shortcuts. Plus, once I stumbled upon this sweet invite from Matilda Moon Studio I couldn't stop thinking about it. Strawberries, picnic gingham, and a vintage flair; it had all the traits I was looking for! (I've included a full resource list at the end of this post).
My biggest tip for throwing a Pinterest-worthy party on a smaller and more budget-friendly scale, is to focus on just creating one small area to decorate. Some of you may recall Little B's hotdog puppy-themed party we threw for his first birthday. I went straight-jacket crazy creating decorations for almost our entire house and yard (while also prepping and packing for our move one week later!) Over the years. I've learned how to tone down my party expectations and let's just say it's healthier for all those involved! Ha!
Aside from shopping my home, I really lucked out in that right when I started to plan this party, Target's Bullseye dollar spot happen to have a bunch of strawberry and picnic-themed party stuff ,like these adorable metal ants.
he strawberry garland, also from Target was actually made out of coasters that I hole punched and strung onto twine.
We have a lady in our neighborhood who is a really talented baker. I had her make the smash cake, an upside down strawberry. It was almost too cute to smash and apparently baby girl agreed because she barely touched it!
A vintage wooden box with chicken wire and some faux grass served as a fun display for the strawberry suckers (the holes in the chicken wire held the sucker sticks up great!)
In addition to the suckers, we also gave all the kiddos these adorable sets of felt picnic food as favors. I just happen to have an old, antique crate with the worn words "Morris Fruit Co" labeled across the front and thought it was perfect for storing and displaying them. I had Jessie from Matilda Moon Studio, who did the invites, also design some matching thank you tags.
You can't throw a picnic without food, right? My hubby, my teenage niece (who happen to be visiting from Colorado), and myself prepared ham and turkey sandwiches for everyone (can't say I ever made 40 sandwiches before!) We also put together individual serving cups of macaroni salad and mixed fruit (with strawberries of course!) and then served them in cute matching gingham style baskets. We added wooden forks and sweet strawberry adorned napkins to each basket as well.
I went simple on the table set up outdoors. We got a lot a rain the morning of the party, so I had to ditch my original plans of setting out some picnic blankets for our guests to sit on. We did have a tent and tables though. I dressed the tables up with gingham plastic table cloths and set out a mason jar centerpiece of Trader Joe flowers.
A few weeks before the party I was visiting a local antique store that happens to also house one of my favorite vintage vendors, Jen's Fresh Vintage. While I was in her booth I spotted these old strawberry decals and immediately knew they would be perfect for the party! I just used a little jute to tie them to the Mason jars and had instant centerpieces.
Of course, I can't end this party post with out sharing the birthday girl herself!
I had such a fun time working on this theme for our baby girl! I still can't believe how fast her first year of life went by! Now it's onto to plan Little B's 5th birthday party. Ahhh, the joys having birthdays so close!
See full source list below:
*Birthday invitations and matching favor tags- Matilda Moon Studio
*Small Strawberry Honeycombs, Large Strawberry Honeycombs-Amazon
*Strawberry straws (similar straws), napkins (similar cute ones), felt food favors, ants (these would work too!), and coasters (used to make strawberry banner on shelf)- Target
*Vintage strawberry decals-Jen's Fresh Vintage
*Baby girl gingham dress-Carters
*Strawberry headband-KIKI and BEE
*Celebrate banner- Michaels
*Happy Birthday flag banner- Kerri Makes
*Wooden forks-Amazon
*Plastic disposable portion cups with lids-Amazon
*Gingham tablecloth (main table), picnic food baskets (similar ones here)- Hobby Lobby
*Picnic blankets (not pictured and unfortunately didn't get to use because of the rain!)-Amazon
*Strawberry bib (not pictured)
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