I can't believe we have a one year. We are so incredibly grateful for this little girl. God has blessed us more than we could have imagined.
I'm excited to share all the details with you from Emmy's first birthday party. So Miss Emma Grace turned one on August 2nd and we had the sweetest mini celebration while my mother-in-law was in town (pics at the bottom). It was so cute watching her eat cake for the first time and open gifts, one of my favorites being her first baby doll (which she can't stop kissing) from Grandmama and Granddaddy. A few days later we had our big celebration with friends and family at our apt. We actually had 33 people here (including 13 kids under the age of 5!). It was a little crazy, I'm not gonna lie! lol. But nothing broke and nobody got hurt! We survived! Haha. No, it was honestly so much fun and I was overwhelmed with the love from our friends of family of all who came out to celebrate Emmy.
So I hope this post can be helpful for anyone out there planning a party of some sort. I actually did a lot of research about a month or so in advance (which is not really like me, but I'm so glad I gave myself time because it really took awhile to put it all together!). I was really happy with how it all turned out and I felt like I was able to make it special and still work within my budget, with a few DIY projects. Looking back, I'm so glad we took more family and individual Emmy pictures on her actual birthday with my mother-in-law in town because on the day of her big party, there wasn't a lot of time for that. But ya know, sometimes you just gotta live in the moment.
So I knew I wanted light pink, gold and white to be the main colors of the party with a subtle flamingo theme! Because...well, I love flamingos! I'm from Florida, Emmy is off the charts with her height so it seemed appropriate and flamingos are really just having a moment. Haha. Plus her birthday is in the summer! Why, not?! You can't even really see all my flamingo decorations from these pics like if you look closely, there's a gold flamingo on the pink napkins that say "Cheers" (from TJ Maxx), a watercolor pink flamingo design on this rectangular platter (from Marshalls) holding the macaroons and that's a gold flamingo coffee mug (also from Marshalls) holding the forks. Can you tell I spent some time at the discount stores?! I also got those gold polka dot plates from TJ Maxx (another great find!). The pink flamingo stuffed animal is from Amazon (now in Emmy's room).
This cute "ONE" banner is from Etsy. I realized after it arrived that it was a little too small for our window frame (oops...I knew it was meant for a high chair but I probably should have measured). Thankfully I was able to easily get longer pink ribbon from Michaels and fix it. I really loved having the ONE banner for the cake smash pictures. I was originally going to make my own streamers to hang below the ONE banner (saw a lot of great streamer paper options on Amazon) but then I found this pink, white and gold ribbon banner at Target for only $5.99 and thought that was a steal! And the coloring/size really ended up being perfect. Great quality for the price.
I was pretty proud of this 1-12 month DIY photo banner. I actually just took it down two weeks ago. Haha. It was time. I totally copied the idea from seeing it on Pinterest and thought it was an adorable way to display some of Emmy's photos and show how she's grown. Side note, guys - I got married Pre- Pinterest. What did we do before Pinterest?! How did I manage to plan a wedding?! Oh the things I would have done differently! lol. Okay anyways back to the photo banner - I will say that these aren't necessarily Emmy's best pictures but they were all consistent with the monthly block photos so I went with it. I wish I would have told myself to put her in the same spot every time (you'll notice I kept changing my mind every few months, trying to figure it out, hah oh well!). Or not make month 4 and 5 horizontal. Whoops...but you live and learn. Or you guys can learn from my mistakes! :) You can tell that we cared some months more than others. Or maybe we were just in survival mode those first few months. I got the gold glitter numbers from Etsy. I bought gold mini clothespins from Michaels along with the rest of my pink ribbon to hang the photos (taping the photos to the numbers). It came out really cute. :)
I absolutely loved this ONE Tutu Onesie from Mudpie. Is it weird that I want her to keep wearing it post birthday?! Haha. I did hang it up for display in her room. :) I'm obsessed with the Mudpie brand. They really have some adorable stuff. I actually saw this onesie in a cute little boutique in NJ when Emmy was only 6 months old and thought to myself, I have to get her this! I decided to wait though and am glad I did because I found it for 30% off plus free shipping at Zappos! Guys....I did my bargain shopping if you can't tell! :) Her pink glittery hair bow is from Etsy (another one of my favorite bday purchases and know she will continue to wear this down the road (Emmy has such long hair that always gets in her face so I have to use hair clips or put her hair in pigtails or a ponytail every day). Also this hair bow was called "Emma"...I just had to get it! I mean it was calling her name! Or mine! :) But seriously, I would definitely recommend this shop. It's really affordable for something handmade and the quality is very nice. (P.S. Sorry my pictures aren't super close up of all the details but you can click on each hyperlink throughout the blog post to get a better view). Oh and those pearls are mine! :)
I couldn't resist these flamingo sticks! Haha! When I bought them off Amazon I wasn't even sure what I was going to do with them but thought they were too cute in the watermelon (which of course went along with the pink theme...including the bottles of rose!!).
Let's talk about the cakes!!! For the smash cake, we decided to do an angel food cake with a cool whip frosting. We used some fake flowers from Michaels (leftover from the "E" DIY letter decor from the nursery) to decorate the top along with this glitter gold #1 candle from Amazon. I thought it turned out really pretty. :) Our adult cake was homemade by my husband (yeah he's definitely more of the cook in our family!) and then my amazingly talented and very sweet friend, Hannah Noel, made this adorable flamingo banner cake topper from paper I got at Michaels. I was actually bummed because apparently they were both such a hit at the party that I didn't get to try them! It was kind of like my wedding...not enough time to eat! lol.
I bought Emmy this #1 birthday party hat from Etsy and was really happy with it. At first I thought maybe it was small but it was perfect for a baby's (well now toddler's!) head. I actually did a lot of research on a cute party hat because I didn't want a crown which I was seeing everywhere. The crowns were super cute but I'm just not really into princesses (which might sound strange given the girly look/colors of this party) but yeah, I just didn't want a crown. Don't get me wrong though, if she wants to have a princess party when she's older, she can absolutely have one! :)
Okay, I'm sort of embarrassed to post this pic because it was after a lot of people left the party and our apt was a complete wreck but hey, this is real life and better than nothing, right?! Plus it's the only picture of Emmy with the #1 balloon on her bday. So just pretend that my apt is clean behind her. I wanted to include it though to share the details of this rose gold #1 balloon I found on Amazon. The yellow gold #1 balloons I saw at different stores were a weird shade of gold so I'm really glad I got this rose gold one because it went so well with the pink color scheme. I got all the other balloons at Party City but for this #1 balloon, we saved a little money by having it blown up at the Dollar Store! Woo Hoo...only a buck!
So below are a few favorite pics from our mini bday party with my mother in law on Emmy's actual birthday. This gold glitter one onesie bodysuit was from Etsy and such a good price! It looked super cute with her pink tutu and was perfect for the cakesmash pics because I didn't care if it got dirty.
*** And if you scroll down to the bottom, there's a really special video that I wanted to share. ***
I also wanted to share this beautiful video below that my husband made for Emmy's first year of life, including special moments of us sharing the news with our families, the birth, all the big milestones and everything in between. I think I've already watched it about 50 times. I love thinking that Emmy will be able to look back on it one day. #allthefeels