Drinks

Party Recap

My little man turned one and I just cannot believe it. They always tell you time flies with children, but man, it really does. Our son is the only grandchild, great-grandchild, nephew, etc. between both my husband and I’s family. Since we have such a BIG family, I knew they would all be there to celebrate our wild little man!

When trying to decide on a theme, I wanted to do something that incorporated his interests. When he was around 6 months old, we taught him how to make an “indian sound” by holding our hand up to his mouth. Now at 12 months he can make the “indian sound” all by himself. That’s how I came up with a tribal themed pow-wow.

The party planning commenced with these invitations that one of my good friends Cassandra designed. How adorable are they?! She is so creative!

I created the burlap, feather, and fur banners. I had so much fun making banners for each room. (I’m even repurposing the fur banner for his nursery!)

I also created his high chair banner. I stuck with the feather theme and added a variety of colors.

Since we had so many people attending and luckily his birthday is in the summer, I decided to take advantage of the nice weather and host the party outdoors. I found these beautiful dreamcatchers on clearance. I hung them on our birch tree in the backyard which served as a festive backdrop during his cake smash. (Sidenote: highly recommend doing cake smash outside if possible! There was cake everywhere!)

Being a hot July day, I knew we would need plenty of drinks. I ordered Avery water bottle labels off Amazon, used their free online template with colorful arrows, and created these “Wigwam Water” bottle labels. I think they turned out great and added a nice little touch to the party.

We served tribal tea (sweet tea) and raspberry lemonade out of these fun mason jar cups. I used twine and feathers to tie around the top for a festive look. I ordered the birch paper straws off Etsy.

I found these adorable plates, napkins and cups on Etsy from SteshaParty. They were so cute!

I originally wanted to do a trail mix bar where guests could assemble their own bag of trail mix, but my husband nixed that idea and encouraged me to just buy the bag of pre-made trail mix to make my life easier. So that is what I {begrudgingly} did. I wanted something fun to serve them in and hand stamped these paper bags for both the trail mix and jerky. They turned out much better than I expected. I am also a big fan of single serving size items at parties. I think some guests are more apt to pick up a single serving to snack on than make themselves a whole plate.

For food we served the jerky and trail mix along with teepee sandwiches, teepee pinwheels, spring mix salad with roasted pine nuts, cranberries, and goat cheese, quinoa salad with jalapeno vinaigrette, watermelon feta blackberry skewers, multi-grain tortilla chips, roasted red pepper hummus, and pita chips. I tried to stick with the tribal theme and chose “natural” foods.

I have to give a huge shout out to Ali’s Little Cake Shop for the delicious cupcakes and smash cake! I decided to go with a variety of flavors for the cupcakes. I ordered these adorable cupcake toppers from Eventprint and used the chalkboard as a key to let guests know which topper symbolized which flavor. And how cute did his smash cake turn out?! Ali did such an amazing job!!

The party was a great success. My little man had a ball and we did too.

Interested in throwing a party or event but not quite sure where to start? I offer virtual event planning and/or local for the Richmond, VA area. For information on event planning services or any other questions please email me at: [email protected]. For more party inspiration, hosting tips, recipes, and more visit my website www.thegatheringhost.com or follow me on instagram @thegatheringhost.

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