Lets just preface this post by saying that one year old’s don’t particularly care about what theme their birthday party is (or even if they have one!) – this one is all for ME and I am proud of it 😀
So, Liyana turned one last week and of course we had to have a party – but we still wanted to keep it small and at home. I have always loved a circus/carnival theme – but lets just be real, there was going to be pink.. LOTS OF PINK. Weird, isn’t it? I was all “I don’t like pink” before having her, and now I am playing right into the gender stereotypical colours.. never say never, right? hehe.
So taking the circus/carnival theme and adding pink to it, led us to a pink and gold themed carousel theme. I was originally inspired by this beautiful Whimsy Carousel Birthday Party Post – but obviously it had to be scaled back because budget!?! I wanted “whimsy with spring florals” and the vision I had in my mind was something like imagine yourself in a garden with a gold and white carousel and you are sitting on the carousel in a pink dress. That was the image in my mind.. and everything I did from here on was inspired by that image. I am weird.. thanks for being my friend 😉
First up – INVITES:
I chose these beautiful invites from Sunday Design on Etsy and loved them over others because they had pops of mint (HELLO, mint!) in the invite. Again.. all for me. selfish, i know 😉 – I am not able to post an actual photo of them as our home address is on them and no one wants that right?
Second – DESSERT TABLE
Next was figuring out how and where the set up of stuff would be – our house has great natural lighting in the front and back.. but not in the middle which is where the dining room is. So I went with doing a simple dessert table on our buffet table, which I knew would get semi-decent lighting in the afternoon.  But what to do about the backdrop? I debated with getting a full wall “poster” of sorts or doing something different. Since this party is all for me.. I used this opportunity to sneak in some junkin’! Okay, if you have been following me a while, you will know that my hubby is not a fan of two things: shiplap and old windows. And, umm.. i love them both. So… lets say hello to my beautiful, chippy, rusty, perfectly aged 1920’s window from a sweet elderly man in our own neighbourhood who demolished his cottage and was selling these windows! I mean, he was actually curious what I would do with the window – and a part of me feels honoured to have used a part of someones heritage for a special occasion like Liyana’s first birthday. And also, serendipity at its best – because when I bought the window, I didn’t even see that it was mint on the back. I only saw that when I was showing you guys on Instagram stories (come say hello on Instagram! ). I wrote a post on how I dressed up this window HERE – and it was perfect for the buffet table as a backdrop for the cake!
[bws_pinterest_pin_it type=”one” image_url=””]
I also wanted a carousel cake topper, but couldn’t find anything I liked on Etsy or other shops.. and again wanted it to be budget friendly. My friend and amazing small shop owner, Hafsa of HafsaCreates made me a custom cake topper for the cake and it was just beautiful. It added the perfect touch of glam and gold to my whimsy dessert table decor. And the delicious and beautiful cake is by Humaira Shah of Cake Couture – and she did such a beautiful job in making this simple and elegant cake.. and needless to say, we devoured it in 2 days after the party.
[bws_pinterest_pin_it type=”one” image_url=””]Â Â Â Â
[bws_pinterest_pin_it type=”one” image_url=””]
Last: OTHER DECOR and FAVOURS
So since this was happening at our home and the only real invitee’s were just immediate family, I didn’t want to do a ton of work. I am also lazy…. and maybe have a dissertation to write lol.. I also love the annual recap chalk board that I am sure you have seen on kids parties – But, heck I don’t want to do more reading than I already have to for school and pictures speak a 1000 words. Also, I had been quite diligent in taking weekly (yes, weekly!) photos of Liyana over the past year (That project, in another post). So I wanted to use those somehow – so I went with a monthly photo roundup and simply glue’d on some flowers from Michaels to an empty frame (again from Michael’s) and hung the photos on some twine using mini clothes pins (you guessed it, from Michaels!). This frame is actually now hanging in her room.. Side tangent: When I was younger, my mom would do this for us EVERY YEAR until we were 5. She would make this “time line” for all three of us and it would hang in our rooms. So, in summary – you will become your mom. Don’t deny it – it will happen hehe!…. and I only got one photo that was not blurry… blogger fail but #keepinitreal
[bws_pinterest_pin_it type=”one” image_url=””]
So the monthly roundup frame was perfect to hang above my favourite mint console table where I placed the favours – Home popped popcorn in brown bags! I got the Thank you tags from Sunday Design (except they had unicorns on them) and just stapled mini pink doilies on to a brown craft bag (from your local dollar store or craft store – I got 30 for $2) and then stuck the tag on top. Simple – check. Easy – check!
[bws_pinterest_pin_it type=”one” image_url=””]
And really that was the extent of the decor, because I can’t handle any more with school/placement/running a home and taking care of an infant. I hope you found some fun ideas if you are putting together a carousel themed birthday! Let me know what you thought in the comments below and come say hi on Instagram and Pinterest.
xoxo
Areeba
[…] Liyanas First Birthday […]