We all know how it goes. Baby’s first birthday. You want to celebrate and you want to invite everyone to celebrate with you. Babes only gets one first birthday after all. But then you start doing some research, yes Pinterest counts as research. You get a bunch of ideas together and set out to make it happen.
Then, one of two things happens: either you buy buy buy only to look back and realize you spent a small fortune, or add up the items before you make the purchase only to realize there is no way all of that is going to fit on your budget. Either way you’re left feeling a little down.
I get it. Even I wanted to make babes’ birthday special. The budgeting portion of me (and my husband) kept saying that we didn’t need to do anything big, just invite a few friends and family and do something small. The mom side of me kept thinking I was letting babes down. Why did I think like that? Why did I think I was letting a soon-to-be 1 year old down by not having an MTV Sweet 16 version of a party?
Simple. The same place that we go for research, Pinterest, can be our biggest enemy. It causes us to have some pretty unrealistic goals these days. We’re always striving to have the perfect homes, make the perfect crafts, and throw these perfect parties. Even I get caught up in these unrealistic expectations!
What if I told you that my shirt and babes’ onsie only cost me a bottle of wine and a BIG hug?
You can find similar ones on Etsy for upwards of $60 for the pair, and even though I was tempted to buy these I found a better solution. It seems like everyone these days has a Cricut (it’s definitely on my wish list). So, I found a good friend who was willing to trade her services in exchange for a bottle of wine, an invitation to babes’ birthday, and an excited and very thankful hug. She even made a onsie that matched my unicorn shirt for babes to change in after the cake smash! Talk about an incredible gift. That would have cost me close to $100 to buy online and it only cost her a few dollars in materials. Perfect!
THAT SPARKED AN INCREDIBLE IDEA. A solution to not “letting my daughter down”.
We were able to pull off my daughter’s entire Unicorns & Tutus themed first birthday party fitting in to our existing budget AND we were able to basically have an open invite. Come one, come all. If you haven’t read our story, our babes is very special to us. She’s our miracle babes, and it took a lot of people’s support and a lot of prayers to make her happen so we wanted to involve all of them in her first big celebration! All in all we had about 80 guests come and go.
How did we do it? How did we make all of that happen on our budget? Simple. A little bit of planning and a lot of communicating.
You know how I asked one friend to make our cute little outfits? Well I asked another to bring a few bags of chips, another to bring her famous coleslaw, my aunt if she would make babes’ cake, my mother-in-law if she wanted to chip in on the main food, etc. Everyone kept asking me what babes’ needed for her birthday, and really, she didn’t NEED much. So instead I asked if they wanted to help make babes’ day special!!! And they did!!
Even with their help, creating a themed party can still be expensive. So, here are a few other ways we saved.
Guests and Location.
If you REALLY want to save on budget then stick with close friends and family. The whole play group doesn’t have to be invited, and if you’re having the party at your house then this will be a way to decrease stress on yourself.
If you have a lot of friends, family or just don’t want to deal with the stress of that one mommy at play group staring at you waiting for an invite, then you’re going to need a decent location for this party.
How do you invite all of those people? Even though I’m a huge fan of hand written letters and invitations, if you’re going to invite that many people that sentiment just doesn’t fit in the budget. Facebook events are an incredible solution for this!
I got a few custom invitations created with all of the details and with a beautiful unicorn and sparkly theme. Those invites were meant to be keepsakes for grandmas, grandpas, and babes’ scrapbook and well worth the $8. Take a picture of those fancy invites and use that as your photo on the facebook group!
For the locations? Get creative. Don’t get caught up with renting some sort of event space. Those birthday parties at SkyZone and Chuckie Cheese can cost a ridiculous amount. Look for parks, community centers, or even spaces at schools or libraries.
The park in our neighborhood was the perfect location. First, it was FREE. Biggest attraction there. Besides that, the playground and pool were right there. Having the playground made it completely stress free. We didn’t have to entertain parents or kiddos all day. They came and went as they pleased and entertained themselves!
Food, snacks, drinks and yummies.
This one was hard for me. You know we love our food and love to cook, BUT no matter how hard you try you are not going to provide a gourmet, full course meal with appetizers for that many people. Let it go. No one cares if all you serve is pizza, as long as they get fed! And if they do care, those aren’t people I want to hang out with anyway.
All kidding aside, just stick to simple for a baby’s birthday party. We had hamburgers, hot dogs, coleslaw, potato salad, chips and various dips, and a few other things brought by friends. We did get a little wild and splurge for some cheesy dogs, but going simple made it SO MUCH EASIER! Budget aside, the stress of cooking and prepping and making sure everything was perfect was GONE!
For babes’ party I did one big trip to our local bulk store, SAMs. I took $150 out of our monthly budget and said, “that’s it”. It’s amazing how much you can get when you know that’s all you have to spend!
And the cake… Oh the cake. I asked our aunt to make this for us. I knew she had some talent, but never in my wildest dreams did I imagine it would come out that amazing.
Now I know not everyone has that level of talent hiding in their family, but you would be surprised. Ask around, many of our friends make cakes as a hobby on the side, and even if you can’t find someone who does then cupcakes are a great solution! Grab some “generic” cupcakes and add some pizazz with sprinkles or little paper cutouts that match your theme!
Decorations.
Babies certainly don’t care what decorations you have, and, surprisingly, the adults at the party don’t care much either. But I know you still want the party to look amazing!
So…. Here was the solution we found. Buy a few, quality decorations and fill in the rest with dollar spot items from Target (or even the dollar store).
We did a big party in the park. We only had tables, chairs, a few streamers and some fun party favors and photo props. It worked out PERFECTLY. It, once again, was not only budget friendly but it reduced so much stress! Up and down with minimal effort. That leaves you room to actually enjoy the party by the way.
My splurge was buying 10, yes 10, custom plates with babes’ name and theme on them. I filled I the other 100 plates with colors that matched, all from the dollar store. Those plates, along with “thanks for coming to Soph’s first birthday” stickers and some fun unicorn headbands were the ONLY fancy decorations we had. I found a “ONE” balloon in the dollar spot, simple plastic table cloths, some tissue paper tassels, and some unicorn tattoos and called it a day. Done! Simple, adorable and I got so many compliments for such little effort!
It can be so stressful trying to keep up with these kids’ birthdays. My hubby and I have been to so many parties where the parents spend thousands of dollars to make their kiddos’ first birthday “perfect”. You know what? Though they were beyond beautiful, none of them were perfect. The parents looked stressed, no one wanted to ruin the decorations, and they just weren’t fun. We stopped looking forward to going to these parties. Do you know which parties were perfect? The ones where mom and dad threw out some snacks, invited people they cared about, and spent time having fun with their kiddos!
So stop stressing. There is a way to have this party without stretching the budget or your patience! Do a little planning, get creative, and take a breath.
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