Monday, February 25, 2013

One Year in a Flash! (Ava Kate's first birthday party)

Whew!  We survived the 'big day!'  Just wanted to share a million few photos from Ava Kate's birthday party this weekend!

First, I will explain a bit about the theme (One Year in a Flash) and how I decided on it. 
For months, I was scouring the internet (mainly Pinterest) looking for the perfect 'theme' for my girl's first birthday party.  I knew I wanted it to be girly but I also wanted something 'different,' I just didn't know what exactly...  One day, I happened upon this party and immediately loved the idea!  But I knew I wanted to 'girly' it up and do things differently but I liked the theme itself.  I thought it fit perfectly since I love to take pictures and I really do feel like this past year has gone by in a flash.  So, anyway, I emailed my blogger friend Ashley about designing her invitation and we got started brainstorming about colors, designs, etc...  I am in love with how the invitation turned out and it was exactly what I wanted!!  She did a wonderful job!


Visit Ashley's Etsy shop, Paper Dime Design to see more of her adorable creations!  On the back of the invitation, I included a photo of her so people could (if they wanted to) frame the 5x7 picture instead of tossing the invite ;)

So, now I will show you lots and lots of pictures from the party and kind of explain things as I go, I suppose!

There was so much that I wanted to do and didn't or did differently mainly because I am a procrastinator...  But for one, I wanted to use a piece of furniture we have for the cake table.  It wasn't going to be big enough for the cake, candy jars, cameras, flowers, etc..so I had to use a regular folding table.  Kinda sad I didn't get to go through with my original plan but oh well. 
I used my dad's vintage minolta camera and an old camera my grandpa gave me as props.  I love how they looked on the cake table with the flowers and a framed copy of her invite.

The cake was inspired by a cake I saw online that used filmstrips as a border but it had a giant, dslr camera on top so we changed a few things and I LOVE how it turned out!!  I created the filmstrips in photoshop and my friend Adrienne made the cake.  It turned out perfect!! 

(photo by Taryn Yager)

I wanted to include a photo banner from her first year so the night before her party, my sweet hubby cut out all the paper frames from cardstock and I created this to go above her cake table.  Jeff also painted the frame pink so it would coordinate :)



I love this poster also created by Ashley, you can order one for yourself in her etsy shop!!  We printed it at our local Office Depot and I mounted it on a foam board I got at the Dollar Tree.  Super easy!  I also ordered paper straws, cameras, lips and mustaches to create cute little props for our photo booth.  The photofetti was adorable and fit perfectly with the theme.  The vintage camera cutouts were purchased from this lovely etsy seller and the lips and mustaches were from here.

 I made her onesie after I saw one on Pinterest that was selling on Etsy for $20.  I knew I could make it for cheap but it ended up being a little time-consuming and possibly would have been worth it to just pay the $20 ;)  But I liked the idea of it being made by me for memories.  Her headband was made by my friend Jacquie.  Check out her cute Etsy shop!

(photos by Taryn Yager)

My wonderfully talented and thoughtful bestie, Taryn, brought her camera and took lots of pictures for me at the party.  She did this even though she brought her 3 year old and is 27 weeks pregnant.  I am forever grateful to her for this wonderful gift because I barely touched my camera once guests started arriving!  She took these beautiful pictures....  If you'd like to visit her facebook page, here's a linky :) 
more photos by Taryn.  We had a photobooth and I set up my dad's camera on a tripod with a remote so people could snap their own photos.  It was fun!  (this was another thing I dropped the ball on, I wanted to make a really cute background for it but didn't...instead my mom was trying to put up streamers last minute but people still had fun with it and that's all that matters, I suppose ;)

Here she is smashing into her cake and loving every minute of it!

(photos by Taryn Yager)
Here is big brother having fun with party favors ;)
(photos by Taryn Yager)

The favors said "thank you for a picture-perfect birthday" and it was. 
(photos by Taryn Yager)


We had an inflatable for the kids and served Taco soup and pb&j for the little ones.  We had lots of help from my parents who helped out so much with setting up, keeping the food table stocked and loading up the cars after. We also had some friends and my sister-in-law stay to help us after and we are SO grateful.  I hate to think of how much work we would have had without all the help.  It was a long and stressful but fun day and we had a great time celebrating with our little girl!  
All photos taken by Kristen (blog author) unless otherwise stated. Do not copy/save or print without permission. Thank you!

17 comments:

  1. It looks like a perfect party! You did a beautiful job, Kristen!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, friend. Wish you lived closer, would've loved to have you and your family as guests :)

      Delete
  2. Wow, everything looked perfect for your sweet little princess!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I just found your gorgeous party that you had for your sweet little Ava Kate. We have a two month old Ava Kate ourselves:) I originally found you through instagram but now can't find your username to follow you. Would you be willing to share?
    Danielle

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sorry Danielle! Sometimes if I don't recognize who a new follower is and can't see their photos, I block them :-/ But now I know you're not a creepy guy or anything like that I took care of it :) i guess I get a little paranoid sometimes since I post lots of photos of my kids. Thanks for following, glad to have you!!!
      Ps how funny you have an Ava Kate too! I don't hear that name combo a lot!

      Delete
    2. Thank you! You are the only other family I have heard of with another Ava Kate..so fun:)

      Delete
  4. Hi everything looks so amazing. You did such a fabulous job. Can you tell me where you purchased the chevron party hat?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much! He hat was made by a friend who has an etsy shop called "sew designs by le'ann" :)

      Delete
  5. Thank you so much! My daughter was born 2 months early and she turns 1 this December. As you can imagine, I want to make her 1st birthday extra special and as I searched and searched for the perfect theme, I came across your blogg and said "this is it". Your one year in a flash theme is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you so much for sharing and for being so detailed.

    Oh and your daughter is beautiful. God bless.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much for the kind words!! Enjoy planning your daughters party, I'm sure it'll be perfect!

      Delete
  6. I love everything about this and may or may not have already had the invitation made by Ashly for my twins February birthday:) I was wondering who printed your favors? I'm so excited and love your style! Thanks for the inspiration!!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. can you explain how you did the photostrips? I absolutely love the idea!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Angie, I actually found a template somewhere online and used that. Made it a lot easier! Sorry I can't remember where I found the template though! I think I just googled "film strip photoshop template" or something like that :) Good luck!

      Delete
  8. Beautiful! Can you tell me what size frame you used to display the photo banner?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Do you know how she created the very top part of the cake? The smaller camera thing? I want to try and create a similar one. Is it cake as well?

    ReplyDelete

I looooooove getting feedback and hearing from my readers! :)