My angel turned one

My little angel turned one. artyI had a great dream of celebrating my girl's first birthday with all my close buddies (friends colleagues and relatives) at my villa since the time my little one was born.

The most awaited big day has come on the 18th of Sept 2014. I am here to share that awesome experience with my best buddies in this forum.

The plan:
We have decided to have a theme birthday party this time. However, the plan was to conduct this event with some 200 invitees at our villa. Since themed parties with so many guest would be tough, we were thinking of options as to keep both the ideas alive.
Somehow, when the party was nearing, we decided to go with the Snow white theme. The colour was Red and white. Which happened to be the favorite colors of both myself (red) and hubby (white).


The invitation:
We made our personalized themed birthday card with our angel's photo and a beautiful line from a famous local song. We ordered the needful prints in order to send the invitations on time.
Both myself and H started sending out invitations from our respective sides, to some important and close/elderly relatives, we ended up inviting them in person. My siblings also helped us out by sending invitations on our behalf some 2 weeks prior to the actual event. Since the B'day fell on a week-day, we made sure everyone has enough time to adjust their schedules (leave, travel etc..etc..) without any last minute rush. :coffee

The decorations:
Since the party was in our villa, the decoration part was a bit toughest choice though. We had to adjust and invest a lot of our quality time at the last moment to support the decoration staff. Also, it was touch to ensure that our house is not harmed/damaged by the decoration staff. Somehow, they managed to decorate both inner and outer house with lots of balloons, flowers and colourful bulbs.


Before the decoration started, we managed to paint and clean our villa as preparation for the event.

We also took our girl to the neighboring church and a temple (as my husband is Hindu) to thank God for this wonderful gift. :2thumbsup:

The event:
As invited, the guests started coming in from 4.30 pm. Our girl was pampered the whole day, and she was made to rest somehow by my mom during the afternoon. Also we ensured that she is healthy and fit for the even. To which we gave a dose of gripe water and a banana in the morning. She was made to eat right before the event, so that she won't get disturbed due to hungry during the event.

The traditional event:
As part of our culture, we make some "Kozhukattais" in order celebrate her first tooth. It is also called teething ceremony in our culture. In fact, the idea is to make the little one sit at her maternal uncle's (my brother) lap. The uncle would hold an umbrella over her head, so that the close family members would shower her with Kozhukattais, sweets, money, gold and other worldly items that a child would love to have.
At the end of the show, we would let the little one chose what she wants from them. My one choose a pen, although it just happened accidentally, but the myth is if she takes a pen or book, she might study well in the future. We all are happy about the result.

To this event, we dressed her up with "pattu Pavadai'' and related accesaries such as colourful bangles, necklace, and foot chain. The highlight was, she accepted to have some jasmine flowers in her head. She looked gorgeous in that dress.


The birthday cake:
The birthday girl then changed to her birthday dress. It was a designed party frock with red and silver colour. We had butterfly wings to wear at the back too. Her hair dressing, shoes and the crown was also designed as per the dress.


The cake was also made in accordance with the theme. Although she was a bit uncomfortable with the dress, lot of people, the noise, video and photographers and also the way they sand the "happy birthday song" loudly. But she easily recollected herself and enjoyed the event with all of us. :birthday

After a reasonable amount of photos were taken with the close intimate buddies, we served the guests the birthday cake with other traditional and modern sweets. Drinks were also provided then.

Birthday game:
The party organizers have come up with a few birthday games for both kids and adults. They made sure that everyone was engaged, so that no one feels bored or isolated. As per the age group, the events changed. It ranged from blowing balloons, arts, musical chair, word game etc..etc..

My son and his little friends from his pre-school dominated the event with their activeness.

Musical show:
We got a great musical band, who made all of us experience what does music-singing means. Whoever interested got a chance to sing with a karoke. Specially the kids of all ages sang, and it was really entertaining.

Dinner:
We started an early dinner from 7pm, as some of them wanted to leave soon. The dinner was catered by a famous restaurant and it was non-veg dinner.
We also had an hopper man to make hot and crispy hopper on demand at the garden.

Bar and BBQ:
My brother was in charge of this event. Since we have a space for BBQ in our home, the young men and women of our family gathered there for a special BBQ. Beer and wine were also served there.

Birthday fireworks:
At last, before everyone leaves our place we entertain the invitees with a 10 mins firework show. We brought a team who has expertise in it. They thanked the invitees by a great "Thank You" fire work show on the air. It looked awesome at night.

Party favors:
As part of the theme, we gave some child related items in a little box themed as snow white to every kids. As for adults, we gave them a thank you card with our little's girl's picture.

Scrap book:
A scrap book was arranged with the little one's photo. Each attendee was asked to wish the little one with their signatures. It is now framed.

The next day, the photographer took some single shots of our girl in order to make the album. We are hoping to develop a story book type album to our girl.

I should also thank my little son, as he behaved so maturely during this big event.; He was appreciated by everyone.


The first time in our 6 yearlong marital life, my husband had taken charge of the whole event both physically and financially. I was behind his back as a planner though.
It was the first ever function after our wedding, where both sides of our relatives gathered, yet the function ended without any arguments.
Especially my new SIL (brother's wife) and co-sister (BIL's wife) took some active roles in leading some events. It was great to witness our family grow healthy this way, especially after a long draining past. I think, God has finally landed me in a very peaceful heaven, while I am still alive (touch wood). Thank God:thankyou2:

 

Thanks ladies for reading through, and taking part of my enjoyment. Also thanks for the wishes and blessings to my little princes.