Editor’s Note: It is not easy to plan a kid’s birthday party. That too when it is the first one. After all the 1st birthday is that wee bit extra special. Our member lee50 tells us how she planned her daughter’s 1st birthday.

For our daughter’s 1st birthday, we decided to throw a small party for our near and dear ones. We invited only our family members and few selected neighbours and friends so our list was close to 50 only. Here’s a list:-

Theme

We selected the Butterfly theme. Having a theme party helps as the function can be coordinated accordingly. We had the butterfly cake and the butterfly wings worn on Lenora till the cake cutting. 

Guest List

Choose the list of invitees – The list of invitees will help to plan your party better. It also helps in the venue selection. Ours was about 50 only. I was particular about keeping the guest list short as being the first birthday the baby should not get into crying seeing new faces.

Venue

We had the party in a Hotel. You can select your venue depending upon the privacy you need. 

Menu

Ours was a veg-non-veg combo. The hotel gave us a list of dishes to choose from. We opted for the most commonest dishes as people would be vary of experimenting on such functions. 

Cake

We had a butterfly theme so we opted for a butterfly shaped cake

Compere

I arranged for a compere for games and sound system was provided by the hotel. So we packed up some our cd’s and my brother played them. 

Decor and Gifts

Decorations like balloons, party hats, birthday knife, butterfly wings, musical birthday candle were bought from the wholesale market. I purchased the gifts. We had 2 games and some spot prizes so in all I had around 10 gifts arranged.

Depending on your budget you can arrange for the gifts. For kids pencil box, tiffin box make good gifts. For adults pen set, tiffin box, cups or any other utility item make for good gift items. 

Center Piece

The butterfly centerpiece was done by me. You can either opt for it or hang a big balloon. We had a big balloon that was placed right above the cake. We had it filled with rose petals which was showered upon Lenora during the cake cutting.

Goody Bags

For the goody bag stuff, I had started shopping a month in advance, I went to a Mart and picked up crayons, pencils, ruler, eraser, colouring books, story books, cars, hair clips, purse, pens, toys, soft toys, were some of the goodies I arranged depending on the age group. I packed them personally and ensured the price tags were removed from the gifts and goodies.

Birthday Dress

Select the birthday dress according to the theme, or keeping in mind the sari or outfit you would be wearing in synchronization with DH’s outfit. We had selected a maroon and gold frock; I wore a maroon sari and DH a black suit so we matched well. 

Activities carried out before the party:

  • Paid the advance to the hotel.
  • Arranged for the compere – Gave him the theme and asked him to work around games for the party.
  • Guest list was finalized. Kept the list ready as I needed to print invitations once back.
  • Placed the order for the cake and gave the vendor the theme and colour combinations. We had the theme of butterfly with three colours pink, lavender and white. 
  • Decorations – Spoke to the balloon vendor who would put up the balloons and ribbons for D-Day. 
  • Printed the invitations – Invited the guests. This can be done earlier too. We were not sure, if we personally call or give away invitations. I got them printed instantly and invited with the help of invitations.
  • Called up the hotel and finalized the menu for the function along with with the confirmed guest list.
  • Compere – Spoke to the compere , and re-confirmed his coming for the party.
  • Cake – Confirmed the order of the cake. We had around 2 kg cake which was sufficient for the guests.
  • Balloon – Called up the balloon vendor and confirmed his coming on D-Day.
  • Birthday dress – Picked up the birthday dress
  • Photographer – Actually this was a last moment arrangement as we wanted to click our own photos, but I insisted that we keep a photographer. We had our digi for the video shoot, DH’s cousin helped us in shooting the video.

On the Party Day

My mother got some fresh flowers (mallige) and offered them to every guest, so the ladies were happy to have flowers on their head. This was something unexpected and really sweet of my mother to arrange it for us. 

I would say that the function was successful from the reviews we got after the function.

Systematic planning with a checklist and continuous follow-up helped DH and me a lot.

Nowadays, most of the hotels, halls have packages to suit every budget. I wanted to give a personalized touch so did most of it by myself. This helped me in cutting the costs further. 

Yes, it was a meticulous task but voila it was success!