A Party for a Princess

We celebrated Elle’s 1^st birthday this past Sunday and boy did we have fun. It rained all week so I was worried we wouldn’t see the sun but it came out for the whole weekend. I chose a princess theme for Elle’s party seeing as we actually refer to her as “the princess” and I thought the “once upon a time” tied in well with turning one. I was able to find some darling invitations by a designer by the name of Papercandee on Etsy and I was even more in love with them when they arrived in the mail. I thought it really set the tone of the party and stirred up excitement. We even addressed them in a medieval font to the princes, princesses, lords and ladies.

   

For décor, I was able to score two 8 ft fold up tables (for free) off Craigslist and used some beautiful fabric that I had picked up at the recent Serena and Lily sample sale as tablecloths.  My mom and I searched high and low for apothecary jars for our “snack bar” and found some great ones at Michael’s, Ross and Home Goods. Paper Candee provided me with label templates for the jars and we cut different size and color ribbons for each of the jars.

My dad helped up create a centerpiece at the top of the gazebo from a picture I found using some really cute pink accordion lanterns from Martha Stewart, balloons and pink tissue pom poms that my mom and I made. I loved it! To finish it off, we purchased a princess “Happy Birthday” banner from Etsy.

For the cake, we had a pink ruffle cake in vanilla and vanilla butter cream frosted made for the occasion. It was my first time ordering a cake (shocking) and I didn’t clear the size cake with her and ended up with a huge cake, but it still worked. Now I know!

For favors, my mom, sister and I made tutus for the girls and decorated wands we had in similar tulle colors and had Meri Meri princess party hats. For the boys, we found some really cute knight dress up items: shields, chest plates, swords and helmets for our “knights in shining armor”. We also had little favor bags for guests to take home treats from the “snack bar.” We also had little favor tags made by Papercandee for the dress up items. 

Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, particularly my little princess. It was a fun day that I know I’ll always remember.