Viv's First Birthday: Little Details

(click images to view larger)

With only about 8 hours to plan and create a small birthday party I will say that I'm pretty happy with how things turned out.

We wanted to keep a Valentines Day theme since that's what we were planning on doing a few weeks from now.

I spent less than $30 on decorations and not much more than that on food!

During the two parties we only had about 14 people over so it really was very small.

I always make it my goal to keep everything I do on a small budget and create as much as I can with my hands.

Not only because our bank account calls for some budgeting but because it's a hobby of  mine.

Whether it be clothing, home-decor, parties or whatever else it's always fun for me to go the extra mile to find things on the thrifty-side and create as much as I can on my own. 

Don't mind all of my crooked pictures frames. 

Viv's new favorite thing is to play with them so they're usually all over the floor.

That frame wall has got to go!

-----

crepe paper garland: 3 rolls of crepe paper at $.50 per roll

Tassel garland: plastic tablecloths $1 each and I used 3 tablecloths so that's $3 (each tablecloth made 4 garlands)

  Tissue paper flowers: already had the tissue paper

Balloons: $1 for a package of 12 - I bought 3 packages 

Heart shaped drink stirrers for decoration: $1 per package of 9 - I used 2 packages 

Treat bags for favors: $1 for 25

paper straws: Target: $1.97 for a package of 24

Plates, napkins and treat dishes: Target: $1 per package 

Large paper heart doilys (I used them with yarn to make garlands around the house): $1 for a package of 16

-----

Everything else I already had on hand and raced around finding things that matched the decor.

I cut out a bunch of hearts using different colors of construction paper and used for tags on the mason jars, on the favor bags, and for people to write notes to Viv on.

I kept everything extremely simple since I didn't have much time at all and I also had to cook and bake!

Her cake was really simple too - I just used 2 boxed cakes and a simple buttercream frosting and made some decorations for the tops using paper and some wooden skewers.

So it's not hard or stressful to plan a party if you keep things simple and easy!