Shabby Chic First Birthday Party

My daughter turned one at the beginning of the month, and we had her first birthday party this past Sunday.  It was a whirlwind weekend since we closed on our new house two days earlier, but it all worked out.  We held the party at our new place, which was nice because it was empty and we could set up the party decorations wherever we wanted.

I love to plan parties.  And since I'm crafty, I love to make party decorations.  I'm also a perfectionist, and I think this works in my favor for party purposes.

I started planning her party back in May, and I knew right away I wanted to do a shabby chic theme.  I've been obsessed with light pinks and blues, plus vintage cottage roses, for a few months now, so the theme was a no brainer for me.  :)

I was originally inspired by Tanya Whelan's Ava Rose fabric collection, but it was almost impossible to find the fabric for cheap....or to find it at all!  So, I improvised.

Here are pictures from her pretty party, with decoration explanations:

I found the perfect digital paper on Etsy and made the banner in Adobe Illustrator.  I then printed them on card stock paper at Office Depot (I compared prices years ago, and they have the cheapest!).  I made the poster with Adobe Photoshop and printed it at Costco for $8.99....and it was ready in an hour!  I love Costco.

I knew right away that I wanted a ruffle cake, and I'm usually a good cake decorator, but I failed at my first attempt a week before.  I didn't have the icing thick enough, and with the stress of moving I didn't want to try again.  So I broke down and bought it.  But look how pretty it is!  I loved it.  I did make the cupcakes, though.  And the cupcake toppers.  Again, I made them in Illustrator and printed them at Office Depot.  I then used a scalloped paper puncher to cut them out and glued them to lollipop sticks.  So easy!

I got the awesome vintage china from my favorite local thrift store (one of the first items I bought for the party back in May).  I also made the two tiered platters from those plates by super gluing candlesticks from Walmart to them.  I'm excited to have them in my china collection now!

I found the table cloth at a garage sale for six bucks--it's actually an old vintage sheet.  Again, love.

Here was my favorite corner--the cake smash area!  I found the awesome high chair at Goodwill for $10, painted it, made a fabric banner with fabrics I had collected for the party, and made embroidery hoop hangings with the fabric as well.  Such a shabby chic look!

The chair is from Pottery Barn, and it completely matched the theme.  So I had to get it.  Of course.  ;-)  And I made the water bottle labels the same way I did the other printables.

I really loved planning this party!  And the best part?  I can reuse a lot of the decorations in my new house.  That makes me happy.  :)