A Woodland Themed First Birthday Party
When planning a first birthday party for Stone, I knew that I wanted to do something simple yet beautiful. Since we are a nature-loving family, and Stone River’s name is heavily derived from nature, I landed on a woodland themed birthday party, with elements of green, tan and brown.
Decor
I was searching on pinterest for decor inspo, diy arch backdrops and balloon arches, but felt overwhelmed at the thought of creating something big like that. Since the party would be held inside our small home (900 sq. ft.), I knew that even with just a few guests it could feel cramped in there, even before adding a balloon arch in.
I decided last minute to ditch the backdrops and balloon arches, and to create our own “fern backdrop” behind the food table and the high chair/cake smash area. I’m not sure where on Pinterest I saw this, but I have a vague memory of seeing a “fern wall” of sorts on one of the diy forest themed party pins. That inspired me to think about all of the ferns and redwood leaves my parents have at their house, and how we could use those to create our own decorations.
My idea for the ferns was to use clear fishing line to hang them in long vertical lines across the walls. And it looked so great when we put it together! The food table was set up in front of our sliding glass door, so when the ferns were all suspended there with the sun shining from behind them, the effect was almost like we had our own little forest in the house! All of the greenery was stunning! And on the wall behind the high chair (this is where our tv hangs) I wanted to cover up the tv and create a clean canvas for the ferns, so we hung a light colored sheet on that entire wall and hung the ferns in front of that! Both of the “fern walls” were the perfect backdrops for the party!
Foods/Desserts
Since Stone’s birthday is the same day as my own birthday (Yes, how special are we?!), I knew that I wanted to relax as much as possible the day of the party, aka my birthday too. When throwing parties in the past, I would be so busy cooking and baking that I wouldn’t be able to take a second to just enjoy the party. So I intentionally delegated out all the food and desserts for this party. I hired a local bakery to make Stone’s little smash cake, the big cake, and several woodland themed cupcakes that turned out so cute!! For food, we went with charcuterie boards and got pizza delivered.
The bakery was super amazing to work with as I was able to customize the cakes and cupcakes to match our theme! For the big cake, I wanted it to be a semi naked cake with light colored frosting. And for the cupcakes, I thought it would be cute if they were made to look like little mushrooms, with red frosting and white dots. They turned out so stinkin’ adorable!
Odds & Ends
I bought a unique 2 tiered raw wood cupcake stand on Amazon, as well as a rustic wooden cake stand. While I had hoped to shop more handmade for these items, I was unable to find exactly what I wanted on Etsy. What I did find on Etsy was an adorable cake topper from Haley Madison Design. I also decorated the sides of the naked cake with some pretty green redwood leaves.
I got a simple highchair banner on Amazon that I added onto myself, as well as a photo banner that was woodland animal themed. The banner had spots to put photos for every month and came with clothes pins to attach the photos.
For the highchair banner, I ended up buying a bare bones one that I added onto with ribbons myself, thinking I would save money this way. But I ended up spending about $50 on different colored ribbons at Michael’s, and while my banner ended up looking really cute, I think I could have gotten a pre-made one that looked just as good for less money.
Also regarding the high chair banner, how the heck are those things supposed to attach to a high chair? After much frustration and annoyance, we ended up using packing tape to secure the banner to the high chair, which was not very cute. But if that’s my only complaint about the party, then I consider myself very lucky!
My Support Team
I feel like here is a good spot to give a huge thanks to my family for stepping in to take care of so much, especially the day of the party. My husband Jade helped tidy up the house in prep for the party and took care of the pizzas. My dad took Darlene on a bike ride to the park the morning of the party so we could set everything up. Stone took a gloriously long nap too, which isn’t always the case, so we got lucky that day. My brother and SIL drove all the way up from the Bay Area to celebrate with us! They picked up the desserts from the bakery, and they also created one of the fern walls! My sister helped entertain the kids and she also helped with the food set up & clean up. And my mom, my mom did so much.
She came over the morning of, brought a lot of ferns and greenery from her house, created one of the fern walls, did the charcuterie boards, and so much more. Oh, and she also cleaned up every single thing after the party, leaving me with a spotless house the evening of my birthday. What an incredible gift. Gotta love my family for all they did to help, I would most certainly not have been able to pull this party off without them!
Even though Stone probably won’t remember his first birthday party, I will. It was also my 30th birthday, and it was a happy day. We spent it with family and a few close friends, cozy in our home at our little woodland birthday party.
