I'm going to start by saying: I wish I hired a photographer! Or at least designated someone to take more pics. Looking at my camera I barely have any good shots because I was so busy running around. Hubster is not the best at being proactive in that department, plus he was also entertaining. Ugh! Regrets. Thank God a friend of ours snapped the blowing out the candles moment, or else I would've cried myself to sleep that night. So yeah, suggestion one for planning such a big and memorable event! Hire a photographer or have a designated person in charge of taking pictures.
I want to share how I went about planing and organizing this little event. Show you some pictures and hopefully inspire you to plan your own little parties. I have to say, you don't have to break the bank to plan a nice little party. It can be cheaper than one expects, you just need to do a lot of planning ahead and be flexible in what you want.
Where I started? My idea board on Pinterest, obviously. But instead of going all random, and browsing forever, which can often happen on Pinterest, I searched for specific themes. I knew I wanted a bunny birthday party because we referred to our daughter as the snow bunny when she was in my belly <3, I also wanted something earthy and kinda of winter-wonderland-ish. That's kind of really my go-to-style. Once I had the theme, I built from there. I pin things, but I don't get too attached on making things look exactly the same, first, because it's highly unlikely you'll be able to imitate it perfectly and that will only lead to disappointment. Second, I like to do my own thing and incorporate things I already have, and things that are on sale.
First thing I actually do when I get my theme going is make the invite and send it. One, because it gives me that sense of urgency I need to get things moving. Two, it prevents me from changing my mind to a different theme half way through. Once you choose something, stick with it. My place to go for invites, minted.com they have the best designs in my opinion. Clean and with beautiful illustrations. Now, I send very few to print, basically as a souvenir for grandparents and to put in her photo album. Rest, I send it electronically via text. Hello, we all know those invites are going to end up in the trash anyway, #reduce waste.
Some Bunny is Turning One, has been done plenty of times, it's by no means an original idea. I thought it was pretty open to do cute things around it, because basically, you just have to add bunnies. My color pallets: nudes, white, light pink and winter pine green. I also chose this, because strategically I knew I could get a lot of Christmas stuff on MEGA sale, and I also, Victoria's nursery is decorated with these hues in mind, which meant I could grab stuff from there. Plus, all the easter stuff is already being sold in stores, which makes it easier to "bunny shop". However, I didn't end up buying too many easter themed things, because I didn't want the party to look like an easter party. But it's a tip to keep in mind. See what holiday just passed or is about to come to ensure you can find things related. If I were to choose a theme like Halloween right now, it would be surely hard to manage.
Once I have my little Pinterest board, color pallet and theme I go on exploration shopping. Which means I hit all may favorite spots to see if there is anything good on sale. Order matters, because what I find in the first stores will impact what I get later.
1. Joann and Michaels
2. HomeGoods
3. Target
4. Daiso, Dollar Tree & Party City
I found a beautiful garland in Joanns with the colors I wanted, and the frosted look. 70% off, because it was from the Christmas collection. I didn't think twice about getting it, because I had been planning to get one for Victoria's nursery anyway. I like to buy things that I will use later. I'm not a fan of buying and tossing for one event. I also got some cute paper napkins that went with the flowers on the garland. Additionally, I already had more flowers in that same hue in Victoria's nursery that would compliment everything well (see picture below, garland is under cake and those pink flowers on the vase are always in Victoria's room).
In Michaels I got the big bubbles they were on sale so I went ahead and got 10 of them, I thought kids could play with them outside, and double up as party favors. I also got the little glass jars that I filled with Milk and added a cookie on top. I bought the green leaf sprinkles for the cake, I knew I wanted it to be white, this would add a little pop of color. I got a canvas 70% off to make her a cute sign and some paint. Oh, and those BIG balloons behind the main table. Extra tip, it's a crime to go to Joanns and Micahels and NOT check their app or webpage for coupons, because they usually have great ones.
HomeGoods: bought a little cake stand, to be honest I didn't even what I was going to use it for, but it was too cute to pass. I ended up using it for the mini cake I made for Victoria's real birthday and then I used it to place the acrylic juice dispenser they day of the party. I also bought the little bunny favor boxes (see picture below).
Target: Bought the white cake stand and the juice dispenser (which fit perfectly on the little cake stand I bought at Homegoods). I also bought a big golden number 1 balloon (sorry, sadly no pictures of all that area with the big number one), some cute string, and square cake plates with mini golden forks. Oh, also that lovely cake topper that says Happy Birthday in sparkly gold.
Once I have what I need from here I go to my basic Dollar Tree, Daiso and Party City run. First Daiso, because they have nicer stuff, and higher quality too. I feel that if I do it the other way around I lose focus. It's easy to get lost in your purchases at the Dollar Tree and Daiso, so keep focus! At Daiso I found those cute furry bunnies, that I thought would look perfect in the garland to make it less Christmasy. Bought little wooden trays and little wooden pot stands I painted white to put the donuts and add layers and hight of the table. I also bought the bunnies I used as cake toppers, they were ceramic, so perfect to clean. At the Dollar Tree I got the pastel color M&Ms that I was looking for everywhere, and two styrofoam cones, white balloons, little plastic carrots and thick white construction paper and tape. At Party City I bought bunny ears for Victoria's smash the cake session, and little pink stuffed animal bunnies that kids could "adopt" at the party and take home with them, and some pink lollipops.
There she is with her bunny ears! <3
Last, Costco run and supermarket run for food. We bought chips, dips, bread to make egg salad sandwiches with bacon, quiche, mini tacos, juice, soda, beer, wine and milk. I put a cookie inside the straw (we bought compostables straws!) and put milk inside the little jugs. I just got six because there really wasn't going to be a lot of kids at the party. We did get plenty of bear though. Oh, and I baked the cake and make cookies with the shape of stars. That same day we bough Donuts at Top Pot donuts (my fav).
With the M&Ms and the styrofoam cones I got at the dollar tree I made little M&M cones to add a pop of more color to the table. I just "painted" the cones with the frosting I made for the cake and stuck the M&Ms there and voila!
For the kids, we bought a tunnel and pop up tent game from Amazon. I'm glad we did! It served as plenty of entertainment for kiddos big and small. We placed our foam mat under the toys, so kids wouldn't hurt their knees and also left a little play space for smaller babies.
Everything else. We already had. We re-purposed many things and got a little creative. For example a made a little "Bunny Petting Zoo" with my Boon bottle drying rack, the bunnies from Party City and the Plastic Carrots from the dollar tree. Big kids had a blast getting the little carrots and hiding them everyone (especially in the ball pit) and the babies, liked to pick the carrots out of the grass.
There she is trying to grab the carrots to feed "some bunny". At the end the kids could take a bunny home.
A friend of ours brought in her ball pit and a slide. We also had a walker, instruments and random toys on the mat.
I made this sign with the canvas I bought (picture below). I didn't buy chalk paint, just regular black paint and a white paint marker. To be honest, if I were to do it again, I would've kept the background white and written in black... I didn't love how it turned out because I had to use fluorescent colors for the words to pop out more, and those weren't really in my color scheme. Well, the multicolored tent wasn't either, but there is no way I was going to find anything neutral looking, trust me I looked. For the pictures I hung of Victoria growing up (pictured above), I used string and re-purposed Victoria's old baby gym.
I wish I had more pictures to share... but sadly, I don't. Oh I'm putting the link to the carrot cake recipe that was delicious!
Any questions? Please, let me know. Happy to help :)
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