As many of you probably know from my excessive posting, Hollings recently turned 1! This year has by far been the fastest of my life. I have loved watching her grow from a tiny little newborn into the beautiful, healthy, smart, sweet toddler that she is now (yes, I did cry when I realized that I had to start buying her clothes in the toddler section instead of the baby section). 

I am the type of person who has literally been thinking about my child’s first birthday party since the day I found out I was pregnant. I decided pretty early on that I wanted to do a bumble bee themed birthday party. I thought it was such a cute theme that hasn’t been overdone. I told myself that apart from picking the theme, I wouldn’t start the part planning until two months before her birthday. You better believe that on the exact two month countdown day, I started searching for all of the bee things online.

The first thing I did was search for invitations, because I wanted to give myself enough time to send them out at least a month before the party. I’m going to be honest, I didn’t find a TON of bumble bee themed options that didn’t look super cheesy. I think that I ended up searching for “garden themed invitations” instead of bumble bee. I LOVED the invitations I found. I got them from Minted, and I think they are just precious. https://www.minted.com/product/kids-birthday-invitations/MIN-BB0-CBP/bee-day-party?color=A&custom_foil=unselected&paper=Signature&quantity=10&shape=default&utm_medium=sem&utm_source=google&utm_sub=pla&utm_campaign=G_S_BabyAndKids-Stationery_PLA_USA_Alpha&utm_content=MIN-BB0-CBP&utm_cs=67df08&utm_int=a&utm_keyword=&utm_device=a&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIlJusz4f74wIVgY3ICh0t7gqWEAQYBCABEgL_bvD_BwE

I knew that I wanted a big sign that said “Hollings’ 1st Bee-Day.” I thought long and hard about how I wanted to go about this. I knew I could probably pay for someone to make it, but I wanted to be as budget friendly as possible with this party, so I quickly decided that I was going to make it myself. Since I have 0 skills when it comes to painting/drawing, I knew I was going to need to buy a bumble bee tapestry for the background instead of trying to paint one on a canvas myself. Some of the ones I found were so bad, and the good ones I found didn’t leave enough spacing on the top or bottom for me to add words. I finally found one that fit my *aesthetic* while also leaving me some room to paint words on the bottom. https://www.redbubble.com/people/surenart/works/26118169-bee?p=tapestry&ref=product-image

Now, as for the words on the bottom of the tapestry. Oh, those dang words. I did these words free hand with just a ruler and a pencil. In hindsight, I should have just bought some stencils. You should have seen me on the ground measuring out the same distances from each side, and making little dots and marks where each letter would begin and end. I legit felt like a architect. After I drew them out in pencil, I traced them with a fine point black sharpie. Then, ever so carefully, I filled them in with black paint. 

Let’s talk balloon garlands. After this party, I am a huge fan. They are inexpensive and less work than they seem, but they make for really impressive and beautiful decorations. I knew I wanted just gold and white balloons (I know some bee themed parties do yellow and black, but that just seemed so harsh to me). You can totally do the balloon garland completely by yourself by buying different kind of balloons you want to use and using fishing wire to make it (I watched a YouTube tutorial on this). I went with a slightly easier route. They sell pre-packaged balloon garland kits on amazon for only like $20. I ended up buying mine from Etsy for a little more, but I just fell in love with it. I also bought an electric balloon pump. This was KEY. It made blowing up the balloons go by so fast. If anything, at least get a hand pump. I’m going to go ahead and say that there is no way that you can blow them all up with your mouth. My kit that I ordered came with “balloon garland tape” which is just a long clear plastic line with holes in it for the balloons. This tape isn’t necessary, but it’s definitely helpful. Still, if you just want to use fishing wire, that works too. https://www.etsy.com/transaction/1643070723

If you ask me what my favorite part about Hollings’ party was, I would have to go with the temporary tattoos of Hollings’ face. They were so fun, and definitely a crowd pleaser. The company who makes them do anything from bachelorette parties to weddings to baby showers, etc. https://www.etsy.com/transaction/1643070723

Well, that covers just about everything! I will say that we just got our cakes from Harris Teeter (they give a free smash cake to their VIC members). We got our flower crowns from party city. My dress is Zara and Hollings’ ruffle bubble was just $12 on amazon. I had so much fun planning her party, but I do have to admit, I’m glad it’s behind me until next year 😉