Cupcake first birthday party

It’s my little lady’s half birthday today so I’m sharing her first birthday party. Better to share in the summer anyway since everyone is in Christmas mode in December, right?

I’m not one for big first birthday parties, but we rarely get to celebrate with family (we were in Florida with them for Thanksgiving) so we decided to go big.

We rented the Island Theater at the Bonnet House, and it was perfect. And the grounds – gorgeous! Everyone was so great to work with, too. Nicholle, the events manager, sent me photos and was so nice when I asked about 100 questions so I could plan. She let me start setting up the day before Thanksgiving. She also helped and stayed late to make sure everything was ready to go. Loved everything about the Bonnet House!

For the theme, I went with cupcakes because that’s what we used for her gender reveal. I still get teary-eyed thinking about that day – it was so special so naturally I wanted to carry on that theme one more year. The boys still think the cupcakes were magical and the only way you find out gender, haha. I subtlety integrated the cupcake theme by using sprinkles and cupcake liners in the centerpieces and cupcakes for favors, etc.

For the decor, I had to order a lot and then ship half of it, and the rest was in its own suitcase. My mother-in-law was nice enough to purchase some of the glass stuff beforehand. You will find all the shopping deets at the bottom of this post.

We decided to keep it fairly simple with food: we made lunch, a smash cupcake and then bought cupcakes and cake pops. We didn’t think about being in a hotel with limited supplies, however. John still made tea sandwiches (chicken salad and egg salad), his aunt made her famous shrimp dip and I made a big cupcake (picture us carrying the borrowed KitchenAid mixer through the lobby). It was a tad rushed getting it all done by noon the day after Thanksgiving (at least we weren’t hosting!), but we always enjoy a good challenge.

And in case you didn’t know, you can preorder Starbucks cake pops. We found that out after going to five Starbucks around town to get to 35. It was a fun adventure at least.