I can’t believe Lucy is ONE! This past weekend, we had all of her family in town to celebrate — Eric’s parents and sister flew in from California and my parents and sisters drove down from Ohio. On Saturday (the day after her birthday) we threw a little party celebrating our sweet baby girl with our family and some new Nashville friends. It was SUCH a special afternoon and the whole party came together really well! I wanted to share photos from the party, because the day was such a magical celebration that I always want to remember. 🎈
THE CAKE
I went back and forth on what to do here, but ultimately decided to do a “smash cake” (4 inch round) for Lucy to eat and then a larger cake (9 inch round) for the rest of the party guests. I am OBSESSED with how these cakes turned out! I ordered both from Whole Foods, and the cake decorator did such an incredible job! 🍰I emailed Whole Foods some photos of our party decor so they knew the colors/vibe I was going for and let them work their magic. I personally am not a huge cake fan, but the cake was DELICIOUS and lots of people raved about it! Plus, I was super impressed with the quality of the cake for the price. I put this rainbow shooting star cake topper on top of the large cake and a gold “1” candle on the smaller cake.
PARTY DECOR
This was the most fun part! I knew I wanted to order some things from MeriMeri because everything from this company is magic. I ordered these rainbow plates, rainbow napkins and the mini rainbow cups to start for the food/drink area and then two garlands from MeriMeri – this happy birthday one (which I hung from our white fireplace in the dining room) and this multicolor mini garland (which I hung on the fireplace mantle in the living room). I also snagged these shiny gold crowns from Meri Meri just for fun. It was so cute seeing Lucy and her little friends wear them! 👑
My sister Kerry also made a pretty sign for the front door, and tags for all of the party food. Her handwriting is so pretty! My friend Amy worked her floral magic and wrapped some faux eucalyptus around our big peacock chair in the living room, too! 🌿My friends Courtney and Dave sent us the most beautiful bouquet of flowers that served as an unexpected party decoration on the fireplace mantle.
I knew I wanted fun balloons and ordered these sunshine balloons (set of 5) and a fun rainbow balloon on Amazon. We had a leftover gold “1” balloon from Jack’s first birthday (LOL) and gold “YAY” balloons from our wedding reception 3ish years ago that was also blew up and used for decorations! I also ordered a “balloon wreath” from a local shop called Vroom Vroom Balloon that we hung up behind Lucy’s high chair. I showed their team the photos of the rainbow plates and napkins and they worked their magic to make this fun wreath!
Lastly, I hung two rows of twine with photos from each month of Lucy’s life in the dining room. I ordered the photos from Artifact Uprising’s square print set. Seeing these photos of her makes me SO happy and I never want to take them down!
CAKE SMASH
Lucy didn’t exactly SMASH the cake, but it was still really fun to sing to her and have so many people come celebrate in person! She hesitantly ate some of the icing and then ate a little bit more cake with a spoon. I can’t get over the ombre cake from Whole Foods!!
THE FOOD
My mom, mother-in-law and sister Hope came up with the menu and made all of the food! It was so delicious and amazing! They had a rainbow fruit tray 🍓🍑🍌🥭, party mix (my mom’s homemade ‘Chex Mix’ – so unhealthy but YUMMMMY!), a rainbow garden salad, a Thai quinoa salad, deviled eggs, crostinis topped with guacamole and bruschetta and a massive plate of baked brie. For the littles, I put out some Once Upon a Farm pouches! The moms also made a yummy sparking water cranberry punch (using La Croix — Lucy’s favorite!).
PARTY FAVORS
This was pretty unnecessary since most of the kids were one or younger, BUT my friend showed me these rainbow party favor bags and I just loved them! I filled these with the party mix and sent everyone home with a little bag. The morning of the party, I was running a quick errand to Target and stumbled upon the perfect number of these INSANELY ADORABLE sunshine coin purses. I filled these with a small Dr. Bronner’s baby soap, bubbles, and a hair bow for the kiddos. Both the rainbow bags and the sunshine purses were sitting out at the party and looked so cute — it was almost like they were part of the decor!
THE FRIENDS!
I went back and forth 0n whether to just do a family party or to invite our new friends to celebrate. I wasn’t sure if anyone would come and was just feeling nervous and self-conscious about it, since we are new here and haven’t spent a ton of time with people yet. I ultimately decided to invite people — some of Eric’s coworkers and some friends I’ve met randomly since we’ve moved — and everyone came! We felt so loved and celebrated. 💛It was so fun to see Lucy’s little girl gang of friends all together and we even managed to take a group photo with only minimal tears. 😜Of course, Jack’s best friend Lemon also was invited! 🐾
