Rebekah’s First Birthday – Baby Elephant Theme

It was so wonderful to be able to celebrate my daughters first birthday and now to finally be able to share the pictures and give credit to some lovely vendors on this blog! It’s also very exciting to be featured on the Amy Atlas blog for the first time!

Some of you would have already seen the pictures from the party however I thought I’d use this blog post to share where I got different items from throughout this blog post and I apologise because there a lot of places to mention!! I bought items from various places…when there were sales on, or if I remembered something to get etc – hence my party items come from everywhere!

I chose a baby elephant theme for many reasons! Rebekah received lots of gifts with elephant designs when she was born and I thought it was such a cute theme for a first birthday.

I tried to incorporate different elephant theme ideas such as: peanuts, memories, elephants walking together & an elephant family walking together, elephant watering hole etc. If you were planning for this theme you could also go for a circus/carnival elephant feel as well or a jungle elephant theme.

I chose the adorable baby elephant printables from Style Me Gorgeous which Sarah made some custom changes to for me. Cake Avenue created the most perfect matching cake!

 

I used paper chains from Linkits for the backdrop and Heidi perfectly matched the right colours for me. Paper chains haven’t been used a lot in dessert table backrops although I have seen some recent ones and really liked the look of them!  The custom made bunting from Giggleberry Creations helped to emphasis the colour scheme of pink, grey and aqua blue. The wooden name sign which was made for me by Chikkimoo Designs (in record time too – great service!) was a personal touch I really liked.

How adorable is this figurine from Cake Avenue which is now in my daughters nursery under a cloche I bought from Sweet Little Birdy. The cake sat upon a ribbon cake stand from Tracey Lau Art and Soul. This was placed atop of pink nesting suitcases form Butterfly Garden Hair Accessories. When it came time to cut the cake I used an extra long candle from Sharnel Dollar Designs which is great especially for little ones so they don’t have to bend down too much to blow the candle out!


As my daughters middle name is Rose I wanted to incorporate roses onto the table, which I did in these sweet blue spanish jars from Shoppe with Lily. Another favourite feature of mine were some elephant prints I purchased from Etsy store Oh Hello Dear which I had custom colour matched to the colour scheme. I placed one print on this table, and 2 on the savoury food table. I’ll be hanging these up in the nursery =)

The sweet treats included these cute elephant cookies with pink ears (to match the printables) were made by Spoon and Fork Cookies and Cake, Macarons from Ma Cake (in gorgeous jars from Sweet Style) , persian fairy floss from Shoppe with Lily and lollipops and swizzle sticks from The Little Big Company displayed in a rosanna bowl from Sharnel Dollar Designs.

I made oreo pops and strawberry mousse in cups which I topped off with stamped wooden spoons (stamp and spoons from Sweet Style). I also had musk sticks and pink sugared peanuts.

I used cupcake wrappers from  Cupcake House as buffet label holders by merely turning them upside down and cutting a small slit on either side. The mini pink tongs I bought from Little Kitchen

I made a small book for guests to sign in. However rather than them sign just a wish for Rebekah I wanted them to write a memory of her from her first year, and I added a little card to explain, saying: “Elephants have long memories but mine isn’t long just yet. Please share a memory from my first year so that I’ll never forget”.

I incorporated other little rhymes as well in signs for the dessert table and favour table. I enjoy writing poetry so this was a way to just add another fun personal touch.

This photo also shows the Sambellina plates I used for the dessert table which I purchased from The Party Studio.

My lovely sister in law created this “My First Year” canvas showcasing a picture for each of the months of Rebekah’s first year. It is something really special that we will also be putting in her nursery.

For take home gifts my sister in law made delicious cupcakes which were presented in sweet Candy Soiree boxes (purchased from Occasion by Design) and topped off with twine (from The Party Studio) and a thank you note. I also had the Golden Book “The Saggy Baggy Elephant” to give as a take home gift as I love the idea of giving books to children!

For the drinks table (which I labeled “Elephant Watering Hole”) glass bottles from The Inspired Occasion (250ml) were wrapped with Cupcake wrappers ( Cupcake House) and topped with party flags. I displayed them in this gorgeous grey wire tray from Sweet Little Birdy which not only looked pretty but also was practical too in keeping them safe from straying little hands.

Since elephants all gathering together at a watering hole I wanted to incorporate the idea of elephants walking along together into this table. So I used an elephant garland made by Etsy store Bugaboo as well as this sweet elephant family by Sweet Tashie  (which I also wanted as a memento of this day for Rebekah). The Drink Dispenser was hired from Tiny Tots Toy Hire. Cups were from {P} is for party, straws were from Occasion by Design, Sweet Style and Mon Tresor (see what I mean about buying things from everywhere!)

Thankfully I had a very helpful mum, mother in law and sister to help out with the savoury items and they took care of all of this for me. Phew! One of my favourite items was another hire item from Tiny Tots Toy Hire which is a ferris wheel cupcake holder which I actually used with pink tin pails instead from Invite Me. I filled these with carrot and celery sticks and it looked really cute. This would also be a perfect item if I had taken on a circus elephant theme which is also quite popular if you are thinking of doing an elephant theme party. Plates were purchased from {P} is for Party.

I hung pretty Ah-Tissue pom poms over the food table in pink, grey and blue. We served various homemade pastry items, sausage rolls, elephant shaped fairy bread (using an elephant cookie cutter from The Princess and the Pirate), sandwiches, little skewers of pineapple, cheese and cherries (something our mum use to make at our parties when we were little). Sultanas were served in cute mini baking cups from Sweet Little Birdy. We ran out of time to put all the party flags in the food but managed to have some in there!  The blackboard is from The Carousel Boutique.

The ball pit which we hired from Tiny Tots Toy Hire was a HUGE hit! It was perfect for the kids, and my daughter loved playing in there! Due to child protection issues I don’t like displaying full face shots of other people’s children on the blog – hence the strange shots I’ve picked to display! However you can see my little angel enjoying herself in a rare moment when she wasn’t diving everywhere!

We also hired a mini rollercoaster and a play gym which the kids enjoyed as well as these cute mini chairs from Tiny Tots Toy Hire. Most of the children were too small for me to have a kids table however we did have a few kids around the 3-5yr mark who I thought might like a little “Elephant Resting Spot” where the parents could make them sit down and have a rest and a drink. I printed off some little elephant masks to pop onto the blue chairs.

This is the dress my daughter wore for her birthday. Since it was plain white, I had Cathy from Bliss Clips make a headband and matching dress brooch in pink,grey,turqouise to add to the dress – and as you can see Cathy did an amazing job! I don’t even have a headband this pretty!

Here is my little one all dressed up!

We had a little photo area set up with a giant balloon from Occasion by Design and made sure we got pictures with people as they arrived as I didn’t want to miss having photos with all the guests. It definitely helped having a photographer there so we didn’t have to worry about taking pictures, and Sha Photography did a great job for us!

It was a wonderful day and I worked hard in the leadup so I wouldn’t have to stress too much on the day of the party and during the party. I also received help from family members and outsourced items (such as the cake, cookies, macarons) to also make it less stressful (plus I am no cooking expert!). This was really helpful for me because of course in the midst of the preparing I still had a 1 yr old to look after! However I was glad I was able to make some of the food items and other things in the party (such as the memory book) since I am naturally not very crafty it was a good challenge for me =)

I learnt a lot in the process as well, being the first children’s party I had put together, and I have to say a big thank you to Dawn from Ruby May Designs who helped alot with listening to my ideas and giving me honest advice too! =)

Thanks so much for reading and sharing in some of my daughter’s celebration!