Party Planning and Decor

Originally, I had planned to have a girly "tea party" theme for Isla's first birthday.  A few weeks before the party, my mother-in-law suggested that we have it up at the cabin since it would be just us, them, and my parents.  I agreed, but thought that my original theme idea might seem odd at a rustic lake cabin.  I quickly switched gears and went with a pumpkin theme, but was determined to make it as girly as possible.  Since I took over 250 photos, her party will be separated into different posts!

I began with the invitation.  I used a girly "Cinderella-esque" pumpkin stamp and added some glitter glue for pizzaz and determined my color palate to be pink, green, and, of course, orange.

The inside said "What a year, we've had some fun, Our Lil' Pumpkin's turning One!"

I only sent invites to mine and Ben's siblings and our parents, knowing only our parents would be there.

It was a beautiful fall day at the cabin.  The colors up there are just incredible!

The front stoop (decorated by Sara) was even festive!  She and Miles went on a "leaf hunt" to find the leaves to decorate with.

To decorate inside, I made a banner with my color theme and some pink glitter ribbon :), that said "Happy Birthday".

I also picked out pictures from birth through 11months (one for her first few days, then every month thereafter) and put them above an opposite window.

A few weeks ago, I had taken a trip to Goodwill to grab any pumpkin related decor I could find.  This pumpkin was $0.99 and was perfect for a few more pictures!

In keeping true to the theme, I found a bunch of pumpkins, some  from Goodwill, some from Greenbluff, and some from the grocery store, to decorate with.  All of the non-real pumpkins are from Goodwill.

I picked up a fall bouquet from the grocery store and put them in a ceramic pumpkin pot that was also purchased at Goodwill.  I don't think I have a picture of the pot, but it was obviously made for a flower arrangement, so I bought some floral foam and cut it to fit the planter, then pushed the flowers from my bouquet in to it.

An aerial view of all the decor!

And here are just some random shots from the overall, to the details.  As you can see, I also tied pink tulle bows to the chairs.

We put the presents in the bay window to start, so the kids stayed out of them, then moved them into the living room for opening.

This is tulle "skirt" that I made for the high chair.  I now wish I had spread it out more evenly for the picture!

The favors were baby food jars, cleaned and filled with "candy corn" pumpkins, tied with a ribbon, and topped with a piece of card stock cut into a circle and decorated with glitter paint and bejeweled and glittered pumpkin sticker :).

That's it for the decor.  I had fun making the invites, banner, skirt, glittered pumpkins, etc.  I like how all the decor turned out!