Baby’s 1st Birthday Decoration Ideas

Our Deborah Joy turned one this past weekend.  Her birthday was so special because we invited those who came on the day she was born.  These special friends and family visited us in the hospital to shower their love and hold our new baby.  It was a very precious time.  So we wanted to invite those same people to celebrate one year later!

A few days before her first birthday approached, I started to go into planning mode.  At first, I was thinking about taking the more casual approach by making it super easy on myself and just getting food, drinks, and dessert.  Maybe have a few balloons and then call it a day.  But, something sinful happened.  I went on Pinterest!  Pinterest gave me so much inspiration to up my party decoration game to a whole new level!

I had so much fun decorating for Deborah’s first birthday!  The last time I threw a first birthday for my kids was 7 years ago.  So, this was a fun opportunity for me to make her first birthday memorable.

I first found some ready made decorations in a bag.  That really saved me a lot of time and trouble from being super crafty (which I’m ‘not!)  I found one I liked and then used those colors for my inspiration.  I wasn’t even sure how it would turn out, but it all worked out in the end.

The decorative fans you see here along with the Happy Birthday garland came in one bag.  You can find one similar here.

Next, I purchased ribbons needed to decorate Deborah’s high chair.  There were so many ways I could’ve gone with this, but I kept it simple and easy.  I bought three sets of ribbons, used balloon ribbon to tape around her tray area, and then tied the decorative ribbon all around her tray.

Then, I picked up the streamers and balloons. I decided to make my own balloon garland that I could hang on the stair rails. Something like this would’ve cost anywhere from $50 – $100.  It cost me $7 for the balloons and twine and it took me 1 hour to make it.

There was this really cute idea on Pinterest to have pictures of the baby through the first 12 months.  I thought it was really cute because it would give everyone a sweet perspective on how much Deborah grew.  So I bought a cute mini honeycomb garland and some tiny clothespins.  I picked my favorite photos of Deborah and sent them to Target Photo to be printed in less than 2 hours.  Boom!  Done!

I stopped by the local grocery store and visited their floral section.  I picked up a few hydrangea’s and a few other pretty stems to arrange the vase.  I saved myself some money by arranging the flowers myself.  It was soooo tempting to just buy a ready made arrangement for the sake of time, but I decided to pocket my savings and do it myself.

And, last, but not least, I made Deborah’s smash cake.  I had a feeling she wouldn’t smash the cake.  It didn’t make sense for me to spend the money on a customized smash cake if she wasn’t even going to touch it.  As you can see, she wasn’t too sure about touching the cake. 

The way I saved money was by going to the grocery store and buying cake mix in a box and heavy whipping cream.  I added some food coloring to the whipped cream and, voila, I had a smash cake.  One thing to note here is I bought a 6 inch layer cake pan set.  This pan set is worth it especially if you plan to use them in the future to make cakes for special occasions.  I like to make my kids their own birthday cake.  The size is perfect for a small group of people to enjoy.

Overall, it was a fun first birthday!  It was certainly a labor of love, but it was worth it.  In the end, Deborah received some wonderful gifts and we were able to celebrate it with some very special people.  I call that a success!

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