Planning and preparing for baby’s first birthday

This is one post I have been eagerly waiting to write. Our baby’s first birthday. I have loved each and every moment of dreaming about it, shopping for it, preparing for it. Sadly my little one fell sick on his first birthday and we spent whole of that day in the hospital. But we did try to make it a little special in the evening with presents and a cupcake which he loved. We sure did have a party to celebrate his first birthday with friends once he was feeling better. I am glad to share with you how I planned and prepared for it.

In my head, I started planning for the little one’s first birthday celebrations quite early. But it was not until two weeks before THE day that we actually started planning. I would recommend to start planning at least a month before so that you don’t have to exhaust yourself everyday. My planning and preparation went hand in hand. I first chose the theme of the party. Selected blue theme because that was there in my mind for a long time. I was never a fan of blue. But suddenly after my son’s birth blue looked as pretty as pink. I think selecting a theme is the most difficult dicision because there are so many themes to choose from. Then we decided that we want to have an Indian dinner party. Next step was to prepare a list of invitees. There is no catering for Indian food in the vicinity of the town we live in. So we had to make the food by ourselves. I will not recommend this as it turned out to be very very hectic for us. Then we immediately sent the invite so our friends have enough time to respond.

From there on it was a marathon. I kept the weekdays to make the DIYs for the decor. Weekends we did all the remaining purchases. Two days before the party I made sure that all the decor items are in one box. And also kept our outfits for the day ironed and ready. I made the base of the cake and cupcake the previous day. Rest all the cooking was done the same day as the party.

Though it was hectic and tiring, it was a great  experience. We enjoyed every bit of it. Our little one enjoyed all the attention, love and blessing showered upon him. Do check out my other blog post on the first birthday decor to see the DIYs I did for the occasion.

Oh I almost forgot to mention about another important thing, making your baby’s first year video. All parents take tons of pictures and videos of their adorable baby especially in the first year. This is the time to put all that together and make a collage or video. It’s for keeps. And the guests love it. We made a video of some pictures from each month of the baby’s growth by adding some nice songs and captions. And I loved it. We still watch it every now and then.

Are you planning for your baby’s first birthday or have you already been through it? Do share your experience. Let me know if I could help with some ideas. Good luck.