Marina’s Spring Garden birthday party was this weekend and it was an intimate get together but a fun one! I was really overwhelmed at the idea of doing a first birthday party, coming up with a theme, activities for other children, food that works for adults and for kids… the whole thing just seemed so foreign to me. I wasn’t planning on doing anything, but then I stumbled upon this fabric (as I always do) on Spoonflower, that sparked a whole idea for a mini spring garden party at home.
Marina’s actual birthday is the first day of spring, so I wanted to do something to honor the turn of the season. Since I know that there will be plenty of unicorn and craft and Dora the Explorer (is that still a thing?) parties in the future, I kept this one for me. I also love that the color palette and fabric print can be reused for another spring or easter party in the future, which made it easier to digest spending money on.
As I mentioned, the fabric really sparked the idea. Esther Fallon Lau is the designer of the print, who goes by Nouveau Bohemian on Spoonflower. She has some beautiful designs, but I particularly loved that this print came in an allover version as well as a sort of ombré version, where the flora and fauna just dissipate to a linen background. I thought I would buy the allover version for the table cloth (Lightweight Cotton Twill) and the ombré version for Marina’s romper (Cotton Poplin Ultra). I had to do a little fiddling with the layout in order to get her romper to fit within 1 yard of the cotton poplin, everything worked out perfectly in the end. In fact, I never even hemmed the table cloth! I completely forgot and just cut off the white edges and laid it on the table. I could have done a better job ironing it however…!
Next stop was Michaels to find what I needed for her DIY floral headband to match her outfit. I wound up finding a ton of Spring/Easter serving dishes that sparked the rest of the meal. Most are sold out online but I’ve linked to a ton of other similar products. I grabbed 2 dessert stands (for cupcakes and macarons), 1 deviled egg tray, and 2 doily-esque melamine plates for tea sandwiches, and poof! The menu was decided. I wound up finding a mini cupcake stand and fruit serving bowl at Target as part of the Magnolia Home collection later that I would incorporate as well.
Of course, this mini spring garden birthday party wouldn’t have happened if the weather was bad, and we ended up having to change the date twice due to personal conflicts, so we got extremely lucky that we had one beautiful day in-between rainstorms to celebrate! We live on a stretch of public shoreline, so although I asked the woman who’s backyard we were encroaching on (she’s my across the street neighbor), I really could have set up our table anyway. The location was close enough for me to bring my dining chairs and Marina’s high chair outside 15 minutes before guests arrived, so that it wasn’t too hectic of a set up.
My amazing neighbor Lindsey is also a photographer, so she ended up taking most of the pictures before guests arrived, which was nice to be able to relax and enjoy the set up before Marina got too distracted. However… Marina of course got very distracted by the macarons which were NOT supposed to be her sugary treat, but got one hand in them anyway and the rest was history. We ended up giving her a funfetti cupcake later as well, but the pictures aren’t as good. The funny thing is, Marina is such a happy, smiley girl, but the second you put food in front on her she is down to business. So the second we put her in the high chair and tried to take cute pictures, she was head down concentrated on where her next bite was coming from.
Overall it was the perfect way to herald in spring and her first birthday. Next year when she can walk and talk I think we will venture into a bigger get together, but for this year it was perfect to do something small and manageable, but still memorable!
