Chlo's First Birthday - A Bumble Bee Birthday Party

How the Party Came to Bee?

A few months before Chlo's big day, I have been on the look out for inspirations for a theme on her first birthday party. I remembered, one day when we went to a park, how she looked exceptionally pretty and cute and oh so cuddly, surrounded with the luscious green landscape and bright yellow flowers. Her birthday falls early Spring and she looks good in yellow. That's when it came to me. A Spring Bumble Bee Party is just perfect! I couldn't hide my excitement once the theme was decided that whenever I talk to someone at home, I'd just blab out all about the ideas that came up to my head!

I was never a fan of extremely formal parties, especially for a baby's first birthday party, and with our Spring Bumble Bee theme, Mark and I decided on the venue to be in a park. My mom-in-law was on top of the food, and Gizelle (my sister-in-law) and I were in charge of the look and decors of the venue. :)

Most of my inspirations were from Pinterest and Etsy. For Chloe's invites, I fell in love with BluGrass Designs' Bumble Bee Custom invitation. :)

Custom Bumble Bee invitation by BluGrass Designs

My little bumble bee! <3

Chloe just woke up from a five-minute nap on our way to the gazebo. But still a cutie in her personalized bumble bee tutu outfit!

Party Look, DIY Decorations & Favors

Yes. Most of the decorations and the favors for the party are DIY. Sometimes, I'm crafty like that. :)

Gizelle was in Santa Barbara the whole time we were planning so the brainstorming was a little challenging but we managed. :) But I also got help from Gizelle's friends, Maritza and Anh, and Chlo's god parents, Marie Lou and Bryan.

We wanted to keep the look of the party light and bright, so for the colors we chose yellow, white, and green.

For the table centerpieces, I found mason jars from the dollar store. I've always wanted to have a set of mason jars because they're very versatile (I got myself 15 that day). I tied a green ribbon around the neck and made tons of pinwheels to go in it. I also found free bumble bee printables in Pinterest so the birthday tags and labels are all set. Here's the link to the bumble bee label set

Mason jars, yellow tin pails, DIY pinwheels.

I've always love tulle pompoms and was surprised of how easy it is to make them. For the party, I made a tulle pompom garland to hang over the dessert table but for some reason, and maybe over the craziness of preparing on that day, I forgot to bring the box where I kept them =l Thus, no photo of the garland in the venue. (No photo of the finished garland at all!) But here's the link to my post in IG when was in the middle of making them: Tulle pompom garland

For the favors, I didn't want to settle on the usual loot bags with candies and random little toys. In my search for the perfect party favor, I came across a photo in Pinterest with yellow tin pails as the party favors. So I looked and looked everywhere to find an inexpensive tin pail (instead of $3 a piece from Target/Party City) and guess where I found them?? The Dollar Store! Yay! The ones I got from there didn't have a handle so I just bought a couple of rolls of curling ribbons and voila! I got pretty yellow tin pails! :) I filled them with a toy magnifying glass, a bumblebee pencil, water paint, bubbles, a mini rubix cube, two or three little more toys that I forgot what they're called, chocolates, and a scented beeswax candle in a covered tin can for the adult guests. I also got yellow and green paper bags and filled them with matching notepads & pens, crayons, and mini coloring books for older children.

Yellow tin pail party favors

Dessert Table

Styling the dessert table was my favorite of all! I wanted to keep it simple with just a plain white table cloth and just the view of the park as the back drop. I had a little candy buffet in one corner with Lemon rock candy, black and yellow chocolate marbles, and spring oreos, all yellow, white, and a little black to stick with the theme.

The cutie bumble bee cupcakes are from my favorite local vegan cupcake catering company Sweet Tooth Bake Shoppe. I asked Kelly to bake my husband's favorite Smore's cupcakes, and to try something new, Lemon drop cupcakes which are both so good! They're a hit at the party!

Smore's cupcake

Little candy buffet corner: lemon rock candy sticks,black & yellow chocolate marbles, and spring oreos.

I really wanted to stick with the bee theme so I looked for bumble bee cake designs. I found in Pinterest a four layer fondant bee hive cake with little bees all over it. I knew then that it'll be tough to find a baker that will deliver the cake design that I wanted. And of course, the taste is a huge factor too. I spent nights reading reviews of local bakers around town and found The Grove Pastry Shop. I was impressed with the cake designs gallery and upon reading the reviews, was confident of how good the cake itself will be. And I wasn't disappointed. I ordered their signature Whip Cream Cake and send in a photo of the design I wanted, got a quote and it's a done deal. Went to pick up the cake and I was dumbfounded! It was so beautiful it's heartbreaking to slice it up! But the heartbreak was soooo worth it because it's really good!

Bumble Bee Cake Topper

Whip Cream Cake from The Grove Pastry Shop.

Dessert Table

Lunch Spread

Our lunch spread is a typical Filipino feast all prepared by my mom-in-law except for the lechon. The food included fried calamari, garlic buttered shrimp, spring rolls, beef morcon, stir-fry veggies, chicken pastel, spaghetti, & pancit. Yum!

It's a feast!

And instead of getting one of those heavy, bulky coolers, I opted for two green round tubs which my daughter loved! Haha! She can't get enough of playing with the cans and the ice! :)

Oh, Chlo!

Photo Booth Frame

This was one of Gizelle's brilliant ideas! She sent me a photo of a huge frame for the photo booth and thought it was perfect! I got a foam board from staples and cut it into a landscape frame. Gizelle's friend, Maritza, took care of the drawings. :) Everyone had fun posing with the frame plus, Gizelle had a bunch of props that went with it. Oh fun, fun, fun!