Baby Gray's Woodland Wonder First Birthday

Over the past few months, I've been sharing a bit of the process of planning a 1st birthday party for my sweet baby Gray - and now I'm so excited to show you the results!  

Inspired by Gray's collection of blabla dolls, I chose to do a crafty woodsy theme using a color pallet of blues, greens, grays, oranges, and cocoa.  Owning a party supply store, I probably could have gone totally crazy over the top with this party - but I like to keep things sweet and simple...and always include some handmade touches.  For this party I wanted to use yarn because it reminded me of the dolls, which are hand knit.  I especially love yarn because it's available in so many colors and is so inexpensive - I made pompoms, garlands, and gift toppers. 

When I decided on a theme for Gray's party, the first item on my to-do list was to have invitations made.  I've always stumbled my way through Photoshop or Illustrator to create my own invites for my children's parties, but this time I wanted the real deal.  I contacted Jessica from Nocciola Design and sent her a copy of my inspiration board for the party.  She came up with this design of the raccoon, the fox and the bear that I just adored.  I asked her if it would be okay to have cookies made using her imagery and she thought it was a great idea.  When I saw what Melissa from The Baked Equation was able to create I was a-m-a-z-e-d.

While I have a plastic pom-pom maker thing, I actually made these freehand.  I got a little carried away one evening on my patio and I just kept making them.  I wasn't even sure what I was going to use them for at the time.   In the end, I made some random pompom garlands, used a pom on Gray's party hat, and tied up presents with pompom gift toppers.

One day at work I recruited one of our Lulus, Jena, to make the tiny poms (it is seriously AWESOME to have a crafty staff) - so that we could tie up the utensils with them.  But then inspiration struck and I knew we needed pompom tassels for the milk bottles!  Of course!

I knew I didn't want a tablecloth for this party.  The solution? Woodgrain wrapping paper!

The sweet company that made the tree-trunk cake stands for me also did some custom wood-burned wooden tags, which I tied around a few aqua Ball jars and filled with some simple flowers from the grocery store:

I run a little behind these days, so I made the party hat the morning of the party, and strung together the pom pom garland mere minutes before the party began.

Gray was super unimpressed with his party hat and cried when we put it on him.  We took it off, and all was well with the world...

The weekend after the party, on Gray's actual birthday, I crafted some tissue tassels and took the little man (along with the rest of my family) to a trail nearby to take some pictures of him.... our sweet little love.

source guide & credits:

concept, styling, photography: Jessie Senese

straws, balloons, blabla dolls & finger puppets, glass milk bottles, aqua ball jars, tableware, popcorn trays, utensils, mushrooms: Shop Sweet Lulu

balloon tassels, yarn crafts, party hat: Jessie Senese with Jena Selph

cakes, cupcakes, flowers: Mariano's (our local grocery store!)

woodgrain wrapping paper: Paper Source

stationery suite: Nocciola Design

cookies: The Baked Equation

wooden cake stands: JTL Creations

and just in case you want to know about that amazing rug: Land of Nod

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