Tag: first birthday

This week London turns two! We are going to celebrate with a tiny little party at our house with our family and a few close friends. Last year we celebrated big with a Laduree themed party for her first birthday. We love going big for first birthdays; some of you might remember back to Grey’s cardboard castle party!

I’ve hesitated in sharing these photos before now because of a few hurtful comments that were sent to us on Instagram about her party. A year later, I simply just don’t care what people say or think. So I’m sharing this celebration as it was a special day for our family and brought us so much joy- both in creating the details and the time we spent with those that mean the most to us.

We hand painted the little Laduree stand and filled it with desserts that were also hand made from felt. Our friend Andrew at the Olympic Fairmont Hotel opened up a small gathering space for us to use. Another friend, Brittany, created the invitation, napkins and that balloon arch. And yet another friend, Morgan, baked and decorated all of the incredible cakes, macarons and small sweet bites! All of it was beautifully captured by another dear friend, Kristen. I know some people will think we are crazy and this party was too over the top. Thats fine… everyone is entitled to their own opinion. But this party was a labor of love, created by friends, to be enjoyed by friends and it still brings me so much joy. I have no regrets, wouldn’t change a thing and would do it all over again!

These images are in no way insinuating that every parent should throw parties like this for their kids. Remember… this is what we do for a living. I’ve spent my entire adult life planning celebrations for other people, so of course I want to put effort and energy into the celebrations for my own children. And… most importantly… it brings us joy to be able to do it.

So with that disclaimer, I hope you enjoy this peek into London’s party! 

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In a couple months Grey will be turning two, and I couldn’t let myself start planning his 2nd birthday party until I finally posted the images from his first birthday party. I’m sure people will think we are the crazy parents who were completely out of control with this party. I’m ok with that. We wanted an epic party for our son, and I make no apologies for that. We are party planners; entertaining and throwing an awesome party is one of the ways we show love to our friends and family.

Jamie came up with the idea to have a cardboard party. We often jokingly refer to our son as “Prince Greyson” and so we thought it would be fun to narrow the theme a bit more and have a cardboard castle party. We used cardboard to make shields, crowns and Erik, the production manager for our business, absolutely killed it with building this castle from empty boxes. Brandy from Marabou Design created several banners. Our friends Jamie and Jordan who own Deru Market brought the fried chicken and waffles, a buffet of food and 5 incredible cakes.  Matthew Land brought his camera and snapped these photos. Jamie and I worked together on the remaining details including baking all of the treats for the dessert table.

As with every party, something doesn’t go as planned. The banner of honeycomb balls that I spent hours hanging up collapsed from the weight on the fishing line I used. I kind of like how it cascaded to the floor, and truth be told, I didn’t have time to fix it. So… I went with it and tucked Grey’s high chair around the honeycombs and it looked like an intention design moment. Sometimes the things that go wrong end up being my favorite part of the party. The plus side to this was that the kids also had easier access to grabbing the honeycombs and they had so much fun playing with them.

Now we face a big dilemma… what do we do for Grey’s 2nd birthday?!

Follow along over the next couple days and we’ll have a few recipes and how-to’s for some of the fun details at the party!