Birthday Stress....errr FUN!

With t-minus 42 days until the big first birthday party, the planning and prepping has begun in full force! Truthfully I had already decided on the theme of Jonah's 1st birthday party back in early spring. The theme is vintage red trucks. I just love the whole vintage trend that is going on in decorating and kids parties these days and I thought what better than using the color red and a truck as the main image and inspiration for the party. With all the typical party themes these days (cartoon characters, baby blue and firetrucks) I thought why not be different. The only thing I didn't think about what how I would have to pretty much make or come up with the decorations because there aren't many vintage red truck items out there to be found. So with a lot of research and some handy etsy sellers willing to help me out I've found a lot of ideas and items to use for the party. I share some pics of what I've come up with so far later but I'll let you in on how I've got to this point.

1. The first thing I did was start looking on my lovely favorite website, Etsy.com. I was so hoping someone had already thought of the theme before me. Well they hadn't so I put a post looking for someone to work with me to custom design some party printables for my theme in the colors I wanted and the price ($30 or less) that I wanted. I found someone who had the prefect truck image and we worked together to get the printables I wanted. I've ended up not using some of the items she created as my ideas evolved but the cupcake toppers and birthday banners I did use.

2. I decided on my colors very early. They are classic red, navy blue and brown. I also liked the looks of stars used (think those primitive metal stars that are popular right now) in the decor so if something was in my colors and had stars I pretty much bought it! What has helped tremendously is that all the Fourth of July decor is in the stores right now and I have found many of my items from those sections.

3. Thanks to the lovely blogosphere I've been able to find lots of tutorials on how to make some neat party items. Everything from a cupcake tower to a fabric banner tutorials that I am using.

4. It helps a lot that my FIL actually owns a vintage red truck that he affectionately calls "Mater" after the truck in the Cars movies. If all goes as planned, "mater" will be attending the birthday party and hopefully be a backdrop to some fun pictures at least.

Here are some pics of what I've collected so far for the party and what I've been working on. I still have to assemble some items but this is a good start.

The cupcake tower I made!



The birthday banner from the printables




Mason jars to be used a part of the table decorations with flowers in them




Found these candles at the Dollar General and they fit right in with the color scheme.




Found this at Hobby Lobby and it was 50% off. It will be beside the cake with a pic of Jonah in it.



I will have to add that this birthday party planning is fun but can easily get you overwhelmed. We spent a good week trying to hammer out the guest list. Since we are planning to have the party outside under our carport and on the pool deck we had to think about how many people we could fit under there with the food and all. Also our front yard and driveway are very close to the road and there is very limited parking. So that was a factor too. Also, as we got to discussing what kind of food we would serve and how many to plan for we quickly realized that it was going to cost us about $5-6 bucks per person just to feed them! Well we just couldn't see ourselves spending over $1,000 on a first birthday so we just had to make some cuts to the guest list. We are only inviting family and a couple of friends that are our age. That still leaves us with a "planned" list of 50 people possibly. I really hope to not hurt anyone's feelings if they don't get an invite but it's just how it's got to be for our sanity and our budget. I am grateful to know that we have so many friends and family that we would like to invite though!