Ella's 1st Birthday Party

Ok, so I am totally surprised that I am able to write this only 11 days after Ella's actual party!!! But since we didn't have school yesterday (and a workday today!) and my photographer got these back to me super quick....here are some of my favorites!!!

First, I realize that I haven't shown you the invitations yet!!

I ordered them from here as soon as we had gotten the pictures back from her cake smash photo shoot! :)

Moving onto the party decorations! I made most everything myself...because I am crazy and really enjoy doing stuff like this! 

{made by me...inspiration here}

Ella's cake was from Cheesecake, Etc., the same place that made our wedding cake! It was so delicious!! And then I made the cupcakes myself (Kathryn helped me frost them to look "fancy" haha!)!

{paper diamonds are from here}

For food, we had a fruit salad, meat, cheese & cracker platter, lemon blueberry coffee cake, mini quiches (Costco!), yogurt parfaits, donuts and cake/cupcakes. I wish we had gotten more meat and cheese because that was gone quickly!

One idea I saw when planning this whole thing was a time capsule. Each person writes a little note to the birthday girl for her to open on her 18th birthday! I read some of them after the party but had to stop because they made me cry!!!

{Chalkboard poster from here and printed at Walgreen's}

We had a wall where I displayed all of her milestones...

...and on the other side of the room, I displayed her monthly pictures!

I ordered a new tray and seat cushion for her high chair because the green ones we had didn't "match" (yes, I am that OCD) and also they were getting kinda dirty, anyway! I made the high chair skirt, but found inspiration here. 

My favorite part of the whole party (besides celebrating my sweet girl of course!)? The mimosa bar! Duh.

I found the small juice bottles at Target, the champagne glasses at Party City and everything else I already had (well, I borrowed the bowls from Kathryn). We got orange, pineapple, pomegranate blueberry and strawberry juices, and then had strawberries, blueberries and raspberries for people use as a garnish on top. Super easy and everyone loved it!

For our "guest book," I stamped Ella's footprints on a canvas (that was fun!) and had people sign their names with an aqua marker.

I made all of the signs with scrapbook paper and these letters. They are awesome!

For party favors, I just put a bunch of Hershey Kisses in baggies. The bags are from Target.

Homegirl got SO many presents! She is so freaking spoiled, but it's ok. She is the only grandchild, after all. 

She was still asleep for the first 20 minutes of her party, so when she woke up, she was a little confused about what was going on!

She also had NO interest in cake...she just wanted crackers!

Ella's hat, bib and onesie I ordered from here...she's the same girl who made her football leg-warmers and a few other things for me!

{#1 sparkler from here}

Bless her little heart. She hated her life at this point!

After we basically forced her to eat the cupcake, and she got some milk, she enjoyed herself a little more!

Then it was time to open presents!

I won't bore you with all of the pictures from that, but Ella cleaned up! She got 2 Lilly Pulitzer dresses, bows, a monogrammed dress, a stroller and clothes for her Bitty Baby, a new hook-on high chair, a water table, swimming pool, a play purse, tea set, dolls, books, toy camera, blocks, money...I am sure I am forgetting something, but gosh, she got a lot of stuff!!! And we didn't even have her open our big gift at the party! (We got her this play kitchen....Tiffany blue of course! It only took 3.5 hours of assembly. No joke!)

We took a few pictures with our families before it was nap time again for Ella. 

It was a great morning with our closest friends and family, celebrating our favorite one year old girl!!

And as always, I'm so grateful to Matt and Leslie from Elizabeth Scott Photography for taking pictures that we will treasure forever!!

Now....time to start planning next year's birthday party (and yes, I already have a theme and Pinterest board going)!!!!