Our little girl is 1 years old! We had a lovely party with family and friends at Island Park in Williamsville. They have a cute good size pavilion and you pretty much have the whole park, a little island before Glen Falls, to yourself. Going along with her name we decided on a swan theme. I went with pale pink, white, and gold for the colors as they are the colors of her room and colors I always dress her in but added in teal for some fun and to pair with the blue and green colors of the pavilion.

Decor was a big part of creating a magical party but I also focused on her outfit, my outfit, the look and style of the food, her cake, favors, and activities. For her outfit I went with a tutu dress because that is so clearly a party outfit. Plus it’s a pretty comfy outfit really and not too fussy. Her dress and headband were from Jade & Jo Studio and her shoes were from H&M. I also got a swan onesie and a crown to get messy while eating cake but it was a pretty cool day for June so she had a hoodie on over it and you could hardly see it, oh well!

I wanted to make sure the party was fun for both adults and kids. We had lawn games, craft beer, and wine punch for the adults and favors and crafts for the kids. Serendipitously Target had the cutest pink, white, and gold swan party decor so I got a bunch of swan party favor bags for not a lot! A little teal tissue paper brought that color in. I wanted the favors to be suitable for almost any age as we had toddlers to teenagers coming. They were filled with a juice box, a teal or pink twisty lollipop, bubbles, three crayons, and a little pink rubber cygnet (a baby swan, but my husband said I wasn’t fooling anyone and clearly they were little pink duckies).

For a craft I went with an idea I had many many months ago and an idea that kinda helped me envision the party. I thought it would be cute if all the kids had masks and were running around the park playing. I searched high and low for printable, color-able, swan masks but found none. But I did find lovely unicorn and dragon masks from Happy Paper Time. On a huge hope, I messaged her and asked if she’d ever thought about making swan masks. She loved the idea and amazingly made swan designs for me in record time. How wonderful is that! The sweetest designer across the ocean in Belgium offered to make swan masks specifically for my daughter’s first birthday. If you are ever thinking of doing a swan or fairytale themed party, you must get these masks! I printed up a bunch of swan, unicorn, and dragon masks on cardstock and put them out with a couple example masks, crayons, kids scissors, hole punches, and twine on a table for crafts.

For decor I purchased a few unique items and DIYed a few things. I got a highchair banner and swan cake topper from The Birthday Boutique. My husband and I made a backdrop out of streamers, a photo frame, and photo banners of Odette’s weekly milestone pictures. I went back and forth on doing centerpieces for the tables but in the end I’m glad I did. They really added something extra and helped extend the look of the party throughout the space. I tried to keep them inexpensive and used crystal glasses and little faux succulents I already had. Then paired them with $2 gold placemats from Target that I plan to reuse as chargers for my dinning room, $12 flameless candles with paper holders, and $16 worth of flowers from Wegmans.

Odette’s tiered cake and smash cake were from Sweet Beginnings Bakery super close to us in the village of Kenmore. We ordered swan themed cookies from Fat Cat Sweets also in Kenmore! My amazing friend Ashley who came down from Toronto a few days early to help with the party made macaroons. My mother-in-law made gluten free brownies and we also had vegan cookies. We had the party catered by Wegmans because I wanted to focus on decor not cooking and my parents and my mother-in-law helped out and made few things too! I knew to make this party happen we’d need to recruit some help and our friends and family were so great.

I have heard many warnings to keep first birthdays low key as babies won’t remember it and will be overwhelmed. We’ll sure remember this party and Odette had a blast! I knew with her personality that she’d be happy at the party. She loves being social and loves seeing new things. She was unsure for the first fifteen minutes and clung to my arms but after she warmed up a bit she was the life of the party, waving hi to everyone, letting family and friends she knew carry her around, checking out the ducks in the creek, watching the kids jump in the puddles, being amazed by balloons, and of course digging into her cake.