1. Introduction
2. Planning
3. Venue and Invitations
Theming is a very important aspect of your party and it can have a big impact on your budget.
There are literally thousands of options, though you can be assured the younger the child, the wilder and more complicated their theme request will be! So far, in our short birthday party lives, we've had a Littlest Pet Shop party, a Garden party, a Ballerina party and Ponies and Princesses party. We've also sprung for a High Tea Sweet Sixteen and a Laserforce 13th.... but those last two options were definitely not befitting a shoestring budget.
1st birthday Garden Party food |
"I hate DIY", I hear you groan. Not everyone wants to be Martha Stewart (though she does give mums all over the world something to aspire to, notwithstanding financial advice). But actually, Martha's website is an awesome place to start researching party decorations. So is Pinterest, Facebook and your new best friend - Google. Just type your theme and the keyword birthday into that search bar and watch the thousands of results cascade down your page. It would be a very unique party theme indeed that some clever person hadn't already put some inspiration on the wide world of interwebs.
Hiring a character cake tin is a great way to cut costs |
Ballerina Party Food |
The Rule of Five requires you to cut down your wishlist of food and decorations to just 5 items each. This means you bake/buy/plate five different foods:
1. savoury
2. sweet
3. sandwich
4. fruit
5. and one extra cute / wow food item. This MAY be your birthday cake if you're not having a large number of guests.
Bunting made from scrapbook paper and waxed thread. |
Then you apply the same principle to Decorations. You can
make/buy/assemble five different decor items, for example:
1. table cloth2. streamers, bunting or balloons
3. table centrepiece
4. food/place cards
5. themed food decorations eg. cake toppers or cute cups/plates/serviettes.
Allow yourself some breathing space. If you get to the day
before the party and everything has gone swimmingly, THEN you can attempt a
sixth, seventh or eigth item. But more likely, you'll be accepting all offers
from family and friends to bring a plate or special tray, esky or drink
dispenser just to get an extra 30 minutes back on your day. And that's okay.
That's what friends are for!
Cupcake toppers are easy - print your theme images or characters from the internet the stick to a paddle pop and voila! |
What if I run out of food!
I hear your ask, panicked. You won't. I've been to dozens of parties, and I've
never seen a completely decimated food table at the end of the celebrations.
Kids will grab a handful of m&ms or marshmallows, cram them into their
mouths and then go running screaming around the backyard for another 10 minutes
before they need to refuel. Inevitable the lollies and sweet food will go first
(the icing off the cupcakes goes first, then you find dozens of marooned cake
bases crumbling in their wrappers all through the garden where they've been
haphazardly tossed during a game of tag), so perhaps consider staggering your
food drop - put out the savoury (pizza, sausage rolls, party pies, crackers
etc) first, then bring the sweet food out 30 minutes later. If your party goes
for more than an hour that's still plenty of time for the kids to run off the
sugar high they'll be accumulating.
I have been at parties where they've run out of drinks
though - so make sure you have enough poppers / water bottles / litres of punch
for at least three drinks each. As a cost saving measure, ask friends if they
have a large cooler you can borrow, to fill with iced water or cordial. Some
local fast food outlets also have branded kegs you can hire for a small fee (plus
safety deposit) if you have no luck with your circle of friends.
So, back to that DIY part. Now that you've narrowed down
your part decorations to 5 things that are the essence of your theme, you'll
probably have to buy supplies to make / assemble them. There are hundreds of
free tutorials on the internet for making amazing decorations. There are also
some pretty awesome finds in your local Reject Shop (Things, The Warehouse,
Crazy Clarks). Never be ashamed to shop for party items in those shops! Unless your
children are lemmings, it's unlikely you'll be throwing the same themed party
twice, so it's okay to buy cheap stuff with the intention of breaking it on the
day, or tossing it in the bin.
Speaking
of breaking it on the day, my clever friend even made her own Pinata! She tells
me it was a long process, but her son got a huge kick out of making it with
her, and it allows you to custom make your pinata to your theme - Spotlight and
clearance stores are usually overflowing with Dora and Thomas, but not so much
on the Octonauts....or pigs.