I can’t believe we celebrated Bennett Journey’s first birthday party this past weekend. It truly is mind boggling how we have arrived to the one year mark so fast.

Let me tell you about my experience with planning and executing Bennett’s first birthday party. I have decided party planning isn’t my happy place.

From the start, I knew I wanted it to be an aviation/travel theme, just like his nursery. I’ve been pinning things on Pinterest for months! That’s the thing though, Pinterest can easily take a simple birthday party and turn it into an overwhelming occasion. I wanted the day to be perfect but I was on the struggle bus all the way until it was over.

I didn’t want it at my house because we had a 63 person guest list. That’s a lot of people. So I started looking into venues…. until I realized that renting a venue was either going to be too far or too much money. I finally decided that there was no other option than to have it at my house. Then came the biggest problem with that. We live in a culdasac and there is literally NO ADDITIONAL PARKING. Even when we have friends over, the biggest question is, “Where do I park?” Now trying multiplying that problem by 20 families.

A few weeks prior to the big date, we went to a birthday party out at a park in Rolesville. I walked up and said, well, this is it. This is where we are going to have the party. Thankfully the rental fee was minimal, we were under a shelter if it rained, there were playgrounds for the kids to play on and plenty of parking. Sweet relief.

I rented a shelter, announced it to friends and started buying and decorating. Here’s the thing. As a first time mom, I received the, “Birthday parties cost WHAT?!” slap in the face. I had a budget of $100 for his birthday. That easily went out the window when just buying the stuff for invitations was $22. I eventually nixed the birthday invitations because by the time I bought a new ink cartridge, stamps and the time invested, it stressed me out more than it needed to. Hooray for FB invites! No shame in my game.

Yea, so we spent around $200 for Bennett’s first birthday. I told Patrick that next year, we are going to go to take him to the Zoo and buy a hotel room and call it done. I know that first birthdays are different but my goodness, I truly didn’t know that they were so expensive (and ours was really really low key). Heads up to all the other first time moms coming up on the big O-N-E.

I had a huge long list of things that I wanted to for his party but in reality, I didn’t have enough time or energy and didn’t want to invest more money into a 2 hour long party. I spent so many naptimes and evenings working on what I DID do, that I’m not sure how I could have done more without letting something else in my life go to the wayside. After we got everything set up, thankfully it turned out way better than I initially thought it would.

The day was perfect. It was a little hot at times but other than that, I walked away feeling accomplished and my heart was overflowing from the love that B received on his special day. I’m so thankful for the grandma’s who put in a lot of sweaty hard work to help me set up and execute the day.

My awesome husband, who has been working 60+ hours a week even found the time and energy to make and frost Bennett’s smash cake. He put a lot of love and hard work into it and it turned out so well!!! ❤ Another reason why I love my guy. He’s a family man through and through.

Also a HUGE part of the day was having another photographer at Bennett’s event. When you’re a photographer, sometimes you just don’t want to take pictures for yourself. It turns into more work, more time editing, makes your to-do list even longer and you’re left with not actually enjoying and experiencing an event because you’re in work mode. I’m so thankful for Lauren who took beautiful and timeless images of our day. THANK YOU for letting me be a mom and not a photographer for a day. ❤

       

It was so great to be surrounded by the ones we love and to celebrate Bennett. As we sang him happy birthday and I looked at everyone who surrounded us, all I could think about is how awesome this last year has been. I thought about how lonely I was when B was first born and now look at how far we both have come. Making 63 cupcakes wasn’t my favorite but thinking that 63 people were coming to love on and celebrate one of the most important people to me… that meant everything.

Thank you to everyone who came. It means the world.