Elin was so exited when she woke up and found out it was the day of her birthday party! She kept saying, “Birth de party” and “two” over and over. She was so excited and wound up that she would not take a nap!  The party was at 2pm. In order to get a good nap in before hand, it would have been an early one for her. Therefore, right before the party was about to start, she started acting sleepy and testy, but when she saw her tea set all set up and her guests started arriving, she perked right up.

I was so excited for her to see her big gift this year which was a pink kitchen set. She loved it and has been enjoying it! I love this picture of her on her tip-toes checking out the stove.

This tea set was a birthday gift she got on her actual birthday. You can never have too many tea sets! She was so cute getting tea ready before anyone got to the party.

Elin was excited to see her best gal pal, Kelsey. They are about 2 weeks apart in age and it’s so fun to see them grow up together.

Elin was amazed by her teapot cake! I have to admit it was quite the cake! I think the look on her face says it all! I had a special cupcake made for to eat and I was thrilled when she ate a decent amount of the icing! It was definitely a step up from last year when she refused to try her cake!

 

Elin received so many lovely presents for her birthday. One extra special gift was a baby doll. She loves her new doll and all the little accessories that go with the doll. We have yet to name the baby so we just call her dolly for now.

Elin’s cousins, Max and Ethan were good sports going along with the tea party theme even though it’s not their bag.

I love this hug captured! Even though no words were exchanged at the time I imagine that Elin was thanking Kelsey for her lovely gifts and Kelsey was wishing her a happy birthday and many more years of friendship.

I also love these shots of Elin’s and her cousins.  Ethan is 9 and Max is 5.

Elin’s second birthday party was just 1.5 weeks ago and I am excited to share pictures and details. I couldn’t be more thrilled with how everything turned out. I have many photos so I will share the details here and then follow up with a post of the birthday girl at the party!

Elin has enjoyed playing with her tea sets so much this past year that I thought a tea party-themed birthday party would be just perfect for her! The theme turned out to be a little harder than I imagined to find elements that weren’t too “vintage tea” but yet not too modern. My first hurdle was to find the invitations and party prints. After hours and hours of searching I found Jo Studio and I found all the elements I was looking for in the party prints, right down to the exact pink, blue, and green color hues I was searching for.

Can we just talk about the gorgeous flowers?!?! In my wildest dreams I could not have imagined anything more beautiful! My florist, Rosemari is so talented. I gave her some inspiration photos and talked about my favorite flowers and she blew me away. She gets me and my vision and I just love her–enough said.

Nothing says tea party without some lovely small desserts. I found a lovely bakery that was up for the challenge of making a tea pot on the cake and specialized in french macarons. Again, I was totally blown away at what a fantastic job the baker did at matching my vision and color scheme.

Since this was a tea party theme for a child, I opted not not have tea but instead had sparkling pink lemonade, sparkling french berry lemonade, and water. They were delicious! The glass bottles also gave it a lovely vintage feel. I was able to also find some plastic milk bottle sippy cups for the younger children at the party.

I loved the look of these paper fans as a fun backdrop and I initially toyed with the idea of getting crafty and attempting to make these myself, but then I thought better of the idea and decided to leave this up to the professionals. Boy was that a good idea! I had such a positive experience working with Jennifer from The Papier Studio. The paper was thick and of a nice high quality. They gave the room great texture and dimension.

Last year I was thrilled to find paper plates from Hallmark that you could personalize with a photo. They were so adorable and I was so sad to see that Hallmark discontinued their party supplies on their online shop. After browsing I found something similar from Shindigz. I love the extra special touch that these plates add.

Elin loves balloons and I found these lovely and unique balloons on one of my blogger friend’s blog and Etsy shop. I love the cleanness of the clear balloon and the fun confetti in the beautiful coordinating pastel colors inside!

I had a hard time finding tea pots or tea cups that matched my theme.  I was ecstatic when I found this unfinished tea pot and pedestal at Michaels. My dad spray painted it pink and then painted the ruffle and knob white. I think it turned out gorgeous! I plan to keep this in Elin’s playroom as a decoration and a keepsake from her second birthday party.

Elin’s second birthday was a success and I was so blessed to have been able to enjoy planning and executing her party.

I will be posting part 2 later this week.

 

Vendor List

Photography: Alicia Monahan: Monahan Photography

Party Printables: Jo Studio

Cake/Desserts: Confectioneiress

Florist: Rosemari Herbert: McNamara Florist

Confetti Balloons: Meg-Made Shop

Bow: Chic Bella Bowtique

Paper Straws/Gumball Tubes: Lola Loves a Party

Paper Fans: The Papier Studio

Glass Milk Bottles: Amazon.com

Favor Boxes: Amazon.com

Personalized Photo Plates: Shindigz

 

I have been busy trying to plan Elin’s second birthday party. I unfortunately haven’t decided what the theme will be, but I am hoping to figure that out soon and really get to planning. After I posted a picture from Elin’s first birthday party on my Five for Friday post, I got a few emails asking for more details and pictures. I have lots of pictures, so I am only going to post the basic detail pictures for party inspiration.

Elin’s birthday is on May 16th, so we had her party on that following Sunday. The weather was beautiful and sunny. When I started planning, I had no theme in mind but just wanted the party to be pink and feature the number one. The first main element I picked out was the printable theme. After searching through Etsy, I found the Chickabug shop and picked the “Pretty in Pink” collection. From there, I just tried to match the pink colors. Along the way, I found some awesome vendors and had a wonderful experience with each and every one of them.

Elin had a lovely day and I hope she has a wonderful second birthday in 2.5 months! Here are some detail photos from Elin’s first birthday.

 

Vendor Credits:
“Pretty in Pink” water bottle labels and party printables – Chickabug
Photographer – Alicia Monahan from Monahan Photography
Cake – Piece of Cake
Dipped marshmallows – Homemade
Florist – Rosemari Herbert, McNamara Florist
Candy – Candy Warehouse
Cookies – Sugar Dreams Cakes and Things
Picture plates –  Hallmark (no longer available)
Elin’s hat and bib – Dainty Couture
Elin’s birthday outfit – Mudpie
Bow – Chic Bella Bowtique
Fabric Banner – Stichin’netka