So my daughter is turning one in just over a week and I am trying to plan the perfect birthday party for her – the theme for her big day…jungle safari animals. Now I must say, it is quite difficult finding kid friendly decorations at either reasonable prices, or decorations that aren’t just zebra print in bright fushia and black. To me, that didn’t cry out ‘1st Birthday’. I did notice that they have a lot to offer for baby showers…but the whole birthday décor just lacks.
I have had my fair share of frustrations during this whole planning process because I just haven’t been able to bring my conceptualizations of what I had pictured to real life. I had sent out the invitations a few weeks back, and I wanted them to be original and unique – invitations that related to the theme while also saving on costs, so the DIY in me came into play and I decided to make them myself. Once that was sorted out, I realized how difficult it was to find exactly what I was looking for when it came to decorations – and this time it was something I couldn’t just sit and make…so I decided to find the first thing I saw that related to the jungle safari theme and run with it.
Now…it was where to start. My husband is a bit of a miser in that sense so I had to find local stores that offered things at fair market value. Through this journey over the last few weeks, I found Wal-mart, Dollar Tree, Michaels, and Ebay to be my best of friends, oh yes, and how could I forget our beloved Pinterest for theme ideas! I wanted my daughters first birthday to be a memorable day with amazing company, food and decor. As my husband would say, ‘I want to have my cake and eat it too’! We come from very large extended families, so we are looking at about 80 people attending her first birthday. Given the large guest list a budget on how much food was going to cost was going to be the biggest ticket and therefore the hubby didn’t want me spending a fortune on just birthday decorations! Now, it was wanting a theme that was already difficult to work with (who would have thought) to now being in a very constraint budget to do it…boo!
I have had my fair share of frustrations during this whole planning process because I just haven’t been able to bring my conceptualizations of what I had pictured to real life. I had sent out the invitations a few weeks back, and I wanted them to be original and unique – invitations that related to the theme while also saving on costs, so the DIY in me came into play and I decided to make them myself. Once that was sorted out, I realized how difficult it was to find exactly what I was looking for when it came to decorations – and this time it was something I couldn’t just sit and make…so I decided to find the first thing I saw that related to the jungle safari theme and run with it.