The first birthday party for my last baby Milo had to be special! And it had to show his happy and sweet personality. So his balloon first birthday celebration was all about bright and bold colors, and the balloon theme tied it all together.
I’ve always wanted to throw a balloon theme first birthday party — because is there anything that says birthday more than balloons?? Also, I love balloons (not in an I’m-okay-with-releasing-them-into-the-air kind of way, but in a responsible, creative way). Over the years, Richard has had to blow up countless balloons for all the parties I’ve dreamed up. They are just such easy, traditional decorations!
But Milo’s party had to be more than just balloons, because I like to give my parties a creative twist. So I added lots of pennants and bold colors for the decorations (inspired by a Pottery Barn Kids catalog!). I think it ended up being a special party for my special boy.
A perfect balloon theme birthday party!
Milo’s balloon first birthday party had to have lots of color! I went with a rainbow of bold and warm tones…marigold yellow, orange, red, green, periwinkle, and teal. Since Milo’s birthday is in late November, the colors also fit the season.
All the party details…
By hand, I made a bunch of pennants from felt with just scissors and glue. It was time-consuming, but I think the effort was worth it. The pennants were place settings for each plate, cake toppers and cupcake toppers, and banners. In addition to the pennants, I used felt to make garland and pom-poms for the paper party hats.
For a backdrop, I wanted to make a balloon scene. After all, it was a balloon first birthday party! And I wanted to do something different than the trendy balloon garlands everywhere right now. So I taped a few inflated balloons to the wall with black string from each balloon to the floor. It looked super cute behind Milo’s high chair, with balloons also all around on the floor.
My favorite find for his party were the plastic balloon toppers. They looked adorable on his cake and cupcakes, along with the felt pennants. I also used the plastic balloons as stir sticks for each cup.
Isn’t his smash cake the cutest?
First birthdays are such milestones, and your baby changes so much during the first year. Because of this, I think incorporating photos into first birthday parties is a must. (In fact, photos were the actual theme of Owen’s first birthday party! Check it out here.) I made a little banner of some of my favorite photos of Milo that I decorated with felt and hung with a “Milo is One” pennant sign. (I ordered the square photos for Milo’s banner from Parabo Press.)
Milo could not resist touching the felt banner that I made for his high chair. The felt banners were so easy to make! I just cut strips of felt and tied them in knots on a piece of yarn.
For the party favors, I pinned red #1 buttons (because Milo is my number 1 boy turning one!) to brown kraft gift bags and drew a black string from the buttons to make them look like balloons. Inside the bags were pennant-shaped thank you cards, custom pennant-shaped stickers, and life saver candies.
To go with the handcrafted vibe of the pennants, I decided to paint a paper table runner and backdrop with a teal grid pattern by hand. I liked the extra touch of design and color that it added. Plus, it coordinated with Milo’s party outfit!
I commissioned my amazingly talented friend Pam, owner of Cookies All Day, to make decorated sugar cookies for Milo’s celebration. Her cookies were perfection (as usual!) and served as the centerpiece for the party table. A balloon first birthday wouldn’t be complete without balloon-shaped cookies, especially for my cookie-loving boy.
Keep scrolling for more photos…
Boy, it was hard picking out photos from Milo’s balloon theme party! So, forgive me, I’m totally oversharing and dumping a ton more photos in this blog post. Keep scrolling to see every single detail (seriously, EVERY single one) and lots of cute photos of my Milo Man.
Lovely visuals! Looks like he had a lot of fun!