olive's first birthday

It's hard to believe it's been a year, but Olive's first birthday was on November 4th. To mark the occasion, Dan and I wanted to do something fun and celebrate our first year as a family with our nearest and dearest. I'm excited to share the details and some photos from Olive's special day...Since we had just sold our house and were in the middle of packing, having the party at home was not an option. Dan and I created our wedding save the dates in the El Vez photo booth, so we thought it would be cool to do the same thing with Olive. After enjoying brunch there on photo booth day, we knew it would be the perfect place to host Olive's party. We loved the vibrant, yet laid back atmosphere, and the food was amazing. With the venue set, we decided on the unorthodox theme of Day of the Dead/Sugar Skulls/Mexican & Margaritas.An invitation sets the tone, and we wanted our guests to know this wouldn't be a typical first birthday party. We decided to use the photo strips as the favors and found these great invitations on TinyPrints.I love the paper straw trend and found these pink striped straws at Sur La Table. No children's party is complete without a few old school party hats.  We had one for each of the kids, as well as maracas.Since the delicious brunch was served family style, there wasn't a lot of room for table decor. I wanted bright pops of color and didn't want to spend a lot. I used these fun (99 cent) Tolsby frames from Ikea to hold the table assignments and menus. The pink Somrig vases (also Ikea and budget-friendly at 99 cents) held the DIY photo booth prop mustaches and lips. The free printable template can be found here. The succulents were in simple terra cotta pots that I spray painted white.The favors! We used the photo strip of Olive and attached $3 so guests could take pictures for Olive's "guest book" and for themselves. We had so much fun reading the sweet notes to our birthday girl and love that she'll have this book to look back on one day.Two Little Birds Tip: Hire a photographer or designate someone to take pictures. Being the host, you'll be so busy hosting that you won't get a chance to take any photos. We gave our camera to our brother in law Kevin, and we're so appreciative that he captured all of these great moments for us.A family portrait in our matching sugar skull t-shirts from Zen Threads on Etsy.xoxo,j