Twin Babies First Birthday Party! - Beauty, Baby, and a Budget

I will admit, coming up with a first birthday party theme that I felt like would work for good for a set of girl and boy twins had me stumped for a while! So I took the question to Instagram (and turned it into a friendly competition 🙂 and OF COURSE, I had so many wonderful people submit amazing ideas! This is where my twin babies’ first birthday party theme, “TWINkle TWINkle Little Star Oh How ONEderful You Are”, was born!

Once the theme was chosen, the ideas got flowing and it was SO EASY to come up with everything else! But then… the Covid-19 quarantine happened and there were many tears shed plus a week or two that the party was on complete hold because everything was changing so rapidly from day to day I didn’t even know what to do.

Once things settled down and our state locked down a very precise set of rules through the end of April- I decided that I absolutely was not going to let the Coronavirus ruin my twin babies’ first birthday party and I pressed on! I Rolled with those punches and bought a helium tank (surprisingly affordable, works great, and is so easy to use). Turned to Etsy, local bakeries, local balloon artists, and viola! Everything worked out exactly how I had planned…well except family had to watch from outside of our house through the windows, and on facetime but other than that, it was the perfect day celebrating my angel babies!

Here are the details of the party decor and desserts:

1. Their cakes and cupcakes came from The Chocolate aka my favorite dessert shop of all time! I will recommend this place to anyone and everyone. I have no words to describe how amazingly delicious their desserts are. Not only that- but they are always beautifully done and they will let you customize any of their cakes or desserts! Here is what I specifically ordered from The Chocolate for their party and cake smash desserts:

1- 9 inch black and white cake (our VERY FAVORITE cake of all time) with pale blue buttercream frosting and pale pink buttercream frosting kind of “smeared” all over the cake like pink, blue, and white marble would look. No top or bottom bead border.
1- 5 inch black and white cake with ombre pale blue buttercream frosting at the bottom that fades up into white. No top bead border.
1-5 inch black and white cake pale pink buttercream frosting at the bottom that fades up into white. No top bead border.
12 cupcakes- in “the husband” flavor (not on the menu but The Chocolate is amazing and did it anyway and they TASTED SO GOOD!)

2. The “TWINkle TWINkle Little Star Oh How ONEderful You Are” banner and the beautiful pink and blue star banners came from Smith Studios 2129 . She let me customize my banner so it said exactly what I wanted with the colors I wanted. She was FAST (had it shipped to me in 2 days), and her banners are high quality but very affordable! The best part is that you can use code WHITJXOXO for 10% off anything in her shop! Here are the specific details of what I ordered for those banners:

Gold glitter letters
3.5 inch letters
1st “TWIN”- pastel blue
2nd “TWIN”- light pink
“ONE” in onederful Silver glitter
Star banner: gold glitter with pastel blue and light pink stars

3. The pink and blue balloon arch is from Blown Out of Proportion and I can’t even believe how beautiful and perfect this thing was! She took my vision and over exceeded my expectations times 10! When the quarantine started I kind of made my peace with the idea that I was going to have to make my own balloon garland. So I went on to Amazon and started adding everything to my cart that I needed to make it…the total was over $200. Add in the amount of time that it would take for me to do it and I knew I just couldn’t do it. I was so sad!

But then I found Mallory from Blown Out of Proportion and could not even believe how much I loved her designs and even more so how affordable her balloon arches are! So I decided to have her make it and I am SO SO GLAD that I did. Order your balloon arch here I promise you that you will not regret it!

4. The Pink and Blue ONE high chair banners came from Confetti Momma Party. They came just as stars with ONE on them and a pink and blue bow on either side. I didn’t like the bow for Ezra so I took it out. The colors I ordered for these banners were baby blue and baby pink.

I did the ribbon high chair banners that went underneath the ONE star banners. It took me about 30 minutes for each banner which I don’t think is bad at all. For Ezra’s banner, I just tied white ribbon around a string, and for Addie’s banner, I tied white ribbon AND white tulle around a string for a more feminine look.

5. The Star Cake and cupcake toppers came from Kiss & Hug Design and they were the perfect size for my cake, I love that you can mix and match them. Plus the package was cheap and came with a ton of toppers and various sizes.

6. The backdrop stand came from Amazon. With how cheap it was, I couldn’t believe how sturdy and awesome it ended up being! However, it is not adjustable so make sure you measure your space before you purchase.

7. The white backdrop, star decals on the backdrop, and tablecloth came from Shindigz party supply- very inexpensive and fantastic quality!

8. The babies’ adorable star outfits came from Amazon. Here is the link for Ezra’s blue star outfit (I used different suspenders) and here is the link for Addie’s pink and gold star dress.

Here are a couple of my best tips for planning a smooth, stress-free party:

Start planning at least two months in advance. This might seem like overkill but if you do this then you can shop some deas and find cheaper prices on things. Plus this gives you more time to either DIY a few things and/or find adorable handmade Etsy items and still get them on time!
Draw out your plans on paper. I do this ALL. THE. TIME. It is the only way I can actually get a good idea of if the vision in my head will actually look good…not in my head. It also helps me feel empty space that I didn’t realize would be there, etc. I even do this when I’m decorating my home and it’s so incredibly helpful.
Get a garment steamer. This is LIFE CHANGING! I finally got a garment steamer (hello, only $15 for this amazing one!!) for their party and I couldn’t believe how much easier it made my life. I steamed the backdrop, the table cloths, the ribbon banners, etc. It took me half the time of ironing and looked way better!
Think through all of the little things that you will need to hang and make sure you have PLENTY of those little gadgets on hand, like triple the amount you think you actually need. I used white safety pins to hang the banners onto the backdrop and onto the table cloth. I used glue dots to hang the star decals onto the backdrop, and I used clear command hooks and fishing wire to hang the balloon arch onto the backdrop stand. I also used command hooks to attach the ONE banners to their highchairs.
Do any and all party prep that you can in the days leading up to the day of the party. Try as much as humanly possible to do as little as possible on the day of the party. I started putting everything together for this party 5 days before.