Elric’s First Birthday Party | The Planning
In the next two months my baby, Elric, will be celebrating his first birthday. How time flies! The same day last year, my husband and I were busy preparing my Baby Shower. Now, were here again preparing... but this time for a bigger and more exciting party. YAY!!! :)
Just to share with you, we started discussing or conceptualizing when Elric was still 6th month old. Yes you read it right--that early! I started researching, asking friends and slowly forming pegs in my mind. We had a number of “candidate” themes before. All of them are lively,fun and of course appealing to the kids. Until we decided to choose Toy Story. Ok it was me who picked it and knowing Gem who always supports me, he agreed to it without any hesitation.
And so the real planning happened :)
My DIY Cover Photo for Elric’s facebook invite (of course with help of Pinterest)
After setting the budget, number of guests, location and timetable, the next thing we did was to find the perfect venue. Considering that we have kids as guests and of course our son will be there, the venue should be indoor, spacious and well ventilated.
The Venue: Antel Grand Village Clubhouse | Kawit Cavite
Spacious venue is a must-have for us because we’re planning to have ample area for food carts, photobooth, registration, stage, adult tables, kids tables and space for running kids haha. Aside from the party room, an enticing beach scenery awaits our guests (but of course swimming is not allowed).
The Caterer: Pink Heaven Party Flavors | Congressional Avenue, Quezon
Now here comes another major part of the party planning.Last month, I convinced my husband to attend the Bridal fair because I believe that this will be a good deal for us and yes we got what we're expecting. There were a number of caterers who joined. They have very competitive rates and packages to choose from but Pink Heaven stood out. They offer a complete package which includes food, host, magician, food carts, loot bags, prizes for games, cake, cupcakes, balloon decor, styling, invitation and even inflatable pool at a very reasonable price. I also checked their reviews and they had a good one.
Their menu is quite conventional but tastes good. They have a flexible package that can cater our requests, rather my requests--my DIYs! So far so good except that at times our coordinator is replying late to our inquiries, but it’s understandable :)
Actual photos from Pink Heaven. CTO.
Inflatable kiddie play area we got as freebie for booking them during the fair. CTO.
The Photo and Video: Studio 1
Another good deal that we got during the Bridal Fair was the P&V. My husband and I both agree that this is a mandatory for every event because it will remind you of how special that moment was. Well personally, I love taking photos and it is very visible on my social accounts haha. High quality is also important to me, the techniques and styles,capturing every details of the event.
Studio1 offers a complete package for photo and video coverage. Some of the inclusions I think are actually optional to have but since they are providing it for free who am I to complain :)
About their reviews, the one not-so-good-thing that we need to carefully follow about Studio1 is their slow response to customer inquiries/followups. But so far so good. Hopefully, we will not experience that.
There’s still a lot to do. We need to be productive and keep the time table. But like any other plannings I did,the secret ingredients I learned from the past are to do research preferably recommendations from someone you know or social group(ie., N@wies ), attend fairs (because you will definitely get good rates), trust the suppliers you booked (they are pro in that area), stop looking for other suppliers once you signed the contract, enjoy the planning, be creative, DIY only the things that you can--do not overdo things and end up tired and frustrated, stay within budget, don’t compare to others, delegate tasks with your husband, trusted relatives or friends and most importantly pray for God’s favor and guidance and it will surely be a successful one :)
I hope I was able to share helpful tips for those who are planning events especially for those DIY mommies.
I will be sharing the DIYs I did or rather I will do on my next post. :)
