LINCOLN'S 'vintage AVIATION' THEMED FIRST BIRTHDAY PARTY

Hey ya'll!

Okay, so Lincoln's first birthday party was a SUPER big deal!! He is my first baby and him turning one was so monumental that we couldn't do anything less than fantastic. I thought and thought about themes for his birthday party and only landed on this one when I realized it was one of his interests and something that would remind us of him forever. 

Below, I will include some photos. We didn't have time to take many (shoot!) because of all of the guests and fun we were having. I will also include some tips and tricks on how to throw an awesome birthday party!

​How to choose a theme?
So I know that when throwing a birthday party for your kid, at first, you think of ALL of the coolest themes that would present the most options to do awesome things with (or at least I did). I considered the "Little Blue Truck" theme - because, how original and cute is that? I also considered the "Indian" theme because of how precious the photos turn out and how much fun we could have with the decor. At the end of the day, my husband Ryan had to reel me in and refocus me on what we think would absolutely and perfectly represent Lincoln.

Somewhat of an old soul at heart, like his dad, and OBSESSED with planes (seeing that we live right in the jet path for DCA airport), there is nothing more than Rhett loved at that point in time. Combining the two, we came up with the vintage aviation theme, and honestly nothing could have suited him more!

When choosing a theme, I think you should definitely go for something original, but most importantly, it should be something that fully embodies and represents your little one. You'll want to look back and remember the fact that your little boy was obsessed with airplanes and always listened for them and pointed to them as they flew by.

Decor
So I used a ton of different sources for decor, including etsy.com, amazon.com . My biggest advice is to have one centerpiece, in our case this was the cake, and then to decorate with fun, small items around it.

The Cake
The cake was a big deal for me - so much that I had to convince Ryan to spend the $$ that we did on it. In the end, I think he can agree, that we are so glad that we did. The cake was a hit! It perfectly embodied the theme of the party and most importantly, represented Lincoln to a tee. We ended up using It Takes the Cake to create the cake. I got bids from SEVERAL different companies and Hollis ended up being the most reasonable AND the sweetest to work with.

Party Favors
Party favors are not only super cute, but also are super easy and pretty cheap. I ended up buying some small, cheap burlap bags off of amazon.com and filling them with goodies, including an airplane kit, a squeeze pouch, passport stickers, a passport book - and that is it! We only provided the favors for the kiddos - so I think it was about 12 bags total. I only spent $30 total!

DYI!
Do-it-yourself mama! I printed several of the cute signs,  you can see above, that I then placed in frames by the snacks, beverages, gifts, bathroom and much more. This is the cheapest (and most fun!) way to create awesome decor!