Lyla's First Birthday Party // Event Photography // St. Charles, IL Photographer

Our baby girl is 1! It doesn't even seem possible, but here we are. One whole year of having Lyla in our lives. The year has definitely had its ups and downs, but  even with having Lyla be a part of that has made even the worst days bearable.

I have been planning her birthday for months. I knew I wanted to incorporate all of the photo projects I've been working on, so that became the theme (check the captions below some of my photos for links to other blog posts about the individual projects). I also wanted to incorporate the fabric that I used for the backgrounds of her weekly photos. I used it to make her a skirt, hair clip, rag banners, pennants, table runners and other decorations. I've also used a lot of scrapbook paper to decorate her room, so I used that to keep with the patchwork-ish feel brought on by the fabric strips. I made a lot of the decorations myself, or at least altered them in some way. She's also a huge fan of "The Rainbow Connection" sung by Kermit the Frog, so I made her a rainbow cake and rainbow cupcakes for everyone else. In the end, everything ended up looking exactly how I had envisioned, and it was a fun day filled with friends, family, and food :)

This is one of the photo projects I did with Lyla. It's 1 photo of her wearing every single outfit she had during her first year of life :) I got the idea for this after realizing that I had spent so much time picking out adorable outfits for her and that she would only wear them a couple times (especially in the first few months) before growing out of them. This way I will always remember them! Check them all out HERE.

This photo project includes a picture taken every Tuesday (she was born that day) for Lyla's first year. The fabric backgrounds were used for many elements of the party. View her weekly photo blog post HERE.

This is the time capsule station. I designed the "one in a flash" lettering to match the style used on her invitations, then printed it out letter by letter to create a sign big enough. I also hung one of the rag banners made from her weekly fabrics (and used in her smash cake session backdrop seen HERE).  She will open up her time capsule on her 18th birthday. I'm sure many tears will be shed!

The tissue pom poms were left over from my baby shower, so they were special to me and I'm glad I was able to use them. The two banners are made up of photos of Lyla that I uploaded to Instagram during her first year. Each photo consists of 9 image, and every image is different.

I love the chalkboard infographics that are so popular these days, so of course I had to make one for Lyla! I found a beautiful frame at Hobby Lobby in the 80% off section and spray painted it teal. Here you can also see one of the little information signs I designed using the same fonts and graphics from the invites. The little stand that it's in is a paper clip that i added ribbon to.

The sign-in sheet I designed so Lyla will know who came to her special day :)

The table decorations. Long cardboard boxes covered in scrapbook paper with Instagram photos (double sided) on skewers stuck into them.

I spray painted the vases teal and filled them with party blowers, curled ribbon, and felt flowers. I made the little stand with a plate and a candle-stick holder glued together and then spray painted. The little bear says Happy Birthday and was a gift to Lyla the day she was born from her late Grandmother.

I made the ruffly fabric medallions and fabric pennants out of the weekly photo fabric (one of each design). The medallions also include paper cutouts that say 1 year and are the same style I used on her onesies each week.

I completely forgot to take a photo of this area! So this is a pic from my friend's cellphone. I got the big 1 sign for 90% off at Hobby Lobby (love that place) and covered it in scrapbook paper. I hung her monthly photos from strings with clothes pins. Check out her monthly photos HERE.

Our shed made a great backdrop for this setup :) And there's the adorable birthday girl!

The treat table setup. My husband Rob made the awesome cupcake/cake stand. I spray painted it pink and lined it with ribbon and tiny pennants made from the weekly fabrics.

The ONE sign is made from foamboard and consists of photos I posted to Instagram. I used it for one of Lyla's birthday photoshoots.

I made and decorated the cake and cupcakes. The cake topper is made with bamboo skewers wrapped in red ribbon with a pennant banner made of the weekly fabrics.

I also made these cute cupcake toppers. The party hat graphic on Lyla's head is the same one used on her invites. The film strip consists of 4 photos: an ultrasound, 1 day old, 6 months old, and 1 year old. A larger version of it was on her invites also. The camera is a little Nikon D90 (just like mine!) and in the lens is a photo of Lyla from one of her 1st birthday shoots.

Heart-shaped Ghirardelli brownie bites (soooo good) on a cake stand that I put together and spray painted. I really do love spray paint :)

Rainbow sugar cookies! A lot more work than I expected, but so cute :)

I made the banner from the weekly fabrics and attached letters spelling out LYLA IS 1 that I printed. I found the highchair at a yard sale, but she never uses it. So I covered it with the weekly fabrics to make it pretty! I just hot glued them on there, so I ended up just tossing the cover after we were finished.

Her smash cake was rainbow inside!

All of the party hats are Dollar Tree upgrades. I simply bought a couple packs of party hats there, opened them up and traced them onto scrapbook paper. After gluing the paper on I trimmed them with ribbon and topped them with little pom poms. Lyla's had a special paper pinwheel on it.

I handed my camera off to my friend Kelsey (Kelsey Anderson Photography) so I could step out from behind it and open presents with my girl :) So grateful to her for capturing the long present-opening process!

This chair is really special. Before my mother-in-law found out she was sick, she asked me if I thought it was something that Lyla would enjoy, and if I liked it in light pink. I told her I thought it was a cute idea and that we could put it in her room as a reading chair. Sadly, it wasn't long after that conversation that she ended up in the hospital where she found out she had cancer and was gone less than a month later :(. So when Lyla's birthday was drawing near, I mentioned it to my father-in-law as gift idea. It was pretty emotional to give it to her and tell everyone the story behind it. I hope she gets many years of enjoyment out of it, and someday we'll tell her the story about it as well :) Happy 1st birthday baby girl!!