Tangled Party Ideas: First Birthday

A Tangled First Birthday Party

1/3/2020

"and at last I see the light".. Recently my second born daughter turned one. I cannot believe it. Where did her first year go? There were times in the beginning when it felt like a slow crawl of days dragging on and up-all-nights but the year really did speed by in retrospect. Now as a mother to 2 under the age of 3, I have gained experience in a lot of areas, one of them being party planning.

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A Tangled First Birthday Party

I. Love. Birthdays. I like to make big deals out of birthdays, I think birthdays should be celebrated and I love planning parties, I'll be the first to admit that as much as I love them, I get stressed out, like really stressed out. I can start conceptualizing a party months in advanced and still be sweating and stressing two days prior. I'm gifted like that I guess. But then the big day comes and the chips fall as they may and things go off without a hitch and I am able to release and forget all of the stress leading up to it and I can just have memories of a fantastic party.

When our first born turned one I went with an all encompassing princess themed party. I split decor between Snow White, Aurora, Cinderella, Ariel and Belle with an overarching color scheme of pink.

This time around I decided I wanted to go for mostly purple hues and that's when Rapunzel came into my mind for my star of this princess party.

DIY Decorations Ideas

I've said it before and I'll continue to say it, I'm not one for DIY. With each party I dip my toes into the waters of doing things myself. I always like to create at least one item on my own.

If you're looking for ideas for DIY decor check out these previous posts:

Soda Box Number One

I created this soda box one for my first born's party. It was a beast but it was simple enough just time consuming. Time I had when I was home with only one baby but time I did not have chasing after a toddler and a baby!

Highchair Tutu

This highchair tutu took less time than I anticipated but it also cost way more than it would have had I just purchased one off of Amazon. Which is exactly what I did for this party. You may notice that the one I created is much fuller but they both got the job done.

Yarn-Wrapped One

This time I scaled back and purchased a cardboard number from Hobby Lobby and wrapped it in yarn. This required much more precision than I originally thought because you have to keep the yarn taught in order to make straight lines.

I used the yarn-wrapped one to help anchor the escort cards. It was something people could easily see and be directed to, "you'll find your place card by the yellow number one". I know what you're thinking, yes I created a seating chart for my daughter's first birthday. I do seating charts for all of my parties. It is easier that way.

Tangled First Birthday Yarn One and Placecards

A Tangled First Birthday Party: The Sweets Table

Every party should have a focal wall. The easiest way to create a focal wall is to have it be behind the sweets table. Everyone wants to see the cake and sweets anyway, so I say, might as well really give them something to look at!

This backdrop was purchased, new, off of Ebay but I also saw them on Etsy. The design was screen printed on a cloth-like material and while it had a few creases in it due to being folded for packaging, once we clipped it to the PVC pipe backdrop my father put together they, for the most part, went away. The colors were vibrant and it photographed really well! Now, this may be something that someone else could DIY but I don't have that kind of printer so I opted for the YDIFM (you do it for me) version.

This is what I'll call a lesson learned! At the first, first birthday party I used table cloths and opened them up and clipped them to the backdrop but they weren't big enough so I had to use more than one which caused "unsightly" seams of tape. I was very happy with how everything looked then, but I did make a point to for alternatives this time around and this backdrop really made the whole room pop.

As far as sweets go I opted for donuts, cookies, and of course cake! We provided a cake for guests as well as a smaller smash cake for our birthday girl. The main course was hot food we had catered with salad, bruschetta, cheese and crackers as appetizers.

A Tangled First Birthday Party: Party Games

When searching on Pinterest you'll find a ton of Tangled-themed party games. Since this was a first birthday party there weren't gong to be a lot of kids there, it was mostly adults. But I wanted a few stations for the small number of kids in attendance. We had a coloring table with a bunch of printed out Rapunzel coloring sheets and crayons, temporary tattoos and this fun, Snuggly Duckling Ring Toss.

I wanted to include rubber ducks to play off of the name of the tavern in Tangled but I also didn't want there to be water involved. It took a lot of brainstorming but I finally was able to come up with a ring toss game! We literally hot glued rubber ducks to a cut up Amazon box and it was perfect!

On top of this, we had a visit from Rapunzel herself who brought a crown craft as well as faceprint for any kid who wanted it!

A Tangled First Birthday Party: Decor

A party decoration that I've seen online a bunch of times but I've always been afraid to try isballoon garland.

They're big, the fill a room, the make a statement and I just didn't think there was any possible way I could do one. UNTIL I found a kit on Amazon. It provided everything but air; the balloons in different sizes (I purchased the purple one for obvious reasons), glue dots, the flexible strip to stick the balloons in and even a balloon tying contraption that I admittedly did not use.

What do you do? Blow up all of the balloons, tie 'em off and stick them into a flexible, plastic strip that is littered with holes. The only thing this kit didn't include was a design guide. I really had no idea how to position the balloons we ended up alternating colors in bunches. The great thing about it, you can set it up the night before - which is what we did and the balloons all stayed in place through the party.

I do recommend purchasing anelectric balloon pump, this was FOR SURE a time saver. Super easy to use and can be used again for any future ballooning needs.

Tangled First Birthday Balloon Garland Before

Tangled First Birthday Party Balloon Garland After

I also purchased balloons from a local party store to use as centerpieces. Again balloons help fill a space so if you want to make a large room feel smaller or a room with high ceilings feel cozier, I say, get balloons.

Since the balloon garland was used at the sweets table, having balloons at each table helped create, in my opinion, a cohesive look. Along with the balloons, each table had a framed table number and a lantern designed like the ones in the movie! I purchased these off of Etsy and I thought they were a simple, yet impactful touch. I had battery operated tea lights in them but this party took place during the day so it didn't really give that full lantern effect, but I turned the lights off to snap a few pictures and they were magical!