This month Zarek turned one year old. Which is a big milestone. Babies learn so much in their first year and grow and change so much. For parents this is something that has to be celebrated. Their baby is turning one year old.
Last week we talked about figuring out the theme for the party. This week we will be talking about invitations and decorations. You have lots of options for your invitations and decorations. If you are super crafty or super frugal you have great options.
Prepackaged
You could purchase your invitations and decorations prepackaged from the store. This is dependent on your theme too. But try and think out of the box too. Having an under the sea party find fish themed cards and use blue and green streamers too make your guests feel under water. You don’t have to just look at invitations trying to find just the right thing look at blank note cards too. Make sure and look in wedding sections and baby shower sections for decorations too.
You could check out party stores, card stores, paper stores, target, walmart, and/or online. Search google for your theme and invitations just search images to get great ideas. You may be surprised what you find.
Some other great online resources:
- Oriental Trading Company – They have an okay selection. They have themes like cowgirl, trucks, princess, jungle, “planes, trains and automobiles”, Disney Princess, and more.
- Birthday Express – They even have a section of just 1st birthday party themes. They have a huge selection of items to choose from.
- Tickled Pink Designs – Here is a good site to find even more invitations. They specialize in invitations only, but they have a huge selection of designs.
- InvitationBox – You can find some amazing cards here. Great place to just browse and find theme ideas too!
Photo Card Invitations
Photo Card invitations have become a huge trend lately. At first you saw photo cards mainly around Christmas, but now we are seeing them for all kinds of occasions and for birthdays more and more.
You can find some great pre-designed cards at these sites:
- TinyPrints – They have a huged selection! Great place to find any kind of card you may ever need.
- Shutterfly – Shutterfly is known for their photo printing, but they also offer photocard templates too!
Custom Photo Card Designs
Another option is you can hire someone to make a custom invitation. They can create an invitation for any kind of theme imaginable. Just give them some ideas of what you are looking for and the text you need on the card.
You can go on etsy to request custom made photo cards and have the designer print them or just send you the digital file. Visit the alchemy section of etsy and ask someone to create something specifically for you.
I do it for very inexpensive, only $15 for a custom card design. I send you a file you can print at your favorite local or online printer.
I created the above invitation for Zarek and had it printed online, I had free credits for 5×7 photos, and only had to pay shipping. I used envelopes I had already in our house. So his invitations were very inexpensive, but everyone raved about them.
Hand Made
If you are crafty, or know someone who is who may help you, you could create handmade invitations. There are great products out there like stickers, stamps, and scrapbook paper that you could use to make a great cards, cupcake toppers, decorate bags for goodies and more. I am sure that you will have people who will rave about how crafty and talented you are.
You could also go onto etsy to hire someone to create these invitations or decorations for you. You can either find a shop that has premade , banners, cupcake toppers, lollypops and even more. Or you can ask on alchemy for some to create a custom invitation for you. You will find some great talented people who will love helping you out.
Evite
Running out of time don’t be afraid to use evite to send out your invitations. They have lots of invitations/themes to choose from. And you will probably get more RSVPs with evites and less “drop in guests”.
Later this week we will be talking about food for your party. And who doesn’t love talking about food!
hehe thats cute.