Black and white 1st birthday | 1st birthday party ideas

Nov 6

Brooks’ black and white “milk” themed 1st birthday party

Hi all! Amanda here, popping over here to share my son’s first birthday party! Wait, he was just a newborn a few months ago.. right? We had a super sweet soiree with some dear friends over at our house a last month. I racked my brain trying to figure out a unique theme for his party.. I wanted to do something fun relating to things he loved.. and “MILK” topped the chart. So we went with it.. ice cream, flavored milks, donuts, cookies, and milkshakes in a “Milk Mustache Bash.” Isn’t that a party anyone would want to attend?

I knew pulling off a huge party while working full time and being a mama would be a giant undertaking, so I enlisted help from the mighty talented Jacqui from Deets and Things, who brought my inspiration board to life. She was a pleasure to collaborate with on the details of the party. Party planning is no joke! Props to all the mamas and planners out there who do it year after year for their kiddos!

Keep reading for all the “deets”! And thank you to Gillian of L&B Photography for these purdy photos!

Now, I know creating paper invitations may be going a little overboard, but I do love me some paper in this digital world, and this IS a first birthday for my first child, so I just had to. I broke my design chops out of the archives and created this suite, printed by my brother-in-law’s company Collective Ex, with KC Print Garage, with a white (hence the milk) and black color scheme. Jomygoodness helped with the pretty calligraphy.

I slowly began to realize that our home inherently reflected the party’s color scheme. What can I say.. I’m going through a black and white mood!

Jomygoodness printed this cute welcome sign on wood and Penelope Pots added a sweet floral detail.

Every party could use a statement wall, yes? Jacqui created this one out of letter balloons from North Star Balloons. She spray painted silver ones a creamy color and taped them to the wall for a fun statement piece!

Here is my guy getting ready for all the festivities…

Hey friends!~

To match the invitations, I had For Your Party print some napkins and treat bags I designed. It’s so super easy to use their site to print all of your party components.. they have like everything you’d need! You can upload your own designs or use theirs.

As our guests exited, we had a “wish” area where they wrote their wishes for Brooks. I got the idea from Molly, and I love reading through what everyone wrote! They will be lil cherished notes for years to come. A basket full of milk carton-shaped sugar cookies was a parting favor for our guests (in case they didn’t get enough sugar at the party. teehee). Admittedly, I’m not a huge sugar fan myself, but a party full of sweets just sounds so fun!

A favorite part of the party was this table that Jacqui designed, using graphics from the invite. She used this milk carton DIY to make these cute black cartons. I’m just so in love with the scalloped garland above the table too! Luckly, I had a bunch of black and white throw pillows (hence my home decor color scheme!) laying around, so we used those for the kids table seating. The table and rugs are from Nineteen27 Vintage.

Penelope Pots made these super sweet arrangements using sages, whites and touches of peach with this cool bleached foliage. You can get these cute plates and napkins at Geese and Ganders.

Some of our littlest attendees…

Jacqui had the idea to give out “milk mustaches” so each kid could wear their own. I mean…cuuute!!

My husband Tim smoked pulled pork for 10 hours (!) and we served some simple dishes from Thyme Cafe and Market to boot. Meat is always the most expensive part of catering, so we opted to make our own, and enlisted a caterer for the side dishes to save a little dough.

And everyone’s favorite.. dessert! Sugar Crush Sweets made a pretty spread of sweets including vanilla pudding “milkshakes”, moo sugar cookies and doughnuts, plus meringue cakes. I’m sure sugar hangovers were had for all.

My humble addition to the dessert table.. with these almond milks I flavored by blending in either strawberries, cacao, or vanilla beans.

Be still my heart.. I love him SO!

He wasn’t such a big fan of the smash cake, but it sure was cute!

But really, for the older kids at the party, the real treat was the Carmela Ice Cream Co. truck that drove in, serving flavors like Aztek Chocolate, Brown Sugar Vanilla Bean, and Blackberry Vanilla Bean Sorbet. This was a crowd pleaser and the cutest addition to the festivities! You can rent small carts for a party in addition to this truck.

We had ice cream cone wrappers printed with the patterns from the invites and they turned out darling if I do say so!

Little guy’s first taste of ice cream! He went with the salted caramel. Good choice, bud.

And that’s a wrap! The most fun day for my little 1 year old. Even though he’ll likely never remember this party, at least we’ll always have these photos and can tell him bedtime stories of his “Milk Mustache Bash.”