French Carnival: My Daughter’s First Birthday

As I was going through my backlogs from last month and preparing to write my next batch of articles, I realized there’s still one big and important party that I haven’t written about yet!

Yes, this party actually happened 2 years ago…so this is more than a backlog! This is in fact, a flashback to my daughter’s First Birthday Party which took place two Decembers ago, last 2011 to be exact.

I say it was a big and important party because the first birthday of a child is always special. Most of the time too, this is when the parents of the celebrant invite a bigger group of people to celebrate this important milestone with them. And speaking for myself – after having two boys, I figured this was the time for me to go all out in my party planning! 🙂

So I then called events stylist Bambi Hernandez of Alice’s Wonderland to help me execute my ideas…

(Special thanks to Krissy Rodriguez of Little People Photography for the photos.)

Take note that this party happened 2 years ago and back then there weren’t much party or events stylists yet. Yes, there were many party planners or organizers already, but party stylists? There weren’t a lot. Bambi was one of the first and original ones when it comes to styling events like these. Nowadays though, it’s a completely different story. I see that the party / event styling business has gotten bigger and more clients want their parties not just decorated but more artistically done, personalized and stylized. This also means that the stylists’ fees and prices of party supplies have skyrocketed! 🙁

I’ve had Bambi do two of my past parties before this one (and both were for my daughter’s), and I’ve always been very happy with how it turned out. (Click the links to see our past parties together: Baby Shower and Baptism.)

Now going back to this party… the theme I chose for my daughter’s First was French Carnival and the colors that we used were Pink and Blue, my favorite color combination! (Did you notice that these are the colors of The Spoiled Mummy blog too?)

The venue was Rizal Ballroom A of the Makati Shangri-la Hotel.

I wanted no loud colors, not too many balloons and an out-of-the-box but pretty and elegant set up… so instead of having the usual round tables with surrounding 10 chairs each and with lots of overly twisted balloons all over the place, we made 2 long rectangular tables that stretched all the way from the entrance of the ballroom to the very end, that were able to sit 50 persons each!

The table centerpieces consisted mainly of carousel horses done in paper mache with only 4 balloons tied on each one of them and interspersed with simple pink flower arrangements in pink wicker baskets that just had a pinwheel and some feathers sticking on top of them. (See photo below.)

The flower arrangement that was simple and yet looked oh so pretty and whimsical!

Pink lemonade drinks were overflowing too…but instead of it being served by the waiters on trays, I had these self-serve lemonade jars placed on the tables for easier access to the guests.

Each guest’s table setting had its own personalized water bottle, note card from the celebrant, napkin and napkin ring.

Having a French Carnival for its theme, it was only fitting to have popcorn! I scattered these personalized popcorn boxes on the guests’ tables too, so guests can munch on something before or after their main lunch was served.

I’ve always liked the idea of getting a small gift or token as soon as I enter any party (instead of waiting for the give aways all the way to the end)…so I gave these pink and blue floral hair pieces for the little girls who came.

And handed out these blue bow ties for the little boys as well!

The headbands and these bow ties were worn right away by our little guests at the party, which made for a consistent and cute uniform look amongst the children! 🙂

The dessert table which we named after our daughter … and the Mummy being the dessert lover that she is, wanted it to be a showcase of her favorite cakes, desserts and chocolates – thus it was only right to name it as a Patisserie! 🙂

Every little thing on this dessert table were done only in pinks and blues! (No other colors were allowed, lol!)

Her Petit Fleur Cake by Swell Sweets.

(Cake names were done in French too – to go with the theme!)

Fete d’ Fleur Cake by Gigi Gaerlan.

This is definitely one very delicious cake, I tell you! 🙂 I’ve ordered this a countless times and it has always been consistently good. It also comes in Green Tea flavor.

Arc-en-Ciel Rainbow Cake by Coco Cakes. I just love the pretty ruffles on this cake! 🙂

I made sure that even the insides of this butter cake were also in pink and blue stripes! 🙂

Coco Cakes are known for their moist butter cakes so this definitely had to be a part of our Patisserie!

Pretty in pink candies from the States sent to me by my dear sister in law (she is known by my kids as “the sexiest Ninang in the whole wide world”!)

She got these from Dylan’s Candy Bar, a very chic and complete candy store (more like a candy wonderland!) in New York. (Click the link to see their website.)

More hard candies, still from Dylan’s Candy Bar – since I couldn’t find a lot of nice choices here 🙁

These Candy Hearts were also from there…

As well as these pink and white Candy Sticks…

My favorite pink heart chocolates too, were also from Dylan’s.

La Petite Macarons in Salted Caramel and Valrhona Chocolate by Petite Patisserie.

Only pink colored M&M chocolates.

Kitkat Chocolate Bars.

Caramel Candy Apples in Pinks and Blues.

Cake Pops by Swell Sweets.

Gorgeous 3-dimensional Fleur Cupcakes by Swell Sweets.

Up close…they look like pieces of art!

Another giveaway that I had were these personalized pink and blue M&M chocolates in tin cans which I ordered online. Click this link to go to their website.

Each chocolate piece had a personalized name / photo / message. 🙂

Swirly Lollipops also from Dylan’s Candy Bar.

And because our theme was French Carnival, it was imperative to have these Carnival Entertainers!

We had a giant Stilt Walker roaming around the ballroom…

A Juggler and…

A Monocyclist in one!

A Pantomime too…

And I must say, this mime was one funny guy! He added the comic relief to the party! 🙂

The Ring Master (who was also the host of the party), the Golden Statue and the Stilt Walker.

The Ring Master, who is Peps Avecilla is also a party planner and supplier. He provided the Carnival Entertainers for this party.

It was indeed one big and important birthday celebration The Spoiled Mummy will always remember. In the end, all the hard work, the nitty gritty details and the surprising challenges of putting up a big party like this were all worth it. But more than anything else, it was one big celebration of life! We will eternally be grateful to Him for having blessed our family with another beautiful angel.

She (and her 2 equally proud big brothers) will always and forever be my inspiration.