How much did you spend/will you spend on DS/DD 1st Birthday Party? (gift excluded)

[jec2]

Holy Cow, is this party starting to add up. The cake, food, beverages, decorations! Yikes. Just wondering what others have spent and how surprised you were at how quickly it added up.

[slknight]

We didn't have a party. You need a category for $0! We travelled to Disney World on DS's first birthday. It was just a coincidence we went then. DH's whole family went then too. We were lucky enough to have a layover where my parents live, so they met us at the airport and brought a cake. That's all we did.

I never had a baby-shower for DS either (really long story). And while I didn't mind at the time, I am beginning to feel like we missed out on a couple of important occasions (shower and first birthday) to celebrate his life. :( I plan on having a bash for his second birthday. :D

[new_mommy25]

Lol, I guess I will have to admit that we spent over $2000. Yikes I know, but it is a big tradition here. Sort of an "introducing" your baby to everyone, ifkwim. It's common in Asian cultures and something DH and I really wanted to do. We had about 100 people. It was catered and the food alone was $1000. Then we had to pay for the space we rented, I made centerpieces and party favors, and we had a clown, Hawaiian band play, and a Chinese Lion Dance. The Lion Dance was done for free by a good friend of FIL who teaches Kung Fu, but we still had to feed the lion about $100 because the students are doing it out of their own time and they divide the money. We had 5 lions and it was a huge hit.

[Sarah1]

Well, I can't quite remember the number...but I do remember things adding up quickly, like you said!

We had DD's Wiggleworms (music class) teacher come and perform, that was $175, we then spent probably around $150-200 on food & drinks (including wine/beer/champagne for the adults--the party was late afternoon on a Saturday). Then there was probably another $75-100 on decorations, favors and other miscellaneous stuff...so, all in all we probably spent close to $500! Yikes. Oh well, the party was SO fun. If I had it to do over, I wouldn't spend nearly as much time or $$ on food, since hardly anyone ate anything.

This year we are being lazy and having her party at Gymboree. This way I don't have to clean anything up :)

Have fun and enjoy your party!! Your DS only turns one once! :)

[heidi_timms]

I just voted in the wrong category. Ours was around $400-500. We had about 40-50 people and food was the majority of the expense. I baked M&M cookies on a stick as favors and gave sippy cup blowfish as favors to the few kids we had. Our cake was $60 for a special princess cake. The papergoods were also super expensive. We just got plain ones, but the plates for food and cake, utensils and napkins all added up.

Have fun with the planning!


~Heidi
Mom to Kailey
4/03

[amp]

I included gifts in my total of $100-$199. We bought food, plates, cups, napkins for 15 and a few cute decorations. We didn't buy any really special 1st birthday gifts since we'd already bought him a trike and a kiddie pool in the spring. The grandparents gave the special gifts. We just gave him 4 or 5 small toys, books, cds.

I really am guessing at the costs, but here's my best guess off the top of my head.

We made our own cake - $5
Balloons were about $5
Decorations $15
Cups, plates, napkins were about $20
Subs and salads were about $60
Pop, water, beer, etc. $20
Snacks & side dishes $20
Gifts $60

Okay, so maybe that pushed us into the $200 range.

[miki]

I voted under $100. I threw DD an ice cream party in our backyard. We live on a lake and it's really pretty so I didn't feel like I needed decorations. We had drinks, a few tubs of ice cream, and cookies. I made DD's ice cream cake - it was really easy! For favors I gave out little paper bags with store bought ice cream shaped cookies for the kids and vanilla/chocolate/strawberry soap I made for the moms. Next year when she can say what she likes, I'd consider spending more.

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[Marisa6826]

We didn't have a real party. It was a week before we were moving from our condo and everything was in disarray.

We went out for dinner with our best friends. We sang to Sophie at the end and she had her own bowl of icecream.

This year, I will have just gotten out of the hospital, so I fear Sophie will be stiffed once again ;).

-m

[Raidra]

I was just about to post this same question!

Colwyn's party will add up to about nearly $300! And then I want to spend about another $200 on presents. Sheesh. And Xmas is just two months after his birthday.

If we weren't doing renovations, thus needing to have the party somewhere other than at home, it'd be much cheaper, though. Oh well.

[jec2]

Wow! I was going to put a "more than $1000" category but didn't know if there would be many hits! my dear friend's husband is Korean so his parents are planning Logan's 1st birthday. It was EXTREMELY important to them. I am kind of hoping that since his parents live 1.5 hours from us, we'll get invited :) I'd love to see what the big celebration is all about

[jubilee]

WOW... I fretted over the $5 birthday party hat he would only wear once. I'm going to start thinking about getting into the birthday party business and rake in some of the dough that you all spend! :)

[jec2]

I'm thinking of forgoing gifts but we are seriously thinking about a big wagon. The wagon will be for all of us, however. DH & I can use it to tote our laundry to the laundry room :) But, it is hard w/xmas just two months away. My birthday is in May so growing up it was alway great to have the presents spaced in the year.

[Raidra]

We were planning on not spending much money on gifts, but I changed my mind. ;)

My justification is that most of his toys now are the plastic, electronic type toys that my mother buys for him. I want him to have more wood or fabric toys that encourage imagination. He'll outgrow most of his plastic, electronic toys shortly, but I'm hoping that the more creative toys will get more usage. I figure that his birthday and Christmas are my two chances to spend money, as we're on a tight budget otherwise. I almost never buy toys for him myself.

[houseof3boys]

We had some "adult" food though too (like shrimp and a gourmet cheese platter) so I know that made a difference. I am of the opinion that 1st year parties are for the adults a lot more than the cute birthday baby.

It is expensive though!!!! I even used coupons for the party store and bought stuff at Sam's.

[JenCA]

Between the invitations, party supplies, food, drinks, and presents, we easily spent over $500. We didn't plan to spend that much--in fact, we cut back on our original guest list (from 50+ people to just around 22 people) to help save, but everything just adds up so quickly! I am with the other poster who mentioned having a Gymboree party for her child this year--I'm all over that for DD's second birthday! ;)

*Edited to fix a glaring typo.

[californiamom]

This is a big tradition for me, too. I am speding more than $1,000 for DD first birthday party. It will be a "get to know all your family" party since we leave far away.

I have about 80 guests in my list. I rented a special kids' party hall, with toys, magicians and many "attractions". Her party theme is "garden". The invitation is a puzzle you put together with a picture of her and lots of flowers -- really cute! There will be beverages, hors d'euvre, entrees, and dessert (plus the cake). There will also be party favors for the guests.

The decoration is very pretty, mostly made with balloons -- over 2,000 balloons will be used! I saw pictures and fell in love with it. I am attaching a picture for you guys to see her theme (garden) and some shots of the party hall. :-)

Anyway, this is a big special time for us and we will be celebrating in style!! :-) I actually think we are getting A LOT for the money!

Ana

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[Jen in Chicago]

I am a BARGAIN person. My guess is I spent $150-200 on the party for DH and DS (same day)
Invites(35)- basically free b/c I made them with my supplies, only pd for stamps
Favors (1 per child, then 1 per adult couple) -$20? (stamped lunch bags with snack size items I bought on sale (Teddy Grams, juice box, bubbles,...)
Cake- FREE (Grandma)
Han's Sausages, Burger, Salad, fixins, apps, and Burgers (for around 50 in the end) $80
Drinks (Wine, Beer, Juice,...) $80
Decorations/Papergoods (Red papergoods and Mardi Gras child napkins) $15

No corners were cut, it was a party for Jude's 1st, DH's 3X, and it was our last party in Chicago b/4 moving.

[jec2]

Oh how amazingly fun and special that will be! Is that party hall just for kids' birthdays? HOw cool is that? I cannot wait to see pics of your party.

[sarahfran]

Wow. Guess I really cheaped out for my sweet little guy's first birthday. I bought the plates, plastic utensils, and napkins at the Dollar store (they were very cute, by the way--decorated with balloons), bought a grocery store decorated cake, grilled hot dogs and burgers, served beer, wine, and soda, and mom supplied the decorations (3 HB signs, streamers, etc). As favors, I gave out photo books (idea came from these boards) I made on mypublisher.com--all the party attendees were featured in the book, and it was a chronicle of Dylan's first year. Grandparents got hardcover books, aunts/uncles got softcover books.

Frankly, Dylan seemed quite pleased with it all and rewarded us by taking his first series of steps across the room for his adoring audience. His Gpa even caught them on video.

It ended up being a very nice, homey celebration.
-Sarah
Mom to Dylan, 8/18/03

:) Motherhood is such a joy! :)

[sadie427]

About $100 for the party plus $30 for his gift--it was a nice Saturday afternoon party at our place, about 15 people, we just had a cake, wine and lemonade, and some cut-up fruit and veggies w/ dip. We splurged on the cake which was $50 as there is a bakery we love and the cake was fantastic, a "tres leches" cake, about 8 inches high, covered in whipped cream and strawberries! Everything else was from trader joes and we just had plain blue paper plates from Target and a bunch of flowers as the decoration. The gift was a Radio Flyer ride-on toy. We had a great time and wouldn't have had it any other way, although I'm not one for theme parties.