This was a special birthday for my little girl because it was the first party that she had with her friends from school. Yes, she is in Reception this year and she feels like a big girl although for me she will always be my little baby!
This year I found it very difficult to choose how to celebrate her birthday because there are 21 kids in her class and it seems like a common custom to invite the whole class. This means the kids get to know each other better outside of school and therefore the parents too. We knew that our budget was going to be higher than the budget we had last year for her birthday party because she only invited 9 friends from nursery.
We had more than double the number of children attending. We, therefore, needed a venue that allowed us more space for all these kids plus their parents, although they don’t all stay for the whole party as many drops off/collect their children, just a little bit at the beginning and then they come just before the party ends. Let’s be honest, it is a great opportunity for parents to have some spare time and enjoy what they can without their crazy kids so, understandably the number of parents staying for the whole party has reduced as the children have become more used to being at parties with their school friends. This obviously affects the budget and it can also be difficult to guess who might stay and who might not.
Being one of the youngest in her class, she was one of the last to celebrate her birthday (May). This, fortunately, enabled us to spy on other kid’s parties and then get the best ideas from each and put it all together. We decided to plan the party from scratch which means that we needed to organise every single detail, which was different to the party we organised for her last year as it was an all inclusive birthday package at a nearby soft play centre.
Anyway, I thought I’d do a list of all the party arrangement hoping that it could be helpful for someone out there:
1. VENUE
For us, this was our priority. A few of the other parents from her school had chosen the same venue and we thought that it was lovely, big, bright and airy with high ceilings. This venue was a large Community Hall which had a capacity of up to 150 people.
Tables and chairs, a tea urn and sound system were included in the hire fee. The audio/visual equipment and a portable stage were available on request for a small charge.
All of this for £32.50 per hour plus a deposit which was refunded 2 days after the party. For London, this is really good value.
We called the venue and booked the room for 3 hours on the date we wanted. The actual party was for 2 hrs, but we needed to allow half an hour at the beginning to set up the room and half an hour at the end to tidy up and clear the room. After booking the venue, we were able to prepare the invitations.
2. INVITATIONS
Nowadays party invitations no longer seem to be in paper anymore. We have modern parents, therefore the invitations were sent as digital cards which can also track responses. The best approach is to send the invitations one month before the party allowing parents plenty of time to organise themselves. The website we used for the invitations was Paperless Post who also have an iPhone application. It is also free to use unless you want to add some fancy opening options for the card but it is very affordable. They look very nice and you can add a photo of the birthday girl/boy.
3. ENTERTAINMENT
I thought this was going to take us a lot of time to choose but luckily we found a really good website: Children’s Party London. The company name is Aeiou Kids Club.
The Party Package we chose was ‘The Classic + Marvellous Magic’ which involved activities filled with fun and laughter, some games, music, dancing, face painting and balloon modelling followed by a marvellous magic show. It was one guy who came and did everything. We were very pleased with the service and the entertainer. He was amazing, captivating and entertaining the kids really well. I can highly recommend the company. You need to pay 50% upon booking and the balance at the end of the party.
4. DECORATIONS
This was a struggle because the venue was big and had such a high ceiling that we were wondering how to decorate such a big space. After looking for some inspiration we ended up buying all the decoration from Party Pieces with an all vintage and pink theme. We bought:
- Pink table cover
- Pink napkins
- Pink plastic serving trays
- Metallic pink party balloons
- Clear party balloons
- Pink paper party cups
- Pink & mixed colour paper birthday party bunting
- Pink hearts confetti
- Pink polka paper plates
- Pink chevron paper straws
- Rainbow hanging swirl decoration
- Butterfly hanging party decoration
- Pink honeycomb paper ball
- Bright pink decorative party fans
- Bright pink decorative mini party fans
- Pink polka personalised party banner (name and age)
- Light pink pom poms
- Dark pink pom poms
- Sparkle candle no 5
- Pink ribbon
- White ribbon
- Party bags for girls
- Party bags for boys
You can obviously shop around for all of these things looking for the best prices, but it was really convenient to have everything from one place.
5. FOOD
The party was in the afternoon from 2:30 to 4:30 pm. We chose this time so we didn’t need to worry about having to seat every kid at the table to have a meal. From previous parties, I feel that this can be a waste of food and money with some kids hardly eating their food. Our solution for this was to have an afternoon tea which is actually something very common for children’s parties in my country. The parties are in the afternoon and they put a long table for kids to help themselves with lots of yummy sandwiches, yummy sweets and of course a super beautiful cake of various layers. This is always a hit with the kids.
I’m very bad in the kitchen and not the sort of mum that will prepare all the food myself. It would’ve been too much effort. I wanted something yummy but affordable. Doing a little bit of research we found out that Sainsbury’s do a very nice Party Food selection that you need to order with a few days of anticipation. That was perfect for what we wanted but we couldn’t believe that we were getting all our food from them. It was a risk but we found it all to be very nice. I can definitely recommend them and the price was very reasonable (when perhaps comparing with custom party caterers). We ordered the following:
- 24 fish sandwich platter (salmon & cucumber, prawn mayonnaise, tuna & sweetcorn)
- 24 wraps platter (chicken & bacon caesar, BBQ pulled pork, southern fried chicken, falafel & houmous)
- 16 sub rolls platter (tuna crunch, ploughman’s, ham & egg, chicken & bacon ranch)
- 24 vegetarian sandwich platter for the kids (egg mayonnaise, cheese & pickle, cheese & onion)
- crudités & dips platter (carrot batons, cucumber, mange tout, baby corn, celery, red & yellow pepper with pots of hummus and salsa)
- fruit platter (melon, strawberries, pineapple, mango and seedless grapes with a creme fraiche dip)
- Teatime cakes platter (carrot cake slices, mini choc chip muffins, caramel shortcakes and mini chocolate brownies)
We also got fruit shoot drinks and water for the kids. We then offered for the adults a Peruvian drink: Chilcano which has Pisco (I’ll do another post about preparing this and a proper Pisco Sour 😉).
6. THE CAKE
We fancied doing something different this time, so we had a fantastic cupcake tower. The kids love cupcakes so why not make a tower of them! We also gave one cupcake together with a party bag to each child.
These cupcakes were so delicious. And they look amazing! The cupcakes were done by my super talented sister in law who is very good. If you want her details, please drop me an email and I will put you in contact with her.
7. EXTRAS
We also bought 2 pots with small plants from Sainsbury’s and some flowers, serving platters and plastic cups from Asda.
Well, this is everything we got for Bella’s birthday party. It was a big effort but it was all worth it as you don’t turn 5 years old every day!! She had such great fun and enjoyed every minute of it. To see her face so happy was priceless! And the best part is that she got so many presents. I got as excited as her! So funny. What a wonderful day we all had!
I hope that you like my post and that this information was useful. If it helps just one person I would be so happy 😃
What about you? How have you celebrated your kid’s birthday party this year? Tell us and give us more ideas for another party.
Thanks for stopping by,
Love you all ❤️
Franca 💋
Linking up with:
You Baby Me Mummy says
This looks like a wonderful party, so pretty! Thanks so much for linking up to #TheList x
amomentwithfranca says
Hi Aby, nice to meet you! Thanks for your comment. We had a wonderful time and Bella was really happy! xx
Bethany says
It all looks fab and i’m terrible in the kitchen, i’m to dis-organised so love your option for kids food.
amomentwithfranca says
Thank Bethany!! Yes it is the best solution when you are not very good in the kitchen!! 😉 Thanks for stopping by lovely, xx
crummy mummy says
BB is in reception this year and so far everyone has invited the whole class to their parties. Luckily her birthday is in August so we get to see what everyone else does first! #KCACOLS
Helen says
Gorgeous! Well done, it looks like you gave her a wonderful party. They take some planning don’t they? They’re not cheap either hey? But I feel it’s the one time in the year we get to really spoil them. Your little girl looks so happy. x #KCACOLS
Nadia - ScandiMummy says
I love planning parties and this looks like such a pretty, wonderful party and your little tiger princess looks adorable and so happy. Great tips as well. Thank you for sharing #KCACOLS
MimirosEandme says
It looks like everyone had a lovely time. I am preparing for our daughters baptism and you have given me a few tips in organising so thank you for sharing!!! #KCACOLS
BecKy @ Educatingroversi says
Awe it looks lovely. I’ve booked Mini R’s 2nd birthday party at a playgroup that does different packages. Makes things so much easier when I don’t have to organise too much! #KCACOLS
DavIna says
We haven’t hosted a party for either of our kids yet (I don’t think I could handle stress), but I know that we will definitely do something for him next year when he’s 5. I’ll bear all of this in mind when I start planning! #KCACOLS
Kayla says
That looks amazing! I love party planning!! I can’t wait for my son’s 3 birthday next year! I’ve already started planning haha #KCACOLS
Karen says
This is one thing I worry about when my kids get older. Party time seems bigger scary and more expensive than when we were kids! You’ve given some great advice on some cheaper alternatives! I’m glad I have a July baby! It means I can spy too! #KCACOLS
Coombe Mill says
What a lovely happy day you all had. That is certainly a birthday party that looks well planned #KCACOLS
Sarah - To Maternity & Beyond says
What a beautiful party. My daughter is in reception this year but she’s one of the oldest in her year (turned 5 in early September, the day before she started school!) For this reason she had a fairly low key 5th birthday, but this year she is desperate for a bigger celebration with all of her class mates (eek 27 of them!) I’ll definitely be coming back for some of your tips in this post! Thanks for hosting #KCACOLS (my first time too!)
Ellen says
Oh my goodness this looks AMAZING!! I fear I might be one of those mums that everyone disapproves of with the crappy looking decorations and hideous food And he’s a winter baby so we won’t have seen so many parties hehe. We did sainsburys party food for my mum’s birthday and were so impressed.
Glad Bella had such a wonderful time, what a lucky girl!
This is my first time at #KCACOLS! Thanks for hosting.
Baby Anon says
what a fab party! love the sound of the pink and white vintage theme. Mother will be planning my first birthday celebrations soonish (I am hoping for an extravaganza of food and treats) so she will find this useful x
Baby Anon says
Whoops! forgot to add the link #KCACOLS (please excuse me, I’m only very, very young) 😉
Sarah says
How funny, I’m just giving myself 10 minutes for commenting before I start doing the party prep for Rian’s party this afternoon! I wasn’t sensible enough to get a caterer though, I’ll be making all the sandwiches *groan*. I’ll look forward to your Pisco Sour post, counting myself lucky enough to have discovered them in the town of Pisco itself! I love Peru. #KCACOLS
Georgina Whitehead says
Wow looks like such a beautiful party! the venue looks fab, plenty of room for lots of crazy 5 year old plus room for food and parents. I love the entertainer, and I can’t wait until my little girl is a bit older and we can do these type of parties! I’m currently planning a Peppa Pig Party for my daughter 2nd birthday, we are almost there just need to do favour bags, which will be Peppa’s house (hopefully) more decorations and of course the cake a few days before! thanks for sharing some good idea #KCACOLS
Beta mummy says
Good timing, as I’m just starting to think about planning my little boy’s first “proper” birthday party – he’s 4 in June. All the other parties we’ve been to have been brilliant, and whilst I’m not into competitive parenting, I do want it to be special for him and fun for all the children.
Great tip on the paperless invitations, I hadn’t thought of that – thanks!
#KCACOLS
Emma says
Oh it looks like it was a lovely party, I love the decorations too. Also what a good idea with the invites doing a paperless one with an app. Oldest had a joint party in her first year of school and I could have done with these tips, so I will be bookmarking this for this year. Oldest is one of the youngest in her class and her birthday always falls in the last week of school – bless her! 🙂 #KCACOLS
justsayingmum says
Firstly, can I just say I am in love with that Tutu! I have total tutu envy and am sad that I’m too old to wear one! Anyway, great post and so useful – wish I’d had the advantage of the blogging community when mine were smaller. I remember my daughter’s first school party – it was one of the hottest Augusts on record and I had a 2 year old and was 8 months pregnant – not sounding ideal is it? So we booked a bouncy castle and a ball pit for the garden and invited the entire class of 24 thinking that at least half would be on holiday as the first week of August – but no they all accepted the invite so along with 24 children and some family members and their children it was a BIG party and we were holding it at home. So, the day arrives and the temperatures are so hot the bouncy castle and ball pit were too hot to use – I think the rubber was close to melting so I has 24 odd children and no alternative plan – to say it pushed me to the limit is an understatement – my poor husband did party game after party game for 2 solid hours! Never again! Wish I’d just copied you #KCACOL
Mrs C says
What a lovely party! I’ve always been pretty shocking on the party front, bribing the littlies with all I can to find an alternative! Boo to me! Mrs C x #KCACOLS
jeremy@thirstydaddy says
with a May birthday and a big backyard we are lucky enough to be able to avoid a lot of these expenses. For the last few years we’ve rented a bounce house that the children always seem to love #KCACOLS
Azaria says
looks like you all had such a great day! I love the theme. Pink is such a great colour for a kids birthday party. Are you all set for Bella’s 6th birthday? I am sure you have been thinking about it lots!
Azaria
#KCACOLS
Nadine (@caringchaos) says
wow looks like an amazing party and huge amount of planning and effort! Well done you 🙂 Hope she enjoyed x
laura dove says
Wow what a party!! We are lucky in that our next birthdays are just one year and four days apart so we will do the same as last year and have a joint birthday bbq with all of our friends and family in the garden. Luckily the weather is usually quite nice in May! It does get difficult, especially when they are older, this year my son went go-karting with his friends which cost a fortune although we lucked out with my eldest daughter who didn’t even want a party! #KCACOLS
Carol Cameleon says
Wow, lots of organising but very much worth by the look of things! The last few years we’ve been to soft play but last year, we braved a party at home for our little girl’s 6th party (because she was adamant she wanted it at home)… it was great fun if a ‘little’ tiring! Thanks for hosting #kcacols