Style My Party: Ambrosia's Boho-Floral First Birthday

Having a little girl never really interested me, but now that I have her and I have to admit I love a challenge and throwing a party for my little princes that wasn't going to be some sort of fuchsia explosion of glitter and tulle everywhere was exciting to me . Ambrosia has always loved being barefoot and getting dirty like a true bohemian, so I decided to go with it and throw her a bohemian/gypsy/floral themed party. I find if you go a little cray cray trying to stick to a certain type of theme it looks ridiculous and over the top, so my advice is to “let it go” and I don't mean just the Frozen theme, but all themes in general. Mix it up a little, there are no rules when it comes to these things. Stick to a certain palette of colours and go from there. Mine was, dusty pinks and beige mainly, rustic looking earthy tones with lots of nature inspired elements, like wood, moss and feathers. 

 

All the photos are from Ira Cook, a gorgeous little photographer whom I recently met in a mummy forum and I was so happy with how the photos came out. She capture lots of candid moments of the guests as well as all the important things (like me... kidding). Ambrosia loved her and the rest of the time I didn't even notice she was there.  Cookie Snaps Here are some of my favourite snaps.

 

With my sons first birthday I made the rookie mistake of going over the top. I had a face painter, balloon artists, hired kids trestle table and chairs, organised art and crafts, elaborate lolly table, jumping castle and slide.... and being kids, they dropped off like flies in the lead up and on the day (insert cash flying away emoji). So this time I spent the money where it mattered most (food) and created low-key fun activities for kids. I mean they're kids right? My kids are happy to play with a cardboard box and some crayons. Our playroom was a free for all, I pulled out every ride on toy we had, a hula hoop, our chalk board table, I stuck some plain white paper along the fence with a tub of textas (which they loved and I got to keep all their scribbles and notes as memories)

 

I ended up hiring a flower wall back drop from Flower Walls By Dimi but almost all of the other decorations were purchased from Little Boo Teek I got: Love Foil Balloon, which I'm sure ill be using again in the future, Rainbow Unicorn balloon, because, well why wouldn't you and it made for really cool photos. Unicorn DIY kits to entertain some of the older kids (I made one up as an example too so I didn't have to supervise), Mini Confetti balloons were used on the cake table for decor, as well as grass mats (which look so real, they leave dirt where they lay), mossy rocks were a great little extra addition in certain areas, they helped the theme cross over into different areas of the house, for instance i had them on the cake table, on the stand were the drinks were and then again on a few tables around the house.

 

My favourite and most important purchase from Little Boo Teek for this party was the floral wreaths (beautiful ones, nothing like the poor quality you find in those $2 shops), they made such a huge difference and added the girl touches i needed without looking tacky and cheap, and wood slices which were great and definitely something i will be reusing again and again! They even made my cheap Woolies cakes look "rustic" as well adding height to my cake. The cake I made myself. I made a promise that I would always make my children's' birthday cakes, no matter how busy I was. I also made some "moist chocolate cupcakes" I just googled a recipe and piped on some flowers (it was my first attempt but they turned out ok)

 

The huge number one was a rental from @mpletterlights on Insta and also doubled as a great photo prop. I decided not to do a lolly bag this year but would rather something the children could take home and hopefully use in their room and who doesn't like wooden decor. I got these cute wooden bunnies and I just tied a lolly pop to them with some ribbon. The kids loved picking a short and fat or a long and tall bunny/lolly pop. The hoop decoration I saw on a few Pinterest pictures I had saved in my phone and figured they wouldn't be too hard to make.... WARNING: They're hard to make. I spent over 3 hours hunch backed twisting artificial flowers around hula hoops and then wrapping the whole thing in ribbon and ended up crawling into bed at 3am that night looking like Quasi Moto. I kept seeing images in my mind of a meme I had seen once that went something like this, "I could have bought it for $20 but I decided to buy everything myself and make it for $300" 

 

As mentioned earlier I got the event catered. I mean I wasn't running around cooking all day. We went with Cypriot Street Food Grill The food was beyond amazing, everybody was raving about it, plus it helped people find the party easily as they could just follow their noses from down the street.

 

Ambrosias bday sandals made the outfit. They were custom made by a gorgeous mummy all the way over in Greece, and even a matching mummy pair for me who loves twinning. They were a gorgeous soft leather with a dusty pink elastic fabric and Ambrosia's pair had a few flowers attached to them. I was actually surprised at how many people noticed on the day but they were definitely a talking point on her chubby little legs. Her store is called KandElphy .

 

There were a few palettes lying around the garage from our recent house move and I used them as seating in the backyard with a few woollen "flokati" (shag) rugs over them. These rugs were hand-made by my grandmother and I am actually glad I am using them rather than letting them collect dust in the closet. Things like that were just special little touches for me.

 

Over all I must pat myself on the back because i think i did an amazing job. It came together so perfectly and true to my “vision”. I really appreciate that Little Boo Teek had everything in categories that were east to navigate. I loved being able to buy almost everything in the same place without having to leave the comfort of my couch. Online shopping for the win. 

 

Thanks for sharing this special day with me. Love Zoe- xoxo

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