Planning A Birthday Party

Like many parents, I look forward to my children's' birthdays tremendously, but also slightly anxious about the preparation these celebrations take to put together, especially as the children get older and the requests more demanding.

It is good to know I'm not alone as a recent survey revealed 42% of parents also feel this pressure. Steve Duggan, party planner to the stars including Elton John, has shared his top tips for throwing a stress-free and budget friendly party for your little treasure.

Planning your child's first birthday party needn't be a time of high stress, it's important for parents to have fun too! You don't need to spend thousands to get the right look. Foliage and bright flowers from the garden, brown paper tablecloths for kids to draw on, hanging numbers or shapes cut out of colour card and a bit of home baking can complete a successful look in hours.

Decorations:

For H's first party I had lots of craft pieces in a box from when I had my Etsy store in America. I used these to create hanging pom poms, a backdrop and then found printables for cupcake toppers and party bags.

Theme:

I always like to set a theme for my little one's parties, from Minnie Mouse, Peppa Pig to Fireman Sam we've had quite a few in three short years of birthdays.

The Cake

I've always had a thing for doing the cake myself. However being a pretty disastrous baker, this has proved a challenge. Fortunately my sister is much better than me, so we work together as a team where she bakes and I decorate. We keep it pretty simple and whilst they may look a bit amateur I prefer them to shop-bought cakes.

Location

For the children's' first and second birthdays we had celebrations at home. For H we ended up with about 20 adults and 10 children. Needless to say for her third birthday we head to a soft play instead and will be doing the same for her fourth and J's third. The mess and set up is minimal and the children have a blast.



A survey was conduct by GrowingUpMilkInfo.com revealing the average spend on first birthday party's in different areas. It's quite surprising to see what a difference there is.


London £146.58
North West £119.59
North East £119.29
Scotland £107.77
West Midlands £105.23
South West £101.29
South East £98.63
Wales £96.07
Northern Ireland £90.63
East Midlands £89.93
Yorkshire & The Humber £88.50
East Anglia £70.84

I'd love to hear about your first birthday parties - do you feel the pressure to spend like many parents? What are your tips for keeping budgets down?


*I have not been compensated for this post.