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When our daughter turned one, we threw her an amazingly large shindig. In retrospect, I seriously cannot believe how elaborately I planned the one birthday she will never actually remember. But I wanted her to have a super special day, and in the event she grows up to hate Disney princesses (oh, what a travesty!), I got to at least throw one Disney princess birthday party for her! Thanks to Pinterest for some of the food ideas and many craft store visits to brainstorm, here’s how it went down.
Disney Princess Party Logistics:
We did a 2:00 party so we didn’t have to serve an entire lunch or dinner. This was guaranteed to be a time of day when baby girl would be awake and hungry enough to eat her cake. At least we hoped.
Disney Princess Attire:
I had her dress up like Snow White since she really is the “fairest of them all.” Possibly the baldest also. (I had skin cancer while pregnant with her, so we always over-protect our pale, bald child from the sun!) Her birthday came close-ish after Halloween, so I snagged an outfit then. I made the cutest little headband from red, sequined elastic. I sewed it together at the ends and then sewed on a sequin iron-on bow.
Princess Birthday Party Food Ideas:
Here are the princess themed food ideas (again, not all of these are my original ideas! Thanks, Pinterest!)
- Tiara sandwiches: chicken salad and cream cheese with strawberry jelly
- Cinderella’s Carrots and Belle’s Broccoli: with ranch sour cream dip…because veggies are much tastier with dip!
- The Gray Stuff Dip: a dark black bean hummus I got from Kroger
- Chip’s Chips: with some pretzels in there also
- Fairy Godmother’s Magic Wands: grapes with blackberries and raspberries
- Ariel’s Fish Friends: vanilla cupcake goldfish because our local grocery store (I’m looking at you, Kroger) only had expired pink princess goldfish on the shelf
- Cinderella’s Mice Friends: strawberries with white chocolate chips and mini chocolate chips
- Pumpkin Carriages: celery stuck into peeled clementines
For beverages, we had “Under the Sea Water” with mint (haha) and then a pink “Princess Punch.” The punch was Sprite-based from an online recipe.
Princess Party Utensils and More
I made little cute graphic labels for each food and put some faux diamond ribbon along the side of the island to make it look more deluxe. I got great princess plates, napkins, and straws, and even found matching placemats, snack holders, and a tiered cupcake holder to match the theme! Also, I bought a package of Disney Princess gummies. These went at the base of the cupcake holder before I put the cupcakes out.
Disney Princess Birthday Cupcake Ideas
Snow White inspired cupcakes were dessert for the guests. The first are blue cupcakes topped with yellow frosting and a card stock picture of Snow White’s upper body. I printed the picture from Google and cut it out. The other type are yellow cupcakes topped with blue frosting and red candy roses. I’m so proud of myself for making these!
I was able to buy a pre-colored cake mix as well as colored frosting from Walmart. This saved me from having to find the perfect Snow White colors. I have a piping set that I bought for my daughter’s baby dedication that I used. I put the frosting in a bag and set it in the fridge for a little while before piping it.
First Birthday Smash Cake:
Baby girl got a rocking pink cake with Cheerios and Tomato Basil Lil’ Crunchies on it. Those are her favorite foods. I joke you not, my child picked every single one of the Crunchies and Cheerios off the cake to eat and wouldn’t even touch the cake itself. Oh, how I wish I had that kind of self-control! I guess it was a good thing that she didn’t overindulge in the cake. Turns out she had a little reaction to something in the pink icing and got a rash.
Princess Party Decorations:
I copy-catted a backdrop for the window using three Dollar Tree tablecloths and then added some princess sticker bling to the top. Also, I bought an extra table cloth for putting under baby girl’s chair when she was going to do her smash cake. I like to be prepared, but it turns out regular dinner is messier than baby girl’s cake eating was.
My child also LOVES balloons we discovered, and she learned her 5th word that day: “balloon.” As an aside, her complete and very useful baby vocabulary now includes “hi,” “hair,” “hole,” “dada,” and “balloon.” I try not to be too resentful that “balloon” and “hole” made the top 5 while “mama” did not. (Edit: one month later, still no “mama,” but now we can say “cracker” and “moo.” You’re killin’ me, Smalls!)
DIY Highchair Banner – “ONE”
I made a “ONE” banner to go around her highchair. I found some Princess wallpaper images on Google, printed them out to full-page size, traced letters onto them, and cut out the letters to then glue on card stock. Then, I attached the card stock to some ribbon and taped it to her high chair.
Because my windows were shorter than the size of the tablecloth, I had some leftover tablecloth. I tied each color in a bow and then tied one of the opposite colors around the center of the bow. I put these on the backs of the chairs around the table where baby girl would do her cake eating. They looked much classier in person than in the pictures where the clear tape doesn’t look so clear…
Princess Birthday Party Activities for Guests:
I set up some pre-party activities for everyone while all the guests were arriving. Here are the little stations around the dining room table:
I made a scrapbook for baby girl of her first year of life. It took forever to make, but I was very proud of the finished product. In the digital age of storing photos in online albums or creating photo books online, I just thought it would be nice to have something handmade to give my daughter when she grows up that I put a lot of love into. I also had a photo album of my favorite pictures of her for everyone to look through.
Everyone decorated a crown with stickers and bling when they came in to wear around. At the end of the party, we took a group photo in our crowns.
I wanted to have some sort of time capsule, so I had everyone predict what they thought she would be when she grew up. We plan to give the responses to her when she graduates high school. It was hilarious to see the wide variety of responses!
I also had everyone sign a picture frame matting for her, and I later framed one of her photos from that day.
Princess Birthday Party Favors:
I never throw a party without some sort of goodie bags. Here’s what I came up with for princess party favors. Inside each bag, I put Hershey’s kisses (“True Love’s Kiss”), Ring Pops, and candy bracelets (“The Royal Jewels.”)
Everyone had a great time at baby girl’s birthday party, and I am glad to have it over with so I can spend my time planning our next shindig!
And lastly, something else that my husband and I did to help make special memories was to write her a note in a journal for her birthday this year. We plan to give her this journal on her 18th birthday after we’ve written her a note every year. Read more about this idea here!
Interested in other parties? Check out all of our birthday ideas here! One thing we love is throwing huge bashes!
