The Lucky One
A Lucky Charms Themed 1st Birthday Party With A Subtle Nod to Taylor Swift
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Georgie was due March 6th, but I was certain she was going to come in February so that I could have March all to myself.
Knowing Georgie like I do now, it is no surprise that she decided to come one day and one hour into March. The girl has the will of a bull in a pin.
And so, sweet, strong willed Georgie was born on March 2nd, cinching her way into the Ides of March and college basketball madness.
And all things St. Patrick’s Day.
I am not usually one for kitschy holiday parties. However, there comes a day in every March baby’s life when they lean into the holiday and embrace the Irish because it is incredibly easy to do.
At the time, I was knee-deep in postpartum depression/anxiety and needed something incredibly easy. I was also so worried that I would not give Georgie the birthday party she deserved (like she would notice). So I decided on St. Patty.
When I decided on St. Patrick’s Day, I explored all avenues to avoid the gimmicky leprechaun nonsense.
Leading me to land on “The Lucky One”
which tied together three ideas:
The Lucky One by Taylor Swift
Lucky Charms Cereal
First birthday (Lucky one)
The Lucky One by Taylor Swift
If you’ve never heard this song, go listen (to Taylor’s version). It’s catchy. Every time I came across a “lucky one” birthday invitation, it immediately popped into my head.
I knew I wanted to subtly allude to it somehow.
Lucky Charms:
I did not want bright colored lucky charms. I wanted soft, pastel, watercolor type lucky charms. My vision had the party predominantly sage colored with pops of pastel rainbows and lucky charms.
First Birthday
It was her first birthday, so I wanted to incorporate the typical first birthday things: pictures each month, smash cake, etc. I also wanted to have the word “one” not the number “1.” This is a small detail, but for whatever reason, it mattered to me.
The Invite
When I started looking for Lucky Charms first birthday invitations on Etsy/Pinterest, there really wasn’t anything that matched the vibe I was going for.
So I did what I do and made one myself.
In doing so, I got to incorporate:
watercolor lucky charms/pastel colors (win)
a friendship bracelet (👋 Tay tay)
first birthday info my way (✅ )
Decor
Like I said, I wanted sage green with pops of pastel rainbows & lucky charms. I also didn’t want to break the bank.
But apparently, there’s not a lot of sage colored st. patrick’s day decorations. After searching and searching, I came to the realization that sage green was going to be really hard to do.
So I took a moment to mourn my vision and embraced the very, very bright green St. Patrick’s Day decor.
Lucky One Friendship Bracelet Garland
As a backdrop for the food table, I hung some pastel streamers from the very top of the wall in rainbow order. (You can find them on Amazon here)
I then hung the lucky one friendship bracelet garland in front of it. This was something I made and it was actually so super easy.
Tutorial Coming Soon
Ps. I apologize for the terrible picture— the window completely threw off my groove.
The Food Table
I have a friend who is amazingly talented at making & decorating cookies. She graciously offered to make Lucky Charms cookies. These and the cake were the focal point of the table. I displayed them in these shamrock party trays I got from Amazon (find them here).
The dollar store came in handy for the rest of the decor: the bead necklaces, coins, tablecloths, and rainbow fringe table skirt all came from Dollar Tree.
Normally, I display the 0-12 month pictures on a garland, but I ended up just spreading them around the table. It was pretty cute!
This was the day before the party— I couldn’t catch her in action on party day!
A Rainbow Ball Pit
This was, after all, a birthday party for a one year old. So I got her a pastel rainbow ball pit. Huge hit.
I found the ball pit here (Amazon) and the balls here (Amazon). The balls were a little bit more than I wanted to spend, but they were perfect.
Food
Lucky Charms Cookies
Lucky Charms Rice Krispie Treats
Chips
Fruit
Cake
Voilà— a party!
Cake
I love making cakes. It’s one of my off and on hyperfixations that I have never truly mastered but enjoy.
However, I did not have it in me to do an elaborate cake decorating. And so I decided on a rainbow-layered cake covered in Lucky Charms.
This was relatively easy, though incredibly tedious. I covered the cake (box cake funfetti) in buttercream and then individually placed each lucky charm.
For the rainbow layers, I split the cake batter into five sections and used food coloring to dye them. I then used the Wilton Cake Layering Pans (find here on Amazon) to bake them.
bada bing bada boom— rainbow lucky charms cake!
In Conclusion
All in all, I think the party was a success. It was not as cohesive as I usually like my parties to be. Normally, I make the family matching shirts and have cute signs everywhere and themed music.
I just didn’t have the capacity for that this time and had to be okay with that (which took work, btw).
In the end, Georgie enjoyed herself and that’s the true meter of success.
If you need an easy birthday party theme, going with the holiday closest to you will be your best bet. Not only will all of the big stores around you have decor, but the dollar store will, too (win!)
- xoxo/A
