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I had an absolute blast planning my daughter’s first birthday party. At first I wanted to do a boho sunshine theme because “You Are My Sunshine” is our song. I realized though around 10 months old, she LOVED Moana. The movie, the music, the characters… all of it. It was the only thing she would watch. She would laugh and dance to the songs. It was too perfect, and so I changed the theme. I wanted her party to be something she loved, and something that would make her happy. Of course it had to be super cute! I did not mind some big box decorations, but wanted most of the decorations to be Moana inspired or DIY, not just Moana and Maui’s faces plastered all over the party. There is nothing wrong with this of course, I just had a different vision!
The Birthday Girl Outfit
I immediately started looking for what she was going to wear, and was obsessed THIS dress from etsy! It was handmade, and so detailed. She received so many compliments on her dress and the quality was unmatched. I do not regret spending the money. It truly was beautiful.
Her necklace is the Heart of Te Fiti, which is a big part of the movie. They do sell plastic versions, but they are very fake looking and I wanted something more authentic to match the quality of the dress. After lots of research I found this beautiful necklace also HERE on Etsy. I did message the shop owner and she was very accommodating and made the necklace smaller to fit my daughter.
Finally she needed a flower crown, and again Etsy came through! My dear friend Lauren created a beautiful custom piece for Elsie! Her shop is Accents by Elsie Ann and if you message her and hopefully she can get you started with a custom order! Tell her Kyla sent you for the Moana flower crown! It truly was breathtaking.
The Decorations
One things I knew I definitely wanted was some balloon garland! I had researched a few companies to hire this task out to, but in the end I was not willing to spend the money. I instead DIY’d it. It truly was not that difficult. It took time, but was not hard. I can make separate follow up post on how to DIY balloon garland and what method worked the best!
I customized our balloon garland by combining two separate colored kits to make this coral and aqua theme.
To purchase the balloon kits click here and here.
I did a larger strand balloon garland outside, and a smaller one inside. To do both it took 1 aqua kit and 2 of the pink! If you want to know what else we used to make the process easier keep an eye out for my DIY balloon garland post.
My father in law made the most amazing raft out of bamboo and twine. I made the sail out of piece of fabric from Joann’s and some paint! I LOVE how it turned out, and it made for the best pictures.
If you do not have someone super handy to make the raft you definitely could get a piece of wood from the hardware store and a dowel and do a very similar set up!
I had seen Moms that had hung pictures up of their baby each month to show how much they had grown. I loved this idea so I bought a large piece of plywood and used my cricut to cut some vinyl letters in the Moana font, and then I stuck the words onto the board. I then added a picture under each month.
The floral piece/floral swag I also made out of stems from the craft store and some hot glue. I also made a second one for the front of her high chair!
I made this one balloon piece with cardboard poster board and hot glue, and then some basic white balloons. I loved how it looked! I have a tutorial on how I did that here on my instagram story highlights!
My Mom put together the pretty floral arrangement on the fireplace, and the banner was from Amazon! I wanted a few tasteful Moana specific items because I knew it would make my daughter happy!
The Food
We had crab shaped crescent chicken salad sandwiches. I hot glued googly eyes to some toothpicks, it was super cute, and easy.
The punch was super simple, but stunning! We did pineapple juice mixed with sprite and blue Hawaiin Punch! I added a twist by adding in edible glitter, which made the punch shimmer.
You can get edible glitter HERE.
You can really see the shimmer here!
We had some goldfish, because tropical theme obviously.
My Mother-In-Law carved out a watermelon and made the cutest fruit salad “boats”! I made the boat’s sails with some leftover fabric from the raft sail, and paint and put it on a kabob skewer.
I made these cute kakamora aka coconut pirate cups for her party, which were based on a scene from the movie. I just bought a pack of coconut party cups.
You can get some HERE.
This is a step by step video I made making the cups! They truly were easy!
The Cake & Cupcakes
So I knew for sure I did NOT want to be stressing about totally DIY-ing the cake and cupcakes. I also knew I wanted bakery level quality and detail, but didn’t want to pay $5 a cupcake (which is what I was quoted.) I ended up going to Publix, and they have a great catering service where you can customize the colors of the cupcakes super easily. I did a variety of orange, blue, and coral. I then added pearl sprinkles and some white chocolate shells my Mom made!
This is the seashell mold she used! CLICK HERE.
The cake I did a cream color and then added brown sugar to the top to look like a little bit of sand, some pearl sprinkles, white chocolate shells around the base, 1 hibiscus flower stem, and then a One cake topper I got off of amazon HERE.
I loved how beautiful and simple it was and I also loved that the cupcakes and cake were all well under $50.
Presents & Pool
After presents she got in the pool, and don’t worry she had a Moana swimsuit for that. My Mom found it for her on Amazon, I will link it HERE.
I truly can not imagine a more perfect day to celebrate my little sweetie. It was so fun and I had a blast putting it together for her.
Here is a video I put together of a couple highlights from the day!
CLICK HERE for my dress.
How do you think it turned out? Please comment if you have any questions, I would love to help if I left off any details!
All the Love,
