Preparation of Cora's party

Lately, has been crazily hectic for me ! As you know from my facebook or instagram that I'm busy with Cora's party. All along Papa Seah do not want any party as those money can bring us to a staycation or short holiday trip and entertaining guests can be tiring. Just one fine day, I was busy searching for ideas at Pinterest for some stuff then I saw this ' Tea Party ' and have a idea so propose to Papa Seah. He gave a thought about it and say yes cause I was telling him that budget of $200 and everything by scratch from me. Just want a small party for Cora since she didn't had one when she's one year old. PLUS $200 for a party is HARD TO SAY NO right !!!


But who knows I got lucky ! Papa Seah decided to increase my budget to $400. It's not easy to plan a birthday party + doing it yourself.

Theme

So first thing after settling down with the budget is to find a theme. I choose Tea party x Alice in wonderland ( morning ) so only light refreshment will be served ! If you choose a timing in the noon or evening either lunch or dinner need to be served so if it's morning I can do a light refreshment ! No need to burn the pocket for caterer.

Guest list

Given by the budget, I will need to keep it short and sweet. Invited most of her childhood friends since bump to birth to toddler. Beside it will make a great catch up session for the parents. Because this party am focusing more on the kids than the adult. So there's activities for the kids as well. My aim is 10 kids but somehow rather am keeping it at 7 kids + Cora. Less is more at times.


Invitation cards

These days e-invite is almost FREE ! I thought since it's a small party why not make things more pretty? There's a lot of nice invitation cards ideas online especially Pinterest ( Oh yes ! I LOVE PINTEREST ). Got mine from there as well, edited abit, print, write the name and add on a tea bag and mail them out after confirmation with friends.

Choose a fruity tea so kids and/or pregnant mum can drink as well ! Since there's no caffeine

 

Decoration

If you have alot of time, you may shop them at Taobao, Amazon and etc. I've gotten really adorable Alice in wonderland plates, tea cup with saucer for the kids but sadly it didn't arrive on time ): Spent bout $60 there but in the end got to find some other plates and cups very last minute for the kids & additional cost to the budget $$$.

Other decorations you can get at Taobao, it's really cheap like a few cents for ballon ( alphabet/number in gold or silver foil) ! As compare to Spotlight $4 for one.

Since my theme is Alice in wonderland x Tea party, what's a party without any Alice decoration right? 1) Paint the roses red - draw a tree on cardboard, diy white crepe paper for the roses.  2) Stick the smile on Cheshire cat - hand draw Cheshire cat, paint it in colour & prepare a few smile for the cat.

I wanted to go with this movie Cheshire cat but Papa Seah it's abit too scary =.="

So I will go with this cute cartoon Cheshire cat then !

As seen in the cartoon, same tree that the cards who are painting the roses red cause the queen hate em white :p 

 With the " roses" on the tree and all ready for the kids to paint them red !

Birthday dress 

It's like one month time to Cora party or so, quickly source local shop to design and customize Cora dress. The first one who I found was bad ! Nontheless, I got lucky another shop manage to slot me in despite she's quite full for the month of May.

I gave her the design & customize it from Gwen ( Ig: @tullelove_by_gwen ), great customer service, know what I want, able to meet her deadline that she gave me, & she have magical hands who turn boring cloth to beautiful awesome dress. That received a lot of compliments and even the guest lift  up her dress to see the great details !

The same dress that I dream of ! You have no idea how much I really love this dress ( it will be silly if I have one and do twinning with Cora right ! Haha )

 
Goodie bag 

It's really depend on what you wanna give to your guests ! As for me, I do not mind spending alittle extra on the goodie bag by giving fellow mummy earning some income. #supportlocalbusiness She has help me and been really nice to me while I was pregnant (:

So I customize this teapot tic tac toe that comes with cookies and teacup ! If the child is too young for tic tac toe, she/he can always pretend play it ! On top of that, I'm making teabags for the guests to bring home as well. So it's like a set of tea time pretend play !

 

 Lovely and great work piece by this creative ( ig or facebook : Handmadewithlove by Ivy ), She also conduct art craft lessons on weekend. It's affordable and FUN !

Food
I plan to spend $100 or less on it, since I'm going ot prepare everything by myself. E.g. Sandwiches, chicken wings, drinks, yogurt parfait, popcorn, cupcakes, cookies etc will share more on the next post). Also, got Cora birthday cake from my trustworthy homebaker Charlene ( Ig @charlenesheavenlybakes ) who I met in a event. Nice and very friendly lady & & & not forgetting her vanilla cupcakes/cakes is to die for ! Those are my and Cora favorite * drooling*


Dessert tables rental

I got very lucky that a mummy friend offered me her beautiful cake stand, cupcake tiers & plate ! Without her, it's so hard to find a rental that's near west most of them that I have search are all located in the east ( eg Tampines, simei ). Which is out of way for me TOTALLY !

& Papa Seah manage to borrow the kids tables & chairs from a preschool (:
  
So the final question is " Did I exceed my budget ? "

The rough cost of my spending

$115 ( Birthday dress) + [$60+$35](kids plates/cups/etc)+  $80 ( food)+ $108 (goodie bag)+ $10 (misc )=$408.


OOOPSSS ! I was sooooooooooo close by :p 

Honestly, it wasn't that easy to plan to diy everything by myself but it's worth it !

Stay tune for the next post which is the actual day party (: More pictures, I promise !!!!!!


Yours truly,
Larissa