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Since we had just returned from Disney World, I was being sort of the "birthday nazi" this year. I couldn't get excited about planning Em's party. We had already spendt sooooo much money and every birthday I plan tends to spiral out of control. So... my sweet friends encouraged me to host a very small dress up party at the house. I was comitted to staying within a $100 budget- easy enough, huh? Well, not exactly!
Here's how it went down (in case you want to birthday on a budget :):
Invitations: My sweet, generous and very talented friend Jenny created them by hand. Weren't they the cutest you've ever seen?? See the previous post for pics. She actually gave me the 10 invitations as Em's birthday gift. I only invited the girls in Em's class so I placed the invites in the cubbys to save postage.
Party Favors - Jewelry and feather boa's: 9 at $1, $10
DQ Ice Cream Sheet Cake: $30 (I don't recommend by the way. Although delicious, It melted VERY fast and made a giant mess. The lady at DQ suggested I remove from freezer 30-45 mins prior to serving. OH NO! It's ice cream!! Do not remove from freezer until you are ready to cut)The disney figurines on the cake we had I just added. I almost purchased some at Party City, but they were $8 each so.. decided to use some from our house.
Balloons for the Birthday Girl's chair and the mailbox: $8
Princess Napkins: $2
Crown cookies: $15
Dishes: Free, I used our china. A little scary but not one piece was broken!
Crafts to make jewelry and painted crowns from hobby lobby: $7 (I lucked up b/c the jewelry kit was on clearance :)
Groceries for the remaining menu: $30 (ish) Some of the items I already had on hand and the other items I bought with my regular groceries.
Princess Lemonade
Coffee for the moms
Circle PB&Js (big hit!)
Cheese puffs
Pretzels
Rice Krispie treats
Buffalo chicken dip (for the moms)
Petite ham/cheese quiches
Grand Total: around $102
It was really hard to stay under $100!! I wanted Em to have a new dress up dress since it was her big day. But, at $80/dress the Disney dress up dress would have shot our budget. So.. I just got her to pick one out of her existing dress up clothes and as you can tell she did not even pick a disney dress. The gown she picked was way to big and even had a hole in the bottom. So... I took it up so that it would fit and monogrammed her initials on the front & added the sash to the waist. Looking back, I think I had WAY too much food and the girls wouldn't have missed the crafts b/c they were so busy playing with each other!
Hosting a party at your house can be stressful, but I think the girls had a blast! Emma ran to the door every time the doorbell rang and said "Welcome to MY castle!"
Happy Party Planning!!
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