My Baby’s FIRST Birthday Party Guide
19 Sep
So we did throw the little one a small do. I remember saying back then what’s the point to a first birthday party since she won’t remember it all BUT guess I got carried away and went ahead with it anyway 
I”M SO WEAK! But I have no regrets.
Pick A Date
Like duh. Preferably on a weekend or Public Holiday, like what we opted for. Keep two dates available – and above all check if the restaurant of choice is available to a private party on that day. Ours was on the 16th. We wanted the 17th but the cafe was booked for another event – so that is why keeping two dates as option is a must!!
Guest List
I actually drafted out a guest list first to roughly gauge the amount of people we would have to cater for. I made it clear that only people who play a role in Sairah’s life and close relatives and friends will get an invitation. So the folks who turned up at party are obviously people who are dear to me (well except for one person but that’s a different story) It’s easy to get carried away and ballon up the list esp when we have to invite so and so ‘just because’……. if you’re Indian you’ll know what I mean, lol.
Picking THE Venue and Food
Now this one is a toughie. There are SO many options out there ranging from a house party to cafes and restaurants. It all depends on your budget and amount of guest you have to cater for. For starters, I didnt opt to have it in our apartment coz it’s obvious that our place is small. Hubby suggested we have it at the pool area but I wasn’t keen on guest not having the comfort and going through the humidity so I chose a cafe :) I did SOOO much research that it wasn’t even funny at all. But the one thing most of these places had in common were the high price followed by simple food served which did not justify the amount we were gonna pay for each pax. Imagine paying approx RM45 per pax and getting finger food like sandwiches and chicken pie in return??? Cut throat!!
Then lo and behold, I found a place very close to home that charged me the same price BUT with good variety of comfort food and tons of it! :D I also made sure we had some vegetarian food.
Venue: Tappers Cafe, Bangsar South The owner Florence was very accomodating to my requests and that is what I like most
Total Cost: RM44 x 42 pax with corkage and extra tea/coffee charges: RM1,920
My biggest worry was not having enough food for everyone so I’m glad they were even leftovers at the end of it.
Score.
Sending The Invites Out
I personally called relatives, esp the older ones and for friends, I sent them a Facebook invite, lol. In order to save trees and telephone cost I told em :D I did it approx 1 month before the party followed by a few reminders because I was sooo worried they’d forget and not show up. At the end we had about 50 people at her party – just the right amount
Total Cost: Free + a small amount for phone call/ text messages. Can’t look that cheap by putting these figures down here 
Cake Cake Cake
I must have sent approx 10 or more emails out to get a quote for the bear cake I wanted! And this was 2 months beforehand. Most of them were either too busy or charged a high price for a small cake. Then by luck, I came across this person who I once bought cupcakes from and I have NO REGRETS! She charged me RM350 for a big 2kg bear cake followed by 16 3D cupcakes, can you say double score?
The end results? You gotta wait for the photos But Eunice is a seriously awesome baker. Check out her blog here.
Total Cost: RM350
Photographer
Now this is an option. I’ve realized alot of photographers charge an arm and a leg and I was bent on not adding up the cost. So I managed to find someone who was ready to take these photos for free as he’s building up his portfolio. I have no regrets since they worked really hard at capturing all the moments. More details on that once I get the photos. I also had a dear friend who took some awesome photos thanks to her awesome camera.
Total Cost: RM200 – coz we weren’t gonna take anything free so it was just a small angpow 
Now here comes the fun part – The Little Extras
Since the cafe was already white, we wanted to stick to a pink-white theme. Hubby walked in to a few stores and they charged exhorbitant prices for decorative items, can you imagine that?
So I did the next best thing and sourced for it online, got it at a fraction of the price at Bug’s Party Shop. Free shipping for RM50 and above And very efficient seller.
We spent Thursday evening decorating the place with the help of my cousin Roshan. THANK YOU!
Total Cost: RM75
We only had less than 8 kids so I got these party items from Giant – which is also a good option for affordable party packs.
Total Cost: Less than RM20
I wanted to have a lil guestbook/autograph book for people to pen their thoughts/wishes for my baby girl. I sourced high and lo and you’d be suprise there aren’t many places that carry autograph books! And to think this was REALLY popular back in my time!
We did the next best thing any parent in love with their baby girl would do – we personalized it with our bare hands!! I spent the day running to Mid Valley to print the photos out, buying the stickers and supplies, spent hours cutting the photos, printing out quotes and sticking them to the book etc. If you know how much I HATE craft, you’d love me.
I’m sure Sairah-Bear will enjoy reading this one day.
Total Cost: Less than RM50. Daddy and Mommy’s time + effort = priceless
The hubby working on the DIY guestbook while the mommy worked on the door gift 2 days before THE day.
Now I REALLY have to take credit for this (Thank you creative brain – didn’t know it existed? heh!). I intially thought of cupcakes but bah – that is sooo yesterday. And expensive.
I tried searching for door gift boxes and came across this affordable site. We drove to their store in Bukit Jalil and settled for some DIY gift boxes (which the hubby bitched about non-stop how hectic it was gonna be putting em together). I had earlier bought the baby bottle gifts for the kids when I told the hubby why dont we get em for ALL guest – afterall at some point, I’m sure all they were all on the bottle So he drove back alllll the way on the same day so we could exchange and top up for these cutie lil bottles. It helps that they happily exchanged for us
It was my idea to fill em up with Smarties and Hershey’s Kisses, which are both my fav chocolates. These babies were a hit!!
BabySis got these stickers customized during my baby’s first month ceremony. And to think these stickers are close to one year too, hehe
I couldn’t resist putting up these quotes Everybody LOVES chocolates, it’s a fact.
Total Cost: For bottles – RM78 (for 52 baby bottles). Chocolate: RM130. Come to think of it, the cupcake option would have been cheaper but I like my idea more so….. 
I wanted a simple door gift for the kids and babies and thought story books would be perfect for them. We accidently bumped into Excess Book Store in Amcorp which sells books at a MUCH cheaper price.
These only cost us a little under RM3 though the retail price is RM14 each Did a simple ribbon tie to it followed by stickers with the kid’s initial to it
Total Cost: RM24
This was also my idea! I also hate it when I go to a function and have to figure out what the heck is on the food tray. So we spent hours printing this out, cutting it and sticking on the cardboard all for the comfort and convience for our guests.
Total Cost for our Baby’s FIRST Birthday party: A little under RM3k.
To be surrounded by loved ones while making my girl one happy baby – PRICELESS!
And of course I’ve realized though some of these things cost money, there are other things that come from love and strong family-ties like how my cousin Roshan drove alll the way from Subang in traffic to help us put up the balloons in Tappers, how my two other cousins came to our home and helped blow more balloons and let’s not forget BabySis who helped us by transporting the door gifts and cake on the day itself. And my parents who were in charge of dressing up and bringing the birthday girl to her FIRST Birthday Party. Let’s not forget friends who came early to help out and a friend who helped transport a vegetarian dish Priceless I tell you!
And with that I’ll leave you with some photos of the ACTUAL day birthday on the 14th. We took her to the temple followed by a simple cake cutting.
Cake was by Merienda De Eva -one of the better chocolate cakes around in KL I swear. Like I always say you don’t mess with the Fillipinos when it comes to desserts
Making her first wish
Just happy to have chocolate in her mouth
YAY I”m so happppyyy todayyyyy…….
Baby with our maid/nanny
And here’s a lil tease of the Princess at her party.
:P
Promise to put the party pictures up soon!
Sairah is really lucky baby to have such wonderful parents and surrounded by wonderful relatives.
The party looks lovely! And double kudos to mama for such detail preperations. ;-D
People say that baby her age might not remember, but I believe sub-consiously they would. And it could manifest later in life as a beautiful ‘feeling’ of a wonderful time they had in the past.
I recall my mom telling me, that last time for my first birthday, all I had was 2 candles slapped onto 2 seperate large Shakey’s pizzas, and it was only 4 of us (parents, myself and older brother) at the venue. Cheap… but it was coowl. haha. I think I still have the pictures. Man… if only she thought of this more creatively… I recalled having pizzas for my birthday many years then on. *Frowns*… But coowl… still coowl. Lol.
PS… I can’t spot Roshan…. =( LOL!
Aww thanks! Well wait till I post up the actually party photos. Thanks thanks, dunno why I went into a mode where I just wanted the best (but affordable) for her
I can’t agree more with what you have to say. She was indeed very happy on that day and that’s what matters to me.
LOL hey pizza is yummy okie! Chocolates and pizza – everyone’s favorite
AAAH yes, Rosy (yes we call him that!), you’ll see plenty of him once I get the photos from the photographer
Awww, she is soo lucky to have you guys as parents, it must’ve been a really fun party
Thanks, and we’re lucky to have her too
Well I hope it was a fun party, hehe.
One word about the party– AWESOME
One word about Sairah– GORGEOUS
Sure or not?
But thank you for coming, was a pleasure having you guys. Nikhil is soo cute, happy that he let me carry him, hehe 
Very very sure dear. We had a blast! And everything was so unique from the deco to the door gifts. So, thanks for this guide for me to refer to next time, lol!! And after reading this I’m so proud n happy to be invited hehe!!
Thanks thanks, glad you did. Well yea that’s why I blogged about this so other mommies dont have to waste time researching so hope it benefits em. Awww!!
Happy 1st bday to Sairah. She’s a big gal now, and all the effort Daddy and Mummy gave are just indeed priceless!
Thanks Jessie. She’s a toddler now. Haha thanks, hope one day when she’s older she’ll read this and go aww my mom and dad did that all for meee??! :))
looks fun! love the bottle shaped goodies
Those babies were actually a hit at the party, hehe
Fantastic party. Gorgeous baby. Happy guests. I bet you are so proud of yourself.
I am not there to withness but hey, picture tells a thousand words. There are so many pictures posted on FB. Every picture tells happy story. I am sure Sairah will be happy and touched when she view every single piece of photos when she grows up.
Happy Birthday Sairah! Love you :o)
Thanks, only wish you and Jove could have been there to make it more fun!
Haha agree when you said every picture tells a happy story, so happy to know that she was on her best behavior and enjoyed herself too. It was all worth it!
She says thanks and love you too and ONE big sloopy kiss for Aunty Wylane
wow looks like a lovely party and so much effort…Happy Birthday Sairah..god bless
Thanks Deepa. Effort all definitely paid off
Hi there! Bday party over and done! Confession time: held it at Tapper’s Cafe. I’m so original……hehehe. We had another venue selected…but the food turned out to be too pricey. So I searched online madly..and stumbled upon your blog re Sairah’s 1st bday. The minute I saw the location, I was like, ok, party will be held here! Thanks so much for saving my ass….mwahs! Hey would you like to see the pics when I get ‘em? Just a thought
Hey Lali! YAY hope everything went smoothly, you can finally breathe now!! LOL well that is original indeed. So that’s how you found my blog eh? But you did the right thing, place is so near to where we stay plus food is really affordable. She gave us alot of food! NO worries, I will be collecting my free drinks soon, ahem. Of course, since you stole my idea, I think the very least you could do is show me the photos, lol, will be waiting
I saw your blog just 2 minutes ago and I’m already a big fan of your writing! I want to read more.
Hi Mama Iz, thank you so much for the kind words :)Means alot to me. I shall continue to blog more and you may refer to my newer post
wowww…. i was planning my princess birthday party n dis helps a lot!! thanks!! i hv same problem though.. the venue.. cant do it at our apartment… too small… still searching for places..
heheee..
Hi Zuelina, I’m so glad my guide is helpful to you. It’s a tiring process but so much fun esp when you see the look on your princess’s face during her b’day party. Have fun planning her party out, hope it goes well ya :)And hope you sort out the venue soon too.