Garden Party First Birthday

Oh hi there! It's been a good six months since we've posted, but hey, we do this for fun and not for work, and sometimes blogging isn't fun when you'd rather just watch Netflix and drink wine. Which for me, is most of the time. Tonight I decided that watching the Bachelor was a bit too vapid for my full attention so I'm multi-tasking with blogging and feeling pretty good about it.

In September my little nugget turned one (WHERE THE HECK DOES THE TIME GO?!?!), and coming up with a theme was a monstrous task for me. I started planning when she was about 4 months old and by the time the party was within sight, my little "Parisian cafe" theme had morphed into recreating an entire streetscape in Paris complete with working cafe, flower shop and bakery. NUTSO, I know. Having a custom street facade built, sourcing out glass display cases for the bakery, and trying to find multiple kids-sized wrought iron and marble bistro sets was literally the end of me. I just quit. I told my husband that I couldn't do it. Quinn didn't need a birthday party, did she? I mean, she's one. She has no clue what's going on. And that's true. But as he reminded me, this party was for me. This was also a celebration of my first year as a mother, and he was right.

A few weeks passed where I legitimately didn't want to do anything. If I couldn't recreate Paris, I didn't want to have a party at all. And then I felt bad; after months of pouring energy into creating parties for this blog, and for friends, and for friend's friends, I didn't want to look back and say that I used all of my party planning energy for others and then didn't have anything left for my own daughter. That just felt awful to me. But I had also reached burn out level and the idea of doing everything I would normally do was overwhelming.

So I did what I could to create a memorable party without going overboard. I scratched many, many things off my list during the planning process, and despite knowing that I could have done so much more, I'm glad that I didn't. Because, sometimes taking a new direction and trying to make a party "low key" can actually turn out pretty fabulous. And thankfully for me, I have some really talented friends who made it all possible.

 I'm happy with how everything turned out, but above all - that we had such an amazing day with our closest family and friends celebrating the most loving and wonderful little girl that I get to call mine.

More details on the party at the end of the post. Enjoy my mostly non-edited, poorly lit photos - because if we wait for me to edit them, well, I'll never post them :)

I definitely couldn't have pulled this party together without the flower wall backdrop from our sort-of sister company Flowerwall Vancouver (it's a sort-of sister company because it's "Party Society" Kristin and her sister's company if that makes any sense at all). It really did help me decide on the final direction I wanted to go in, and set the scene for the day.

Our good friend Janet at Pete's Sister Creative gifts did the cakes (well, the main cake was a bit of a DIY project for another post) and the always amazing macarons. We actually had two parties (one for friends and one for family) since the guest list was so large, hence why we needed so many cakes.

And, two awesome friends of mine from my mommy group contributed their skills/wares - the restored vintage highchair and the birthday crown (if interested, message me for their details!).

SOURCES:

BACKDROP Flowerwall Vancouver

CAKES/ MACARONS Pete's Sister Creative Gifts

FLOWERS: Thrifty's Flower Shop

"ONE" BALLOON Cheers & Co

CAKE STANDS: Homesense

West Coast Welcome Home | Building a Vegan Cheese Board

A Welcome Home wine and cheese isn't complete without a cheese board (a "welcome back" to BC from Winnipeg that Kristin hosted for me - see previous post here). We continued on with our WpgxVan theme by including a piece - the sink cutout - of my dream marble island (from our Winnipeg house we built) that served as our board. And the cheese? Well, I don't actually eat dairy so we were very lucky to be introduced to Chef Karen McAthy of Blue Heron Cheese and Zend Conscious Lounge by local foodie Erin Ireland. Karen's cheeses are entirely plant-based using a variety of nut milks and are aged to perfection - even dairy-lovers are sure to go back for more.

We featured an herbed coconut kefir, a caraway seed cashew gouda, a smoked cashew cheddar, and an almond caper garlic camembert. Dried fruit, toasted crostinis, grilled red peppers, candied nuts and roast chickpeas added colour and flavour to this beautiful faux-charcuterie board that proves you don't need meat and cheese to host a fab party.

PHOTOS: Taya Photography
CHEESE: Blue Heron Cheese
WOOD CHEESE BOARDS: Pier 1 and Homesense
CHEESE KNIVES: Crate and Barrel

West Coast Welcome Home | Wine & Cheese

When Kristin told me she wanted to host a welcome home party for me, I naturally declined. Despite my love for throwing parties, I'm not all that into being the guest of honour. But, she twisted my arm a bit (all she had to say was wine) and we decided to make the event a really special way to say goodbye to Manitoba (where I lived for almost three years) and hello again to BC (where I spent my entire life prior to Manitoba, and came back to for good).

While in Winnipeg I had the pleasure of getting to know one fabulous soul and artist - Kal Barteski. You've likely seen her work without even knowing it if you don't already know her - and if you do, you know how lucky it was for me to become acquainted with her! She truly is a special spirit with a massive heart - one of the nicest people you will ever meet with a wild passion for art and animals (in particular, polar bears). Kal has loaned her script to Vancouver Urban Winery for some pretty fantastic label art - so featuring VUWxkbscript seemed like the perfect way to bridge my Winnipeg experience and my coastal home. (Vancouver peeps - she's coming for a custom #kbscript pop-up at VUW next Monday June 6th! See you there?)

The name cards were fun to do and oh so easy. We used our Silhouette Cameo to cut out the names on black decal material, and used these ceramic Pottery Barn cheese markers as name cards.

The gorgeous eucalyptus garland from Celsia, and natural tablewares from Pier 1 helped bring together that breezy, natural West Coast vibe. And, to make it truly a "catered to Jen" affair, we tracked down a delicious collection of Vancouver-made dairy-free nut cheeses by Blue Heron (thanks to a shout out from local foodie Erin Ireland). I've been plant-based for the last few years and despite Kristin being far from it, she was happy to take on the challenge of creating a vegan cheese board. We will be posting the cheeseboard and more details on the nut cheese later this week for those interested!

To tie it all together, my personal and custom #kbscript (more of Kal's beautiful handwork) was a focal point as it really does just the perfect job at summing me up (and this wine and cheese party)!

WINE: Vancouver Urban Winery
TABLE: Restoration Hardware
CHAIR RENTALS: The Little Wedding Shoppe
GARLAND: Celsia Florist
PLACEMATS, NAPKINS, AND NAPKIN RINGS: Pier 1
ART: Kal Barteski
MENU: The Paper Society
NUT CHEESE: Blue Heron
PLATES: Sophie Conran