Are Over-the-Top Birthday Parties Necessary?

I literally remember it like it was yesterday…On April 13th at 5am my husband and I checked into the hospital in hopes of welcoming our first child together sometime that day, our baby girl Channing Blake Williams! About 11 hours later I was holding her in my arms for the first time completely and utterly in love. Now here we are a whole year later my baby is ONE! With her being the baby of our family of 5 I was in no rush for her to grow up and reach this first big milestone birthday. But as we all know, time waits for no one.

I started to “plan” her first birthday party about 5 months out from her 1st birthday. It was really more of me just getting ideas and saving them in my phone until closer to her birthday. I saw a picture online of a “girly safari” theme and immediately knew I wanted to do something like that for Channing’s birthday party. I seriously love hosting events/party planning. Once I have an idea in my head I can easily get carried away with making sure the party theme is incorporated in every single detail of the party perfectly.

I know people have strong opinions about over the top kid birthday parties, whether they are a waste of money, completely unnecessary, and maybe just outright ridiculous. I feel like either you are down with them or not. Children are such a blessing and to me birthdays represent another year that I’m blessed to be my kid’s mother. Another year of being able to watch them grow and blossom into the little humans that God has called them to be. And to me, that’s worth celebrating. All the preparation, all the expense, and all the hard work was immediately worth it seeing so many family and friends surrounding Channing at her party singing happy birthday to her. It represented the love and support not only that she has but that our family has. I’m so grateful for our village and I feel so blessed to be in a position to be able to do things like this for my children. With that being said, my husband and I have personally made the decision to do big parties only on milestone birthdays. I’m thinking years 1, 5, 10, 13, 16, 18, and 21 will be the years we throw parties. The other years we plan on just traveling and making memories as a family.

My biggest pet peeve with over the top kids birthday parties is when the parents actually forget what the party is all about, which is celebrating the KID! I’ve been to numerous fancy kid birthday parties where it totally seems like the party is for the parents and they’ve neglected incorporating things for kids to actually do at the party. I’m all about presentation but I try and make sure there’s at least 3 or more different activities for kids to have fun doing at my children’s parties. So my advice is to make sure the birthday party is kid friendly as well. I can assure you a 2 year old & their friends don’t care about plate settings, formal menus, and floral arrangements. Although, the parties I throw for my children could be considered “over the top” I want people to come in knowing they can expect to be comfortable, have a good time, enjoy plenty of good food & cake, and their kids will be entertained and hopefully worn out by the time the leave the party lol.

Lastly, at the end of the day whether you can afford to throw your children over the top birthdays or not, the day is all about making you child feel special and loved and that honestly cost NOTHING! Your kids don’t feel more loved if you spent 10 hours stuffing goody bags for all the neighborhood kids. All they need is for you to make them feel special on their day. A ton of friends and family aren’t even required for that. Just give them the attention that they need and DESERVE on that day and they’ll remember that for a lifetime.

Check out a few pictures from Channing’s first birthday party below. We celebrated with over 70 people at our house all day which included homemade BBQ, a ton of cake & sweets, music, face painting, pony rides, a petting zoo, a moonwalk and more! Like I stated earlier, we went with the “girly safari” theme that included a ton of pinks, cheetah prints, zebra prints, greenery, and more. It turned out perfectly. My husband and I love entertaining at our home but home parties require a lot of setup and cleaning up afterwards so be prepared for that if you want to throw the birthday party at your house. We were worried about the weather because a cold rainy day is what the weather channel predicted for the day of the party. Luckily the rain stopped early that morning so we just had to deal with a chillier day than we would have wanted. But the kids were not phased by the cold AT ALL. All in all it was such a blessed day with great family and friends and that’s exactly what I prayed for!

As Always,

Love you all
Courtney N Williams

Vendor Information:

Backdrop/Sweets Table Vendor – Beyond Engagements:
281-642-8598

Cake & all desserts – The Baking Cup (Cupcakes and Cakes):
832-253-8260

Balloons/Party Favor Boxes – Jenn Arches:
832-996-6441

Backyard Tent & Chair Rentals – Dynamic Tent & Party Rentals
281-571-448

Moonwalk-Just Jump Katy
832-655-0536

Petting Zoo – Sweetie Pies Petting Zoo & Pony Rides
281-455-9557

Yard Sign – Sign Gypsies
281-870-4119

Face Painting – Houston Face Painting
832-651-9343

Food- Shout Out to my great uncle who showed up at our house at 5:30 am to start grilling the BBQ with my hubby! He’s the real MVP for real!

Matching Family Party Shirts/Channing’s Onesie & Tutu- Lorna Patterson
832-366-3470

Channing’s Birthday Shoes – 832-788-1064