Makenna's 1st Birthday Party

I am so excited to share the photos from Makenna's birthday party! And these photos are all gorgeous, thanks to our wonderful friend, Jay. A few days prior to Makenna's party, Jay offered to bring her camera to capture the fun. And because Jay is a former pro photographer with absolutely amazing talents, you can only imagine my delight! We are forever indebted to Jay for giving us this tremendously beautiful gift of documentation.

Thankfully the weather cooperated enough not to be an issue for the party as we had lots of party-goers coming in from out of town. Our house is tiny to say the least, which works well normally since it is only Matt, Makenna, myself, and our little dog Annabelle, but throw in a slew of guests and things were pretty cozy, indeed. We really would have loved to invite many more people to the party than we actually did, but we got to the point where we knew that there was much potential for our home to become uncomfortably cramped, unable to accommodate more.

I had decided at the forefront of all the party planning that I wanted to make everything for the party myself. After browsing online and in-store to see what my options were, there wasn't anything I loved enough to pay the asking price. Since I own my own Cricut machine, I knew I could easily make the things I wanted.

I also decided to make all the food. Both my mom and Matt's mom were great helps in this area, making things at home to bring so that I didn't do all of the work.

I tackled the cupcakes and Makenna's cake myself, too. I found an awesome tutorial for a rose cake on Pinterest and since it was described as "easy--anyone can do it!", I was sold. I also felt confident since I had taken a multiple-week Wilton cake decorating course when I was fourteen {I know...kind of weird, right?}. But I am telling you, the cake was truly a breeze to make and I feel confident any person could easily make it. I used the "rose" design of the cake to decorate the cupcakes, as well.

Enough with the explanation of details! Here's the party:

Chocolate and strawberry cupcakes with my homemade vanilla buttercream frosting.

I decided to use a mix of dark pink and light pink with gold accents. There wasn't really a theme but I used a few rose pieces and made the rose cake, of course, in honor of Makenna's middle name Rose.

We had lots of help with the party prep

Jaela adding the finishing touches

We were so grateful for all the helpers! I love the giggles happening in this photo

Oh, how Makenna adores her Daddy

One of my favorite photos! 
And yes, that is duct tape on her high chair.This girl loves to chuck things in front of her, and I wasn't going to risk disaster with the cake!

Makenna liked the frosting, but not so much the chocolate cake. She was shy with the cake and didn't "dig in" as we'd hoped!

FaceTime with her Aunt Jennie

We were just looking at the book and she cried when I set it aside. This girl loves her books!

A little confused at first to be set in a giant gift bag, but then...

{Makenna screaming with excitement as we clap and say "yay" for her}!

Excited to be with Grandpa, Grandma, Nana, and Papa

Melt my heart!

One of my very favorites

It was such a splendid day, celebrating our darling Makenna. It was so much fun to make such a big deal out of her 1st birthday, and we were so thankful to everyone who came out to help us celebrate. We are blessed to have such lovely memories of the event to treasure for always.