Tips for Planning Baby's First Birthday from a Roseburg, Oregon Newborn, Baby and Family Photographer

Is a special little one in your life celebrating their 1st birthday soon? The first year of life can feel like the longest, yet shortest blur, and a baby’s 1st birthday can sneak up on you so quickly! Ask me how I know this! After planning my own daughter’s 1st birthday and photographing many other babes’ special milestone, I wanted to pull together some planning tips and info that you’ll likely find helpful! This has been compiled from my experience, as well as from many of my clients' (also very busy parents!) experience.

The most common question I hear is “Where should we host a party for a one year old?”. I love this question! When planning my daughter’s party, I did a lot of brainstorming.

Indoor party venue suggestions:
At home
Zoos with party rooms
Aquariums
Children’s museum
Soft play facilities/indoor play gyms (YMCA)
Community center/grange
Churches
Golf club event rooms
Local event centers (if you’re local to Douglas County, OR, check out my rental space here!)
Fairgrounds event rooms
Kid-friendly restaurant party rooms
Wineries or breweries
Libraries
Bowling alleys
Water parks/indoor pools
Hotel community rooms (bonus if they allow pool access)

Outdoor party venue suggestions:
At home
Zoos
Water park
Splash pad
Community swimming pools
Parks

Tie your theme to your venue if possible, to make it even more special!

Décor can be found across so many stores and websites. Amazon obviously makes it easy to select from many options and order it quickly. I’ll link you to a collection of some of my favorite online décor HERE.

An extra meaningful way to decorate for a first birthday party is to print your favorite photos of baby and display them in a timeline form, show off some of their artwork, create your own décor, or decorate in a theme that fits one of their traits or favorite things. For an example of the above, my daughter loved animals and wasn’t a great sleeper. I decided on a “party animal” theme as a nod to those details, and held it at the Wildlife Safari, our local animal park here in southern Oregon.

Speaking of southern Oregon- I want to include a few favorite local decor and event planning businesses that would help you to style an adorable party: Better Together Events and Rentals (also an event space!), Ascend Events and Planning and Exotic Events for the most incredible balloon displays!

Party planning and prep:

When making your to-do list for the weeks leading up to party time, work backwards to create the timeline. Include when certain tasks need to be completed by. Enlist help and outsource what you can. On the day of the party, mentally adjust the start time to give yourself a buffer. Delegate and divide the tasks among anyone helping. Above all, make sure to ENJOY your sweet baby on their special day. Delegate a family member or friend to be on “camera duty" for the special moments, and make sure that YOU get into the photos too!

Let’s talk about the 1st birthday photo session!

These are typically scheduled on a separate day from the party, and are often celebrated with a cake smash at the end (or the common alternative options of a pie or donut tower smash). The theme typically ties into the theme of their party, if you’re throwing one. Bonus, you can save on décor this way, as well as ensure cohesion when printing out the memories. In the photo above, mama brought the handmade fabric banner from home to use for her photo session decor!

You can go as themed or as minimalist as you’d like. As a photographer, I personally love to start these sessions with a few family poses, capturing candids with mom, dad, siblings, etc… and then move onto showcasing baby’s current expressions and abilities. We then end with cake and cleanup!

Now onto scheduling the session. Do you need recent prints framed for the birthday party table or invitations? Or is it more important to you to schedule the photo session when baby is truly standing/walking unassisted, regardless of their birthday party? Schedule your session for a month or two before you desired “deadline”, in order to accommodate for the process and potential illness rescheduling. BONUS TIP: Schedule to session around baby’s naps and mentally adjust the session start time to 15min earlier, giving yourself a smoother experience and time buffer!

“Okay, but what about the custom sweets?!”

For those of you who are local to Roseburg, Oregon, I want to share a few of the locally loved dessert shops! First, my sister at Coco & Livi makes the most delicious custom cookies (among other gorgeous wellness products) when booked in advance. For cake and cupcakes, I have many clients pleased with their orders from Homestead Bakery Co.. and Jill’s Sugar Buzz Bakery. You’ll see some of their cakes featured in my work (and tagged on Instagram!). If you’re debating on color choices, match the cake design to your theme and aim for less harsh colors in the icing. A red or brown cake can be gorgeous, until it’s smeared all over a baby. Then it might cause some double takes.

Are you ready to talk about baby’s outfit?

Again, there are SO many options. You could go as simple as baby in a plain diaper cover if it’s warm out, just jeans, a cute romper, a linen set, a fluffy tulle dress (try to make sure it isn’t scratchy tulle!), or as fancy as you’d like. It helps to keep it cohesive with the theme and cake design. Just remember- it’ll likely get cake on it! I’m sharing a link to some of my favorite outfit ideas HERE. For my photography clients, I also offer access to my collection of studio outfits that photograph timelessly!

Lastly, I wanted to share some great one year old gift ideas!

My favorite would be an experience gift like a special day out and about or a membership to the local zoo, aquarium, children’s museum, play gym, etc. Other fun gift ideas to engage them as they enter toddlerhood are:

Indoor gift favorites:
Blocks/ Stacking cups
Indestructible books or board books
Play music equipment
Climbing tunnel
Crayola paint sticks and the Mess Free marker sets (with supervision)
Bath crayons (with supervision)
Melissa & Doug reusable sticker pads (with supervision)
Wooden baby puzzles
Play kitchen (with supervision)
Duplo logo sets
Pop fidget toys

Outdoor gift favorites:
Sidewalk chalk
Water table
Bubbles
Play gardening set
Playhouse
Baby balance bike and helmet

For your shopping ease, I’ve linked many of these gift ideas HERE. As with all toys, some have small pieces. Do not leave babies unsupervised.

I hope that these ideas have helped, and that the planning for baby’s first birthday is an enjoyable experience! If you’d like more info on anything shared above, please reach out! If you’re local to Roseburg, Oregon and are interested in scheduling baby’s first birthday photography session, I’d LOVE to help! Email me directly at hello@alyshasanfordphoto.com or use the contact tab in the menu above!

*Please note that if you click the links above to my collections of shoppable products and you make a purchase, I am going to receive a tiny commission. Any products that I advertise or share are the items that I believe in and/or use myself.