I was never into party planning until My daughter’s first birthday came around. I was absolutely thrilled for her biggest milestone and wanted to throw the best party to make the day extra special. I found myself googling and pinning hundreds of party ideas on pinterest 6 months prior the actual party.
Motherhood reveals so many different aspects of a woman’s nature that continues to surprise us throughout our lives. Suddenly I became a party planning, crafty mom but when the day came I had no idea what I was doing. I was drowning in bags full of party supplies without a clue of what to do with them. Those ideas on pinterest looks so easy but not so much when you actually try to execute them. So I did the best I could and the final outcome was a disaster. I DIY’d a banner which looked so terrible that I almost cried looking at the pictures later on. I was never the DIY type and then this tragedy was a confirmation of that!
But they say, if you can’t do it the first time, try, and try again! So I did. I made it a tradition to do a themed party for all of my daughter’s birthdays. Initially I was spending hundreds of dollars with not so satisfying outcome. But slowly I learned 2 things:
a) You don’t need to spend a ton to have a nicely decorated party.
b) I am not a DIY mom and I need to stay away from any type of “crafting” at all cost.
To be honest, I am extremely lazy and extremely impatient and DIY anything seems soooo much work and time consuming when I can pretty much grab something similar from a craft store or online. This is true for my home decors too. You won’t find a single thing that’s been home made, I am not proud of that but a fact is a fact!
Let’s move on to my daughter’s 4th birthday party which is the topic of this post. This party pretty much fulfilled all of my expectations:
– It all looked very pretty and cohesive.
– It was very budget friendly.
– It took a very short time to set everything up.
How I Kept the Cost Low:
1. The total amount spent on decorating this party was approximately $100 which includes the cake and ALL the other desserts and other foods shown on this table. One thing I learned from my experience is that kids can’t tell the difference between a specially made $100 cake from a $12 dollar cake from Costo! I know I’m cheap and actually very proud of that 😉
So yeah I saved $80 dollars right there by buying not one but 2 cakes for $20 from The Real Canadian Superstore and all the kids loved the fact that there were not one but 2 cakes!! Talk about win-win! I must also add that it was absolutely delicious too, if you don’t believe me go try one of their ready made cakes right now! I also filled up the rest of the table with store bought cup cakes, chips, popcorn, peanuts, rice crispy squares, cookies, wafers and other inexpensive items from Walmart which all the kids and adults enjoyed very much. Mind you, I used to pay $2.75 for each cupcake and this time I bought 12 for $6.
2. Next thing that helped me save big time was not waiting to buy the supplies last minute. I compared the prices between Party City and Amazon and hands down Amazon has everything that Party City has plus more at half the price. So I ordered most of the big items about a month in advance and saved tons of $$$. Previously I would have no other choice but to go to the party supply store last minute and buy the overpriced items. The artificial vines, rose flower vines, string lights, artificial gypsophilas and the letter board are from amazon. But I already had the letter board at home and is not included in my total party cost.
3. Buying favor bags, baloons, small decorative pieces from Dollarama instead of buying it from a big party supply store saved me even more money. I was actually very surprised with their tasteful collection this year. If you are like me and never go to dollar stores for decor stuff doubting the quality and aesthetics of the products there, you should really check it out again because they really have stepped up their game. My initial plan was to buy them from either Michaels or Party City as I’ve always loved the quality of their products. But if you’re on a budget these stores may not be the best option because no matter how small the pieces are, depending on your theme and how many items you buy, it can very quickly add up! The pieces shown here are ALL from Dollarama and each piece range from $1.25 to $4.00. The faux wood backdrop was the highlight of the decor and was made from the stick-on sheets I bought from Dollarama which came in a set of 8 pieces and I used 2 sets and stuck them on to a $1.25 cardboard.
4. Last but not least, I have invested in a few cake stands and decorative dessert servers 3 years ago and may have spent about $100 for all of them back then. But I have been reusing them on ALL of my daughter’s birthdays and other parties. If you love hosting dinner parties and have children and you like throwing parties for them, then this is the greatest investment you can make. Just to clarify, the $100 I mentioned earlier for the party excludes these servers as I already had them from before. The cake stands and servers shown below are all from Homesense and Winners.
5. Lastly, cooking the actual food at home has also cut the overall cost down drastically. Previously I used to cater food and usually spent $250-$500 to feed 25-30 people. But by cooking the food at home, I spent altogether another $100 and this time I had 22 adults and 7 kids as guests. In the pictures here, you can see our traditional food but the same rule applies if you just want to cook some pasta, bake some chicken and potatoes rather than buying them pre-made.
I hope this post helps minimize your party planning cost to some extent as planning a party can be exhausting itself and you also don’t wanna go broke throwing one on top of that because trust me I’ve been there, done that! Also the pictures here are only for a reference to show you the kind of party you can throw under $100 minus the food or $200 including the food. But really by following the tips I have shared here, you can pretty much have any theme in your party and still stay well under budget!
PRO TIP: Try to use decorative pieces that you already have at home to fill up the dessert table. Remember the fuller the table the better it looks, also speaking from experience. But remember not to make it over crowded and always keep the theme in mind before incorporating those items.
I may have already informed you but yet again I l