Being creative and saving on birthday celebrations

My sweet little girl Britta turned 1 yesterday.  This makes me smile and cry all at once.  Smile because I am happy to see her grow, and sad because the first year went so fast and I can't believe she is 1 already!!
I am the kind of woman that LOVES birthdays.  I mean, I call my birthday month 'Rocktober' and seriously call it "My birthday month" because I joke that it is celebrated all month long:)  But when it comes to my daughters, I start planning months in advance from when there party will be and what the theme is to what they will wear.  And as it gets closer to the day, all I can think about is the day I gave birth to them.  I think about how unbelievabley amazing each day was for each of my girls to come into this world and how lucky I am that God chose me to be their mom.  Don't get me wrong, I am thankful for them every single day, but that particular day is my 1st encounter with them, memorizing there face and that feeling I had for the first time of instant love with each of my beautiful daughters.  And this is why I find birthdays so special.  It is the day to celebrate when they came into this world.


Ok, enough of the mushly stuff!  I tend to get extra emotional around their birthdays too:)

There is also the fun party and and I admit I love to entertain.  The 1st birthday is always considered a "milestone birthday" so I do tend to be a little more extreme for this event.  So for Britta's birthday it is obvious I am going with the "1st Birthday" Theme.  When Savanah turned 1 and every year since, I have done the Shutterfly invitations.  They are sooo cute, fun to create and reasonable.  But since the introduction of Pinterest, I got an idea to do an invite more creatively AND more importantly, $30 cheaper:)

Here are the invites I created with a little inspiration from a Pinterest post and the help of my friend Katie. 

Pink Invite with Pink candles and blue accent

Blue invite with blue candle and pink accent

The invites (envelopes, stickers and white card stock with design) I got from the dollar store $4.00

The candles I got from the dollar store = $2.00

The 1's I had her daycare make on their cricket machine = $0

The Pictures I had developed at Walgreen's and cut them out with a scrapbook scissors =$3.50  

Some glue, and the help of my friend and there was one cute 1st birthday invite all for $9.50!  Now if I could find a way to find stamps on sale:)

  I also have the outfit which she will wear tomorrow

                       Circo Cupcake Birthday Girl Tee regular $6.99 clearance $3.48
                              Circo Polka Dot Tutu regular $6.99 clearance $3.48


i                                       will post pictures in her birthday outfit soon:)