I cannot believe it, but our little girl is almost ONE. We had her first birthday party this weekend, on her due date, and it was the sweetest celebration with our close families.

We decided on an ice cream theme party because, well, it was the perfect tribute to what she made me crave my whole pregnancy!

I think that it was the sweetest little party theme so I will share some of the details below to make party planning a bit easier if you want to have an ice cream theme celebration too!

Invitation:

Call me old school, but I am a fan of snail mail. I designed the cutest little ice cream invitation that I had printed right through Canva. The print quality was great, and they were very affordable compared to other invitation printing websites.

I am happy to share my design with you- free customizable download below!

Ice Cream Party Invitation

Free customizable download below.

Decorations:

I wanted the party to be simplistic, but still feel special, and the few decorations I got were the perfect touch.

BALLOON ARCH:

I decided to do a pastel colored balloon arch as the biggest focal point, and it turned out perfect. If you have not done a balloon arch before, I promise it is easier to do than it looks… if you buy the right kit. I got this sprinkle balloon arch kit, and it was the perfect variation of colors and sizes. I will say that the mint green color balloons were trickier to inflate because it was a balloon inside of another balloon to get the muted minty color; we opted to remove the green inside balloon and just use the cream colored one instead. We also chose to forgo the small sprinkle balloons because I loved the look of the simple pastel colors on its own.

We used this electric balloon inflator, and it is a must if you are DIY-ing your balloon arch.

A few simple tips:

inflate and tie all balloons first.
do not put the largest balloons as the very first or very last balloons: evenly space these in the center 3:4 of the garland
alternate arranging the balloons from the front and the back on the ribbon to give the right dimension to the garland

balloon arch

An easy DIY for the perfect focal point.

BIRTHDAY BANNER

I found the cutest ice cream cone birthday banner that was the perfect theme specific touch. I love that it is customizable, but I opted to keep it simple with “happy birthday”, so that we can use it for years to come.

FLOWERS

Flowers are the best way to add a special touch to party decor. Trader Joe’s is always an affordable place to get beautiful flowers- we bought pink peonies, yellow garden roses, and roman chamomile.

STREAMERS

I found these beautiful streamers that were perfect for a little pop of color outside. These were incredible quality, and they added the prettiest texture to the ceiling of our porch. I bought 4 pastel pink and 4 off white colored streamers.

HONEYCOMB DECOR

I wanted to create a little hanging focal point in the kitchen so I bought some honeycomb balls in two different sizes and colors. Unfortunately, the tape would not hold the larger balls, so we opted to use them on the fireplace mantel instead. We bought one pack of three 14 inch honeycomb balls in baby pink, and one pack of eight 10 inch honeycomb balls in cream. I also found a three pack of honeycomb ice cream cones that were a cute theme specific touch too.

BALLOONS

I bought a single cream #1 balloon that I had blown up with helium because I wanted to put it outside and I was worried about the heat deflating it. I also had them blow up 10 confetti balloons, and unfortunately they all deflated quickly from the heat so we could have done without them. They looked so cute when they were inflated though!

Food:

We made a simple BBQ dinner for the party, and it was perfect because we could prep everything in advance so that we were not busy cooking during the party. It was the perfect amount of food for our guests, and it was delicious!

We opted to only have a small smash cake for the birthday girl, but ice cream sundae’s for the guests. We kept the ice cream sundae bar rather simple, but it was a hit. We pre scooped Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla into individual cups that we had ready in the freezer before the party. For reference, we pre scooped 32 containers with two scoops each using two 1/2 gallons. I bought these disposable containers for the ice cream that worked perfectly for the sundaes. I designed cute little birthday labels that I printed at home on vinyl sticker paper that turned out so cute. For toppings we had sprinkles, chopped nuts, diced fresh strawberries and bananas, whipped cream, hot fudge, and small ganache filled ice cream cones that were delicious!

Favors:

I wanted to make cute thank you favors for our family to take home that were simple and easy to prep in advance. I made a batch of rice crispy treats that I cut into 1.5” x 2” rectangles. I put a popsicle stick into the top and dipped it in pink chocolate and sprinkles to resemble a dipped popsicle.

I designed a little thank you card that I printed at home on cardstock and attached it with my favorite ribbon. I was able to remove the background of one of her cute photos using the Canva background remover. I played around with a few different photos to find the perfect little face cut out that I added to the card. It was a hit, everyone absolutely loved her cute little face.