Hands down, I wanted to make this birthday really special and memorable, while keeping it simple. Sophie is our firstborn and I wanted to create memories in photos for her to look back to when she gets older.
The thing is, I do not know a lot of kids, neither does Tabs. We only know a couple or two who will surely attend, so for sure its not gonna be a children’s party. So I just thought, why not do the party in a playground like Active Fun, they have function rooms where adults can eat and chat while Sophie plays and enjoys. And we did exactly just that.
Planning the party is fairly easy. We reserved the Fluffy room 3 months before the birthday. Fluffy can only accommodate up to 50 guests, because we plan to invite only our families and close friends.
Next, I thought of a theme. I considered Hello Kitty but went to have a Minnie Mouse theme instead because of her colors. Red, white and yellow sounds more fun than pink, isn’t it? 😉
I then looked for a cake maker that can create the cake and cupcakes I saw in Pinterest, but with an affordable rate. I found Rocio Bautista in Instagram (@cakefromusph), I was not too happy with the outcome of the cake, but for the price I paid (P5,500 top and bottom edible 3-tier) and the cute cupcakes (P50/pc) for giveaways, it was good enough.
Since the favors and lootbags need labeling, I ordered a stamper in Amazon ($21-ish) to just stamp sticker pads and stick to whatever needs labeling. This costs P2,500 here when I asked my embosser maker. It will only be used for this occasion and good thing Amazon has it cheaper.
For the lootbags, I just stashed additional chocolates and toys to the lootbags of Active Fun. For the game prizes, I bought red with white dots paper bags and filled them with chocolates and candies. I also bought 8″ wooden letter standees in Celebrations and diy them with red art paper and white round stickers to go with the Minnie theme. I placed these letters in the dessert section.
For Sophie’s outfit, my wedding gown maker, Jo Rubio, promised to create a birthday gown for Sophie for free, but we used it immediately for her photoshoot. So we just used the Burberry dress we bought for her in Dubai, and changed her to Minnie romper during her play time.
As for the invitation, Sophie’s Ninong Ralph is the best in Photoshop. He did the invitation layout and Tabs just made Facebook invites. Ralph also did the layout for the photobooth and backdrop of the stage.
As for the food, balloons and photobooth, they have to come from Active Fun because if I outsource from others, I need to pay a corkage of P2,000 each. On the day of the party itself, we were also charged for the photo and video corkage, because even though it was waived by Ms. Helen who was handling our account, she resigned days before the party, so we had no choice but to pay.
Ok, the most important supplier for this event is probably the photo and video. It only took me a good few minutes to research, inquire and book JV All Events. I’m not sure who can beat their P7,000 rate for photo and video. The rate was such a steal.
The party turned out to be just the way I wanted it. It was a simple celebration with our family, some friends and about 6 kids: dinner, a bit of games and playtime for Sophie. All were captured on camera by JV.
Happy birthday our little love, Sophie! Cheers to a beautiful life ahead! 😘
Here are some of my favorite shots from the party. 😊
leerenah 