A "Little Man" Themed Boys Birthday Party by Fabulous Fêtes

Sometimes, a little bit of creativity and cute craft paper can go a long way. Hence, this “little man” themed birthday party sent to us by Fabulous Fêtes. The budding party planner whipped together this ingenious theme for Jake’s 1st birthday party. The theme was centered around things all men have: beer, root beer to be exact and neckties. Donna carried out the details with a root beer shaped cake, root beer float cupcakes, necktie shaped bunting, and even root beer float kits as party favors. Custom water bottle labels, cupcake flags and guest favor tags all printed on paper in shades and patterns of blue tied everything together. This 1st birthday party proves, you don’t need big budgets when you’ve got big ideas and a little elbow grease.

Can you give us an overview of the event?
When the guests arrived, they were encouraged to make a root beer float at the self service root beer float bar and to take their little ones for a spin around the house in a dressed up wagon. They were also encouraged to grab some props at the photo booth and get silly in front of the camera. Once the guests were finished with lunch we sang happy birthday to the ‘little man’ of the hour and let him dive into his root beer cake. The guests were served double chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and root beer float cupcakes. The guests left with a homemade tie t-shirt for the little ones and a homemade root beer float kit (a beer mug, a bottle of root beer, a mustache straw and a chocolate mustache lollipop topped with a tag that read: just add vanilla ice cream) for the adults.

What inspired the theme or style?
Everybody always says Jack is such a little man and I couldn’t agree more so I just took that and ran with it. The inspiration for the root beer float cake, cupcakes and root beer float bar came about because a friend of mine had just had a party for some soldiers that returned from Iraq and she had a beer cake there that I was amazed by. I kind of kept it in the back of my mind as a cake that I want to make one day (I had my husband or brother in mind…not my one year old). So while I was going through some party supplies I had, I came across a ton of disposable clear coffee mugs that look like mini beer mugs and I thought, why not use them for mini root beer floats. I also ended up using them to display the root beer float cupcakes. I placed root beer candies at the bottom of the mug and topped them with a root beer float cupcake, inserted a straw and topped it with a cherry.

What were your playful twists that made the event unique?
I’m not sure if the theme was all that unique but from the feedback I receive, it seems the details like the napkins folded into mini ties and the cupcakes displayed as root beer floats, seem to be what people remember.

Did you DIY any of the details?
It was all DIY!! Since I have a fairly new party planning business, I try to use every party or event as advertising. I cut each a every tie, mustache, letter, designed all the paper products, folded the napkins into mini ties…ugh! My next investment is a cricut machine!

What was the most memorable moment?
I think like most one year olds birthday parties, it’s the smash cake moment. Although, people seemed to really enjoy the photo booth.

Tell us about the food and desserts.
I tried to keep the food as easy to handle as possible. We had mini sliders and mini pulled pork sandwiches, macaroni salad, fries served in individual. Being that my mother is from the Philippines, we had to incorporate a dish called pancit which are long rice noodles sauteed with chicken, shrimp and veggies. It’s a Filipino tradition that this dish is served at a b-day party because the long noodles signifies a long life. I also had a ‘kiddie korner’ for the children since almost all of the children were a year or younger. It consisted of mini fish snacks, yogurt snacks and easy to chew mini cookies.

If there was one thing you could change, what would it be?
I though it would be too overwhelming for the younger children to have older kids running around that I limited the guest list to family and a couple of friends about the same age and now I wish I would have invited the neighbors too.