I had started planning for Ahaan’s first birthday months in advance, but unfortunately he fell sick a few weeks before it. That affected the fine tuning of the finer details such as the return gifts and the decor etc. luckily, I got all the right vendors and we had a brilliant celebration.
Invite – Although the theme we zeroed in was ‘Angry Birds’, I couldn’t find any ready made invites with that theme so I just bought a pack of generic 1st birthday invitations and posted them to our relatives and friends. It was a Sunday, so we went with a luncheon party. I also made an e-invite for the party.
Venue – My first preference for Ahaan’s birthday was the newly opened Hotel Crowne Plaza in Rohini. The issue with that was the minimum guarantee for the hall was at least 150 and we had a gathering of 135 people. We also looked at options like Hotel City Park, Pitampura, Hotel Premier Inn, Shalimar Bagh and Pacific Asia, Netaji Subash Place. We finally selected the party hall called ‘The Art of Curry’ at Netaji Subash Place and we were delighted with our choice. The manager gave us the entire venue from 11 till 5 pm. The hall is very spacious and they also have outside seating which was an added bonus as the weather was very pleasant on that day.
Decor – While we were scouting for the venue, we were told by almost everyone that their preferred vendor for decoration is Harsh Gifts, Pitampura for parties. We contacted them and they invited us to their gift shop for a meeting. They have been in the business for a long time now and know everything at the back of their hand. They showed us a few themes, and tailored a party package for us comprising of – balloon decoration in the hall + entrance gate + cake station + party poppers + Khoi bags + magic show + tattoo artist + game coordinator + welcome banners and pull-ups + angry birds cut-outs + caps etc. They made sure everything was in place before time and we were completely satisfied with their service.
Entertainment – We had made it clear to the games coordinator that most of our guests are adults and he would need to think of games for all age groups. I was busy circulating among the guests, so don’t know the details, but what I remember for the top of my head is that he had one mom+kid game and one couple game. Both were extremely entertaining and the guests had a good laugh. The children were happy with the magic show. I think it’s a must keep especially if you have school going children as your guests. The tattoo artist was not that great, I won’t recommend that to anyone. We also had a DJ as all our cousins love to sing and dance. I had made a video of ahaan’s pics from his first year that was displayed at the LCD after the cake cutting.
Cake – We went with our tried and ‘tasted’ Puri Bakers, Rohini for the cake. As all the angry birds themed cake were quite ugly, I went with a Christmas cake as Ahaan’s birthday is two days before the Christmas. One tip on the cake is that don’t go for a huge size, as not many people have it. I think anything between 3-5 kg is a good number for 100 pax.
Outfits – Given that Ahaan was sick, I didn’t have much time to shop for our outfits. Nevertheless, we looked OKayish (I think!). I bought Ahaan’s outfit from Paul Garments, Karol Bagh and his loafers from Venus kids, Karol Bagh. I changed him in a casual jumper and jeans after the cake cutting. As it was a day function, I wanted to wear something light, and I picked up this outfit from Aza for its colour and simple design.
Return gifts – This was the most complicated of all for me, and I couldn’t decide on anything until the eleventh hour. Wanted to give something personalised but then there were more of relatives, less of kids at the first birthday, so we finally settled with a box of bites from Mad Over Donuts. We thought that it was something that both the kids and their parents would enjoy. Come to think of it, it was a good idea and most of our guests loved it.
So, that was it, we had a great time at the day. Ahaan was up and running till the cake cutting and took a power nap after that. We all enjoyed the games, danced like crazy (especially on Ganganam style!!) and celebrated our little bundle of joy. Should you need details of any vendor (decorator, venue, cake, photographer, return gifts), leave a comment below and I will get back to you. If you would like to share your child’s birthday photos, drop me a line at – thesoireebook@gmail.com.
The Soirée Book 