Najlaa 'Aqilah

I just couldn’t find the right time to just sit and write in the blog anymore!! Too occupied. It took me forever to finish this entry. Amaan’s 2nd birthday is coming next month and mommy’s been party planning and it’s worth sharing with my readers. Practically the same tips can be applied every year.

Amaan's first year passed by in a blink of eyes.

So blessed to have the chance to celebrate good days with him.







Let's get to the party planninggggg!!!

FYI, Amaan's 1st birthday celebration was included with the Aqiqah ceremony.


Budget

Let’s be realistic here. Everything needs money nowadays. A successful party planning is to plan within your budget. Allocate a sum of money that you can afford to spend for the party. Then work from there.


Guests

From the budget, you can already estimate how many pax you can invite to celebrate the happy day together. The more the merrier, of course, but only few pax of direct family members is not any less meaningful.


Venue

From the number of pax, you should be able to imagine what kind of venue is suitable to accommodate all. Home or restaurant or a hall would be the options of venue for the birthday celebration. Of course, you need to take budget into account here. Other than your home, you will need to pay for rent okay. For example, a pax of 100 people cannot fit a simple KFC restaurant, right? Or maybe can? Haha. Do your study. I don’t know :P

I chose to do at my mum's house in Melaka. Mainly because of the families and relatives to be invited over. Then to accommodate about 100 pax, I needed to find tent with the tables and chairs.

Time

To me, it’s more appropriate to invite people over for lunch or dinner. Not in between.


Main Food

From the point above, you will need to prepare a proper main food. The simplest option is a nasi ayam or nasi tomato that will never go wrong. Hehe.

Then also for the Aqiqah we had grill lamb! I guess this was the star food of the day haha. I took a package from @ajmalagrofarm for the lamb and side  dishes as well as a jelly drink as dessert. The bomb  dot com. that was really good. even to date, i still remember how good they were!


Theme

Visual part is my favourite part. Hehe. Decide the theme for the party! The simplest theme would be a colour theme. But it wouldn’t be fun for a kid’s birthday party to be just colour themed, it should include a cartoon character too!

For Amaan's party, I chose Pinkfong Baby Shark Theme - Amaan's obsession. Theme colour was blue. So, everything else revolves around this two things. Including our outfits.

Wondering what Amaan's 2nd birthday's theme.. stay tuned! haha



Candy/Dessert Buffet

I consider this candy/dessert buffet as a photo booth too. It’s a space where you can take the right birthday photos. This category, comes with a few subs.

First, you need to decide whether you want to DIY or you will need other people to do it for you. There’s plenty of services out there nowadays! It’s only a matter of time and moneyyyy huhu. Then, decide what’s the size you need. From the size, you need to estimate what will you need to be on the table, what dessert, how many of them, and of course, needs to be within your budget.

What would a birthday celebration like without birthday cake?! To follow the theme, I needed a customized cake of course. A Pinkfong baby shark cake from ig @sofyabakery. Ordered all the way from KL, traveled back to Melaka. I didn't get to find a satisfying bakers to get my preferred cake in Melaka at that time. Perhaps, I wasn't searching enough because I didn't have much time and I was in KL most of the time.

Other than the cake, I have polka dots apams from @apampolkadotnomei,
pavlova, cupcakes, and cheese tart from @faraally. So yummyyyyyyy



Decorations

This only applies if you DIY the above category. Balloons, frames, backdrop, the party kit etc.
Table clothes are fabrics I bought from Nagoya Textiles.

For the balloons, there are so many different kind, I was the last to know haha. Balloons arch, pillars, garland etc. I only knew the balloons which I blow or the helium balloons. So of course I would get the helium ones. Easy to work with to decorate (and easy to be given away to kids if they want- which is most of them -_-“ haha). I bought them from a balloon store and ask for delivery at my house on the day of the party.

I decided to go for banner as the background. Customized by @aryanacandybuffet - Made the whole look look a lot more fun and cheerful for the party.

You will also need different kinds of stands and trays for the birthday cakes and dessert, obviously.

Other than that, I put blue flowers in vase and wood letter AA (stands for Amaan Arjuna , if you don’t already know haha) from Kaison, baby photos in frames from Ikea, and Amaan’s 1st year sum up photos frame which I bought in Shopee as well as canisters which I found exist in my house for no reason :P




























Thanks for reading!
Until next time!
XOXO