21 Wild One First Birthday Party Ideas

My son turned 1 on December 19th, 2019. Yes ONE already. We loved the WILD ONE birthday theme because we always refer to Ben as a “wild animal” since he’s so wiggly and active!

This article will be all things lumberjack/buffalo plaid Wild One Birthday Party. You will learn where I purchased the decorations, how much I spent, how much fun Ben had, and what I would do differently next time.

**Spoiler Alert – the party was a huge success. Ben saw all of his family & friends, received way too many TOYS and received some college fund money too. 🙂

Decorations

To keep costs low, I made most of the decor and invites myself.

The High Chair Banner.

I made the high chair banner by purchasing red parachute cord and different pieces of fabric at Jo-Ann’s Fabric. I used 4 different fabric types (I already had red felt and burlap at home) and tried to choose softer fabrics so that they lay better. Also, purchase them at least 28″ long so that it meets the length you are satisfied with.

This is the tutorial I used to make the high chair banner. The only thing I would do differently is that she recommends buying half a yard of fabric. I did that first and found myself going back to Jo-Ann’s to get fabric that was at least cut 28″ long. Also, most of my strips were 3″ wide. You could do 4″ but it isn’t necessary.

It cost $9.41 to make mine because I purchased fabric when it was half off, however, it took 2-3 hours to make.

To make it easier (and preserve your time because we all know how much that is worth), you could purchase this highchair and happy birthday banner set on Amazon for $16.99. I didn’t have a Happy Birthday banner and kind of wish I did, however, I was over budget at that point and thought it wasn’t necessary. There is also just a plain banner or a set of a cake topper, banner, and hat that is inexpensive too!

WILD ONE Banner

This is the banner that was behind my son’s high chair. I was inspired by Pinterest on this one. I used:

• 4″ tall letters that I already had (probably picked up from Hobby Lobby at some point)
• 8 sheets of buffalo plaid scrapbook paper from Hobby Lobby when they were 4/$1.00 = $2
• 8 sheets of beige scrapbook paper from Hobby Lobby (again 4/$1) = $2 total

I used a glass bowl that I usually put leftovers in to draw the circle. Then cut the buffalo plaid paper in a banner shape, leaving space all around for the circle to go in. I used double sided sticky tape to affix the letter to the beige paper and the beige paper to the buffalo plaid banner paper.

Then punch holes on each side of the banner paper and string your twine through.

Twelve month photo banner

This was also homemade using Canva. Canva is where I go to create Etsy Printables for my Etsy shop and images to post in articles like these! This set up cost $24.50 and here’s why:

I purchased 1 yard of buffalo plaid fabric you see here for the highchair banner for $9.99. It didn’t get used it in the high chair banner so I used it here. I could’ve saved $6 by getting a less expensive fabric. The burlap I used was FREE because I borrowed it from my aunt who bought it for my baby shower last year :).

I printed the individual 5×7 one to twelve months at Staples for $.75/piece and the “It’s Been ONE WILD Year” 11×14 poster at Walgreens for $5.50 @ 50% off (usually $10.99).

You can save time by purchasing these items I’ve already made from my Etsy store here. These items come in a bundle, if you find that you don’t want everything in the bundle, let me know and I can do a custom order for you.

Final to do is punch two holes in each side of the 5×7 card and slip your twine through ($5).

16 x 20 Welcome Sign

Another homemade item using Canva that you can find here in my WILD ONE Birthday Party Bundle! I had this printed as a poster from Walgreens on a 50% off day for $8.64. Then I purchased a 32×40 black foam board from Hobby Lobby for $8.99 and had it cut down to 20×24 for FREE. (if that is the only regular priced item you’re buying you can use the 40% off coupon that Hobby Lobby has online or in the app).

Trail Mix Bar, Watering Hole, & Time Capsule Decor

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All of these are items I made using Canva. I printed them from a home printer on regular paper since I was just going to throw them in a frame. You can pick them up as part of my WILD ONE Birthday Party Bundle on Etsy!

Black Table Cloths

These are $1 at Dollar Tree, $8 total. I also purchased the plates, cake plates, napkins, and plastic ware at Dollar Tree. There were 5 sets (enough for 60 people) of each so $20 total.

Little Christmas/Pine Tree Center Pieces

These were my biggest frugal win! I was running down to the wire trying to think of an inexpensive/easy center piece for my tables. Little trees fit the lumberjack theme perfect.

I looked them up online at Target, took a screenshot, and posted on my local buy, sell, and trade site that I was looking to purchase or borrow these for a party. Wouldn’t you know it that my husband’s uncle had 8 of these (for my 8 tables) in his basement that he kept from having restaurants and HE GAVE THEM TO ME.

So whenever you’re looking for decorations definitely see if anyone has something they would be willing to give you at a discounted price first. He saved me a shopping trip and $24.

Benjamin’s 1 Cake Topper

This cake topper was the perfect size for Ben’s cake! I purchase it on Etsy, here.

You can also get printable cake topper versions which are much cheaper because they don’t include shipping since it’s a digital product.

OUTFITS

T-Shirts for Mom, Dad, & WILD ONE

These were homemade by my husband’s cousin who has personalized things for us before. $43. I loved how they turned out, perfect!

Benjamin’s Cake Smash Outfit

I loved this little outfit. We just took his other outfit off after presents and slipped this on before we sang him happy birthday. He actually liked the crown!

The invitations

The invitations were made using Canva. I did have to purchase a few things from creative market to make these. However, I didn’t add that into my total cost for these since I’m selling them on Etsy and using it for other areas of my business.

It cost about $25 to have 15 sheets (2-5×7’s per page) printed at Staples using premium card stock and $11 for envelopes. If you’re really detailed, you could always spend the $5 extra and get brown kraft envelopes. Then there’s postage for 25 invitations – $12.50 (I’ll add all this up at the end).

A note inside the envelope

I included a business card sized note inside the envelope to tell party goers that we were also celebrating my mom (who shares the same birthday as my son) at this party. It included where to park on it and I wish I would have included something about snacks and BYOB too. These were $5 printed at staples on regular white paper for 3 sheets of 10.

I will customize both of these for you in my WILD ONE PARTY BUNDLE.

The FOOD

To keep the cost down on food, I asked each family member to make and bring a recipe. And to make it fun, we named the recipes lumberjack themed names like:

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• “moose poop” for the amazing sausage ball recipe that my aunt has
• “firewood” for these awesome flavored pretzel sticks that my brother and his girlfriend make
• bears in a blanket for pigs in a blanket
• wild berries and dip
• Trail Mix Bar
• WILD RICE SOUP

We did make the WILD Rice Soup which was about $35 for 3 batches. It is a family favorite at our house. All you need is:

• 3-Creamy Wild Rice Soup Mixes
• 3lbs Sausage, browned
• 3-8oz container baby bella or white mushrooms, sauteed
• 1.5 cups instant brown rice, cooked

Follow instructions on the package to cook the mix and then add everything else in to the batch. We made each batch separately.

Last but not least, the cake!

Since we were celebrating my mom’s birthday too, we had a smash cake for the 1 year old and a sheet cake for my mom that everyone else could eat too.

It’s $40 at our local grocery store to get a decorated cake that feeds about 30 people.

We purchased some bottled water and made a batch of Kool-Aid for drinks = $5.

**All this was to feed a projected 60 people, it was more like 50 that showed up and we only took home a couple servings of soup and about 1/4 of the cake.

s’more Party Favors

These turned out super cute and were pretty easy and inexpensive!

I used the buffalo plaid treat bags that my mother in law had purchased for the trail mix bar. However, after I made a few I realized that it would be better if people could see the type of chocolate they were getting and so I made some with clear treat bags for $1 at Dollar General.

Get the S’more tags FREE printable from Mama Cheaps. I printed them on tan card stock.

We picked up the rest of the supplies at Aldi grocery store for $7:

• 1 box of graham crackers
• 1 bag of marshmallows
• 1 bag of mini Hershey’s chocolate candy (all different kinds) – you could also do mini milk chocolate Hershey bars

Total party cost – $305.50.

• Decorations – $101
• Outfits – $68
• Invitations – $48.50
• Food – $80
• Party Favors – $8

Memories made and fun had, PRICELESS!

Changes you can make to reduce the cost:

1. Make your own cake or make cupcakes. The cake was one of the big ticket items. You could easily buy a couple box cake mixes and make cupcakes that would also satisfy party goers for less than $10. Save $30.
2. Nix the party outfits. These were really cute, but the one who really needs the outfit is the 1 year old! Here is a cute WILD ONE shirt for $18 you could pair with jeans! Save $50.
3. Send the invitations via text or Facebook party invite. Save postage, printing, and envelopes! Save 48.50!
4. Be mindful of fabrics that aren’t on sale – remember when I said I could’ve saved $6 on a different fabric?? Silly mistake!
5. Invite less people. If you keep your guest list lower, the less food and supplies you have to buy. For example, if I would’ve been expecting 30 people instead of 60, I might have made 2 batches of soup instead of 3 and only bought 3 sets of napkins, plates, etc. saving me an additional $21.

Total Savings: 155.50

My final recommendation to help save you time and money would be to purchase my WILD ONE PARTY DECOR BUNDLE. It adds an additional $25 to your party cost, but saves you TIME and HASSLE because you can print at home or a local print shop!

New Party Total: $175 (almost half of the previous party cost)

I hope this was helpful for you and your WILD ONE party planning journey. Please feel free to comment or contact me if you have questions or want to learn more!