Vintage Travel Themed First Birthday

I love a good party, and really get into all the details! From picking a theme, to spending way too long on Pinterest, to putting all the finishing touches together, I enjoy every step of the process. Over the summer, we threw a vintage travel themed first birthday party for our littlest guy, and had so much fun putting it together.

Instead of doing a first birthday chalkboard, we used a large map and wrote all the usual first birthday chalkboard info on it, and tucked "never stop exploring" down in the corner.

I love to bake, but for this party, I decided I'd rather focus on celebrating, so we ordered simple white cupcakes from Publix to keep the focus on these sweet little globe and plane cake toppers.

We kept the birthday boys cake simple as well, sticking with the classic white, and giving him a monogrammed globe topper with a matching birthday banner for his high chair.

There was a little book for guests to leave birthday wishes in, and I plan to continue to use it to write down stories and things I want to remember, now that he has "graduated" from his baby book.

I'm big on the monthly photos, and wanted a way to display all of them - these globes on the kitchen cabinets with his pictures were perfect (also, his birthday was in June and they MAY still be hanging on our kitchen cabinets, because I just didn't want to take them down! I guess when the Christmas cards start rolling in and I need a place to display them, I'll finally move these over to his baby book.

I loved his monthly stickers, they were also travel themed, as was his nursery, and I got them from Gina Marie Originals on Etsy.

A fun note - the wooden chair he is sitting in for the middle picture was made for me by my grandfather when I was a baby! I love long-lasting pieces like that, and it's extra special to me to have some of his monthly photos in that chair, as my grandfather (my dad's dad) passed away when I was 5, and my own dad passed away a few years ago. This little guy has my dad's middle name, which is a family name, so I treasure the little connections and pieces to my dad and grandfather, like him sitting in this chair made by my grandfather!

I had the hardest time finding paper plates and napkins that fit my vision, so I eventually ended up buying plates and napkins from Party City in these colors, and hand-stamping the napkins with a globe stamp and ink I found on Amazon (as long as you let the napkins dry for 24 hours before use, no running)! I am well aware that most people (including my husband) probably think it is crazy to go to the trouble to hand stamp napkins for a one year olds birthday party, but I truly enjoy these kinds of projects, and they are also a great way for me to decompress.

We also needed a cake eating outfit for the big cake smash, so I put together this monogrammed globe to match his cake topper!

I forgot to snap photos of a few things, because I was having so much fun celebrating (and also wondering how my baby was already a YEAR old?!?), but we had these fun globe beach balls for the kids to toss around (it was gorgeous weather in June, so a lot of time was spent in the backyard).

I also scattered a few of these vintage travel postcards around the house and on the front door as extra decoration.

It was the perfect first birthday party to celebrate our little guy, and I loved how all the details came together! Best of all, since all the projects I took on were done ahead of time, and we decided to just order food and cupcakes, I could spend the party day (which was also his actual first birthday) hanging out and making memories! For party favors, I put a sheet of these vintage map stickers with a globe stress ball in a clear cello bag, with a little map sticker that said "thanks for celebrating with me".