Cannot believe my second baby girl just turned one. This has been the busiest time of year for us by far with two kid’s birthdays (two days apart), Easter holiday preparations and on top of it all, an upcoming trip to Thailand. We weren’t even this busy when we had Kenzie a year ago! Thankfully, I burned the midnight oil and pulled off an adorable ONEder the Sea first birthday for the books. Let’s check out the details!
Why ONEder the Sea?
After taking both girls to a local theatre production of The Little Mermaid in January and watching Kenzie sing and dance along, we knew this was her birthday theme. She had such a blast at the show, and plays with her under the sea toys every bath. One year-olds can’t exactly tell you what they want, so we went strictly on vibes here. Also, the wordplay is adorable, my mind can’t be swayed otherwise.
My Custom-Made ONEder the Sea First Birthday Cake
As for the material things, this was my absolute favorite part of the day! I took an inspirational photo I found on Pinterest to my local Mariano’s Grocery Store and they were able to create this masterpiece. For our party specifically though, I didn’t want much blue. I wanted coral in place of the blue on the cake for a softer, more feminine vibe.
They absolutely knocked it out of the park!! I had no idea our local grocery store had such talented bakers! I will never go anywhere else for a custom cake. All they asked was that I provide the accessories and special decor I wanted included. No problem!
The kicker? This cake was under $100. I went to a bigger stand alone bakery that told me tiered cakes fell into their wedding category so they started at $250. That was absurd to me considering this cake was for a modest-sized child’s birthday party.
Given my no-blue condition it was a little trickier to find a single accessory kit I loved, so I ended up purchasing two. They were inexpensive, so it was absolutely worth it to have everything I needed!
This was one of the two sets. I loved the purple bubbles, starfish, etc. so I just didn’t give the blue decor to the bakery. The second set had an actual mermaid top which I didn’t want, so I left that out as well. However, this second bag has tons of pink and clear bubbles that were needed to complement the first set, so I got both.
These edible pearls were also an Amazon find, and her custom name plate was an Etsy buy.
The BEST Large Birthday Party Food Hack
For larger parties like this, I always recommend having to-go boxes available. People, especially parents of small children, don’t always have time at the party to enjoy dessert or even a full meal.
If you don’t want an insane amount of leftovers have some of these to-go boxes available to send food home with guests. After the party, we only had four slices of cake left which was perfect!
Mermaid Balloon Arch Decor
I love a focal point in my party decor, and balloon arches are very trendy right now. They’re a perfect spot to take some commemorative pictures while the balloons are also a fun toy after the party’s over. The real MVP has ben this clamshell pool float. It’s still blown up in our living room weeks later because they love to play on it! I’m not one to ruin the fun, so we’re keeping it going.
This mermaid balloon arch is sold in a kit for under $15! The “one” mylar balloon was a separate purchase but fit in perfectly. I wanted something that said “one” for inside the arch and settled on this. Was looking for something solid and non-balloon but that was harder than it sounded just a week before the party, and this worked beautifully.
As far as assembling the balloon arch, my sister-in-law did basically the entire thing. She’s made one before and clearly knows what she’s doing! This was a huge help because there was a lot of other party prep I had to figure out and the balloon arch is a massive undertaking. My advice is to recruit a friend to help with this decorating detail ahead of time. Run the specific balloon arch kit past them before buying too, as they’ll be the one assembling it.
Homemade Smash Cake & Dessert Station
With Alexis, I started the tradition of making the smash cakes myself for the girls. It’s just getting torn into anyway, so why spend big money on it? Plus, Funfetti cake is always a huge hit!
Since I did a big main cake I didn’t do too much else for dessert. I anchored the other end of the table with a light-up number one sign and some Target-bought cake pops in my cake pop stand. PSA: I got this stand so long ago, close to 10 years probably. There are tons of cute options now! Poke around for a cute on-theme one if you’re motivated to do so.
Her high chair tutu was also from Amazon and added a little dash of festivity to this corner of the room. The tutu part managed not to get dirty somehow so I’ll be saving it for future party re-use!
Though she looked a little confused to start, Kenzie really dug into this cake by the end. Shamelessly, I have to say this is the cutest smash cake picture of a baby I’ve ever seen in my life. Get it, girly!
ONEder the Sea First Birthday Goodie Bags
As a minimalist, useless party favors are a pet peeve of mine. However, I feel like a little ‘thank you’ for coming is an essential part of a birthday party. So when I make goodie bags, I try to make them practical and not just junk for the sake of handing the kids something.
Inside these absolutely perfect (in style and price) goodie bags, I handed out a few jars of Play Doh, bubbles, glow bracelets and some stickers. With summer coming and the ONEder the Sea theme, bubbles were a no-brainer, especially in this 24-pack for $6! Play Doh is a fun but creativity inducing toy, so I thought those would be fun (and this pack is a total steal).
I already had these blue organza bags leftover from a previous event, so I put these sea creature stickers and the glow bracelet fasteners in them.
We also had two small babies attend and instead of doing a full goodie bag for them I made a modified one with this pacifier. Each of my girls have one of these and we LOVE them! Figured it was something they could really use. If you’re a paci family you know you can never have too many!
ONEder the Sea Birthday Party Attire
I have to pat myself on the back for this one, their mermaid tail skirts were SO CUTE! It was hard to find one to fit the birthday girl, but this one in the 1-2 year size was perfect. For sizing comparison, she was right at the end of wearing 12M clothes when this one fit her. I also bought her pink top on Amazon since we didn’t have one that I loved to match the skirt already. Alexis got a purple mermaid skirt to complement the theme but not totally match Kenzie.
The birthday girl was even able to crawl around perfectly in the skirt. We only took it off eventually because she got her smash cake all over it (to be expected). All of the cake came out, too – washed it in these garment bags which kept the sequins perfectly in tact!
Mom and dad wanted in on the fun too, but unfortunately our ONEder the Sea birthday shirts didn’t arrive on time. Admittedly, this was on me for ordering late. The shipping said they should make it with just a small chance of them arriving the day after, but sure enough… arrived after. We wore them the day we took the girls for their birthday Build-A-Bears since that was still part of our festivities!
At the very least, my nails were super cute and on-theme! Found these under the sea nail decals on Amazon and they were very easy to apply. Full manicure details here!
ONEder the Sea First Birthday Decor
I had a bunch of other small details throughout the house. One of my favorites was the under the sea vase filler for my kitchen island. With all of the food being up here I just wanted something simple (and not a lit candle) for the space.
While I already had the crinkle paper home, I bought this bubble-looking vase filler and this under the sea vase filler from Amazon. I thought it was an easy way to bring the theme into this space.
Though hard to see, I also used the same under the sea vase filler in these ice spheres for the kids’ drink tub. Making these drink tubs is one of my favorite party tricks lately. They’re super simple, too!
This unique balloon opener gadget opens up a basic latex balloon so you can fill it with larger items. I put 5-6 of these little items in each one of the balloons, then filled them with water and froze. It adds a little pizzaz to a normal cooler and the large spheres don’t melt as fast!
Other accents included a bubble machine (mine is super well-rated and works great) that I initially kept out front so kids could run through when they entered. We then moved it to the back by the bounce house for additional play after everyone arrived!
I also found this cute bubble garland on Amazon. You can ten in a pack and they go up with just a piece of Scotch tape!
Other ONEder the Sea / Mermaid Birthday Details
The day was BUSY so unfortunately I didn’t get pictures of some of my adorable touches. Linking product pages photos here because they’re still very much worth a look!
In fact, the table cloth and napkins are what inspired me to go with a pink/purple/coral color theme on the cake versus the usual blue you might see in an under the sea theme. So much more feminine and me!
Mermaid Tablecloth
Mermaid Napkins
Shell Plates
Iridescent Plates
What was your favorite part of the day? I still think about this cake regularly. Now I want to have another big event just to design a cake for my talented baker, Berenice to make!
Let me know your thoughts in the comments!
