The fact that they’ll be too young to remember is barely even a thought when planning a child’s first birthday party. It’s a huge deal for the parents and the baby to have made it through a full year of sleepless nights, countless diapers, tears, and most importantly, all of those sweet little smiles and cuddles! So, of course, it comes as no surprise when parents want to celebrate this milestone birthday in style. 

Lisa is the owner and founder of Modern Party Co., a party and event planning and modern bounce house rental company located in Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas. Lisa has put so much of her time and energy into creating jaw-dropping parties for her clients. Needless to say, when it came to throwing her son Jaxson’s first birthday party, she wanted to go all out! Jaxson was such a happy little baby that Lisa decided to plan the party with a “One Happy Dude” theme, complete with fun neon colors and as many smiley faces as she could fit into one room.

One Happy Dude First Birthday Party Decorations

The first step to bringing your party theme to life is creating a stunning backdrop where all of your décor and party colors combine. For Jaxon’s party, Lisa partnered with Glo Party + Co., which specializes in custom party backdrops, and Balloon Therapy, which handled all of the amazing balloon installs around the party space. The backdrop that Glo Party + Co designed was a sight to see. They used all the bright neon colors Lisa asked for and included adorable smiley face designs that tied the theme together. Balloon garlands made with bright blue, pink, green, and yellow balloons were the finishing touch to really make the backdrop pop. Smiley Face Mylar Balloons, Checkered Balloons and Lightning Bolt Balloons were the perfect additions to complete this electrifying look.

For another showstopper of a backdrop for Jaxon’s epic birthday. Lisa asked Alpha-Lit to liven up a corner of the event space with their custom marquee lettering. Alpha-Lit rose to the occasion with “One Happy Dude” spelled out in bright letters with even more balloon garlands decorating them all around.

Lisa had two main seating areas set up for the party. Standard round tables with black tablecloths and black party chairs created dining tables for any adults who came to the party. The kids' table, however, completely contrasted with the grown-ups only tables. Starting with the vibrant multi-colored pillows surrounding the table in lieu of seats, the kids' table was an explosion of color. The table itself was a short white table – the perfect height for little ones to comfortably sit on the fluffy pillows. Lisa placed translucent orange vases down the center of the table and filled them with brightly colored wildflowers. Instead of using a table runner, she placed smiley face images between the vases and sprinkled our Tiny Rainbow Confetti in between them to fill up the rest of the blank spaces.

For the place settings, Lisa started by alternating her plates between our Lime Lemonade Party Plates and our Sky Blue Paper Plates. Clear smiley face glasses sat next to each dish with custom drink stirrers created just for Jaxon’s party in each glass. Our Lightning Bolt Napkins laid on top of our Check it! Classic Large Napkins. The napkins were accompanied by either neon green or blue cutlery sets. Finally, Lisa’s kids’ tablescape was completed with small round nameplates that she had made for each child placed gently over the side of each plate and overlapping the napkins.

No party would be complete without snacks, and Lisa made sure there were a ton of them! She had B&B Boards create a giant charcuterie table display filled from end to end with every yummy thing you could think of. Not only were there standard charcuterie foods like sliced meats, cheeses, fruits, and veggies, but for an edible way to tie in her bright party colors across the board, B&B Boards added piles of colorful gummy snacks and fresh berries like blueberries and strawberries. Since there would be a lot of young kids at the party, there were even a few bowls of kid-friendly snacks like animal crackers and yogurt bites. For serving, Lisa laid out grid plates similar to our Black and White Windowpane Paper Plates, matching Black and White Grid Dinner Napkins, and for a pop of color, a small pile of Sky Blue Cocktail Napkins.

Between running back and forth for snacks, Lisa lined up plenty of things for the kids to entertain themselves with. Since she owns a party planning business and a bounce house rental business, she reserved two of her popular bounce houses for Jaxon’s party. The smaller of the two bounce houses even had a slide for the kids to play on for endless fun! Of course, each house was fully decorated with balloon garlands to bring Lisa’s bright color palette into every inch of the space. If you decide that balloon garlands are something you want to try for your own party, be sure to check out our extensive balloon collection, where we have balloons in practically every color, including mylar balloons for extra designs like the Pink Jumbo Number Balloon and the Checkerboard Foil Balloon that Lisa had incorporated in the bounce house balloon garlands. If you are purchasing balloons to make your party extra special, don’t forget your balloon essentials!

Since Jaxon was only turning one, Lisa knew there would be a few smaller guests who might just be too little to play on the bounce houses with the older kids safely. Instead, she arranged for a soft play area from Magic Tots Soft Play so the youngest guests could play safely and still have a great time at the party. The area had its own ball pit, a mini slide, and several soft and squishy blocks and animals for the babies to play with.

With all of the running around and bouncing that the kids were doing, Lisa made sure that drinks were taken care of for all. Allure & Alchemy set up a mocktail bar that was perfect for all ages. The bar was stocked with delicious and refreshing cocktails that were as bright and bubbly as the rest of the party. The bar was set up with extra smiley face glasses from Lisa’s kids’ table, her custom drink stirrers, and shimmery gold straws. Our Gold Foil Paper Straws would be another great alternative that would match this party theme perfectly.

More smiley faces and mini disco balls covered Lisa’s dessert table and a plethora of cookies and sweets. Her dessert table was filled with custom cookies designed by Jen from A Dancing Baker. Not only did Jen create checkerboard cookies with One Happy Dude written on them, but she also created lightning bolt and smiley face designs, all of which went perfectly with Lisa’s theme. We love that even though there was a black cake stand with cookies to eat at the party, most cookies were individually wrapped so guests could take them home to enjoy later. The table also had trays of delicious bite-sized macarons made by Black Bear Bakery, which were the perfect size for tiny hands or to pop right into your mouth.

Finally, every birthday party has to have a cake, and this party had two! The bigger of the two cakes was seated atop a plain plastic box. The translucent quality of the box was the perfect choice to avoid taking any spotlight away from this colorful cake. The cake itself was covered all around in bright yellow smiley faces, while in between were swirls of bright blue, green, and pink icing piped to look like a shag carpet. A second cake was placed right next to it on a Chartreuse Melamine Cake Stand. However, instead of smiley faces, this cake had a little rainbow across the front while the rest was neon green. This cute little secondary cake was all for Jaxon to smash his hands into and enjoy on his own.

Do you have a little one celebrating a first birthday soon? Lisa’s One Happy Dude theme for her son Jaxon was such a cute idea. We absolutely love all of the smiley faces and bright colors of this party! They were definitely the perfect choice for celebrating such a happy little baby.

If you’re looking for even more inspiration for your next big party or event, make sure to join our Ellie and Piper Facebook group. There you’ll be able to collaborate with thousands of party lovers just like you to help you shape and design your perfect party!

Planning & Styling - @modernpartycompany
Venue - @thesocialspacefw
Photo - @chelseagreen.photography
Balloons - @balloontherapy
Soft Play - @magictots_softplay
Bounce Houses - @modernpartycompany
Backdrops - @glopartyandco
Vinyl - @dizzywithexcitement
Bar - @allure_and_alchemy
Marquee Letters - @alphalitfortworth
Charcuterie - @b_and_bboards
Acrylic - @kulgra
Floral - @thefloraleclectic
Cookies - @adancingbaker
Cake - @thelondonbaker
Paper Goods - @ellieandpiperco
Macaroons - @black.bear.bakery
Lounge Setup - @borrowedtreasurestx
Invitation Suite - @itsybitsypartieskc