The first year of your child’s life marks many milestones: crawling, walking, teething. For Dallas parents Jerome and LaShonda Walker, capturing those moments led to the “Picture Perfect” theme for their daughter Haley’s first birthday party.
More than 50 family and friends were invited with a multimedia invitation that LaShonda put together using several photos of Haley, creating a slideshow with party details that she sent using social media. The nearly 20 kids were the stars of the party, posing on a red carpet and photo area where parents took pictures. LaShonda and Jerome then printed them for the kids to use at the arts and crafts area, where they made picture frames.
Haley, nicknamed Haley Bear, loves stuffed animals, so a menagerie of plush toys was present to make her day extra-special. “From the time she walked in the door and saw all the other kids and the play area, she took off running, grabbed the biggest teddy bear and started jumping on it,” LaShonda says.
The family affair combined everyone’s talents. Haley’s “Grammy” runs an event-planning business and was in charge of decorations and the play area. LaShonda’s cousin selected the party décor items and designed the candy table, and her sister donated the “swag bags” full of games, toys, activity books from the dollar store and, of course, a handful of candy. Although the kids went straight for the sweets, there was quite a spread for guests catered by Forsett Catering that included sliders, mini hotdogs and punch. The cupcakes came from CupCake FabuLous adorned with photo toppers of Haley and her dad. His 30th birthday was two months before and they never got a chance to celebrate, so to surprise him, LaShonda incorporated photos of Dad and daughter from the last 12 months to make it a mutual celebration.
The creative centerpieces consisted of a bouquet of balloons with a teddy bear base surrounded by faux film reels with photos of Haley. “There's nothing like capturing a moment in time, especially when it comes to your child,” LaShonda says. “I'm so happy we took so many pictures of Haley. As I planned her party and looked back at all the photos, I was so surprised at how fast she changed in one year.”
