Georgia Grace loves lace: a stunning first birthday celebration

Design duo Ses and Jen wanted to create a timeless birthday party to celebrate their little princess (Ses's daughter, Jen's granddaughter) turning one. Their love of lace, magnolias and fresh greenery inspired the 'Georgia Grace loves lace' theme. Ses shares how they incorporated these elements into a simply stunning celebration. 

First up was finding the perfect invite to set the tone for the party. We went with a lace look sleeve with kraft card insert that was tied together with twine. Once we had decided on the invites, we created a moodboard of all the different ideas we loved so we could work out what our 'must haves' were.

We knew early on that a magnolia backdrop for party pics and cake cutting  was going to be the hero piece of the party, so we collaborated with faux floral stylist Sienna Reid, who created a special 2.4m magnolia wall especially for the day. She also made us a matching floral embellished swing.

We loved the idea of a highchair tutu for the birthday girl so Ses spent a week creating a magnolia trimmed tutu from copious metres of ivory tulle. The result was princess's seat that was perfect for her to sit in and open her pressies on the morning of her birthday and also double as a seat for at her the party.

 We planned out the décor for our food table well ahead and selected specific colourful party food dishes that were lovingly made by family members including a gold foil embellished croquembrouche, a large ploughmans platter, choc drizzled wafer biscuits, pinwheel wraps and Great Nanna’s homemade fudge.

The table was dressed with a vintage crochet lace table cloth and adorned with greenery swags and large helium balloons at each end.  We even made little greenery garlands for the strawberry and peach tea punch dispensers. We wanted an undone, elegant cake and so went with a delicious two tier lemon sour cream cake created by Karin at sweet little treat cakes. The top layer was saved for a smash cake for Georgie the next day.

A blackboard with special pics of Georgie from birth to twelve months was draped with another greenery swag and her nameboard created for us by Harlan Creative was adorned with ivy and stephanotis and welcomed guests out the front of the party.

We hired a bubble machine as entertainment for Georgia and her friends which they loved.

 Of course the birthday girl needed a special lace outfit so her clever Nenni (Jen) created a little romper from a vintage Battenberg lace table cloth. Our ‘Mama and me’ matching woodland crowns by Miss Daisy topped off the outfit.

 Custom cookies also embellished with edible gold foil were stamped as thank yous for our littlest guests by Kath at ibicci.

The party was a huge success and Little Miss Georgia had a ball with lots of cuddles for her friends and family and of course lots of sweet treats.

And no first birthday celebration is complete with out a cake smash!
Happy Birthday Georgia Grace!

For a customised party planning package for your next event contact Ses + Jen at hello@sesandjen.co.nz

 Stockist Details:

Magnolia wall and floral swing – Sienna Reid Creations

Event photography – Ruth Gilmour Photographer 

Birthday cake / Smash cake – Sweet Little Treat Cakes  

Custom cookies – ibicci 

Helium balloons – Sweet Pea Parties

Georgia Grace name board – Harlan Creative  

Tulle for highchair tutu – Hair Fairy 

Cake topper – Love from Seventeen 

Bubble machine – Waikato Sound and Lighting