INGRID'S ORANGERIE BIRTHDAY PARTY

Princess Ingrid and her parents, Katherine and Joe, are very dear to us! We first met at the boutique in Paris whilst Katherine was still pregnant. It's been a true joy to watch their daughter grow over the past twelve months and thus an even greater delight to be part of her first birthday party. The family kindly agreed to share all about the event in the hope to inspire others.

May this charming Orangerie themed celebration give you ideas for your very own princess. If you love the shades yellow and orange, are fond of citrus fruits and enjoy France, then search no further! 

The dress

Ingrid’s first birthday dress was a very special collaboration. When we asked for a custom dress to mark this milestone, Monique and the team immediately said yes, and the quest for the perfect design began! I really wanted the dress to have a lot of yellow, since that’s one of Ingrid’s best colors, and I wanted to incorporate birds into the embroidery, because we call her our little chickadee!

First, Monique found the perfect fabric, bursting with lemons and oranges which instantly set the tone.

Then began the real creative challenge : the smocks and embroidery. The fabric reminded me of the Orangerie at Versailles, so we decided to have the smocks on the side represent a lattice with oranges.

Then for the birds, we choose to include the same charming bird embroidery from the very first dress we got for Ingrid at the Paris boutique when I was still expecting, making it even more symbolic and special! The result was perfect in every way—joyful, exuberant, and beautiful, just like Ingrid herself!

The accessories

We paired Ingrid's dress with Doña Carmen shoes which I highly recommend for little ones. They come in all shades! These were worn with Merceria Edelweiss socks.

Her birthday hat and crown are from Sweet Cakes and Sassy Pants on Etsy.

For her cake smash, she wore a Tiny Twinkle ruffled bib which was customized with an iron-on from Kate & Jake on Etsy.

The invitations 

I wanted the invitations to follow the Orangerie theme of the dress, and clementine oranges are called “Cuties” in America, so the invitations featured a happy little orange and the phrase “Our little cutie is turning one!”.

For the design we used Zazzle's My Party Studio which offers a wide variety of styles and options.

The decor

The dress was the central piece of the party and the whole birthday evolved around it. That meant a citrus theme of lemons and oranges and happy shades of yellow, orange, and green. Right up to the cake specially made to match the exact colors of the dress! Thank you to Sweet Tooth Cakery for this exquisite creation.

It’s easy to find party décor for a “Cutie” orange themed party, or to find décor for a lemon themed party, but it was impossible to find ready made décor for a party featuring both lemons and oranges, so I had to make many of the elements myself…

Thank goodness for my Cricut machine that lets me cut paper into any shape imaginable! I love swiss dot fabric, and the dots in the lattice smocks on the sides of Ingrid’s dress remind me of that a bit, so I found special swiss dot paper to make the happy birthday and monthly picture banners, as well as the “One” bunting on her high chair.

Villeroy & Boch French Garden china features a lovely fruit and flower theme, including lemons and lemon blossoms, and the matching linens incorporate lattice work, so that seemed the natural choice for the tableware.

A festive matching ballon arch and a few gold swirl ceiling streamers holding citrus cutouts rounded out the décor.

As a fun finishing touch, I took 50 different pictures of Ingrid over her first year and turned each individual face into a party pick for the hors d’oeuvres (pizza cupcakes and pigs in blankets—family kid favorites!). We also had a photo
banner featuring pictures from each month of her first year.

Party traditions

Like many families, our first birthday tradition is giving the baby their own cake and seeing what they will do with it (a “smash cake”). Ingrid’s smash cake had a multitude of edible figures on it—happy little lemons and oranges, etc. 

Ingrid is very detail-oriented and observant and loves to inspect things, so it came as no surprise that rather than smashing the cake, she wanted to inspect and eat the little figures instead! Seeing her unique little “Ingrid” ways on display as she carefully inspected and ate her cake was my favorite moment of the day!

Final tip

I strongly recommend planning your party very much in advance! Especially if you plan on hand making some of the decor! It's always more time taking than planned!

Follow Katherine on Instagram @gr82bk8

Find more inspiration with other Charlotte sy Dimby parties

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