This was a very special invitation because it was for my son’s first birthday party. Since Ryan is such a little monkey, and always getting into everything, I decided a Safari theme would be fun to work with. I love the bright orange paired with the chartreuse and butter yellow- it was exactly the feel I was hoping to accomplish. To carry out the theme, I did matching photo cards that I hung on ribbon from the market umbrella on the patio – one for each month of his first year, with a photo and milestones from that month printed on them. It was a cute way to share the details of his first year with friends and family. I also did tent cards for the food table that were labeled with names such as “Tiger Tails” (i.e. cheese sticks) and had the same stick-on embellishments that were featured on the invitations. The weather even made it feel like we were in the middle of the Serengeti- it was over 80 degrees in October!

I went overboard on Ryan’s first birthday, and I’ll be the first to admit it. I thought it would be fun to have table cards for the food and make them coordinate with the party invitations. I kept with the color scheme of orange, yellow and green, and had enough animal embellishments leftover to adorn the table tents. We served everything family style, from mini burgers (“Slammin’ Safari Sandwiches”) to hot wings (“Ragin’ Rhino Wings”).