When we first started planning Jude’s birthday I knew without a doubt that I wanted a Beatles theme! Our kids love the Beatles (Davis’ favorite song is literally Maxwell Silver Hammer) we sing Beatles songs to the boys every night. And of course his name is Jude, there really was no other theme to choose!
I started pulling together party decor in February so when coronavirus struck and it looked like we were going to have to cancel Jude’s party I was pretty devastated. Rather than throw in the towel I decided to focus my energy on planning an epic Birthday at home for my little family of four! Jude wouldn’t remember but Davis certainly would and I wanted to have photos to look back on from Jude’s 1st birthday.
I decided to go with a very psychedelic Beatles theme! I knew I wanted lots of bright colors and I was able to pull this little party together on a pretty small budget! I really love DIY and party planning, it’s somewhat therapeutic for me to pull together all the details. Obviously, it’s an added benefit that doing it yourself saves so much money.
These cupcakes turned out so cute and were relatively (relatively) easy to make! I started with store bought cake mix and my favorite butter cream recipe. If you’re ever decorating a cake or lots of cupcakes I highly recommend making your own butter cream-its much more pliable and easy to use.
To make the outline of the Beatles head I used this tutorial. This part was a bit time consuming as it involved tracing their hair on wax paper and then using an Exacto knife to cut out an outline but, I am very happy with how they turned out!
The Cupcake toppers were DIY and so simple! Literally just printed the famous photo of the Beatles crossing Abbey Road and then cut out each person, pasted them to a toothpick and boom! Such an inexpensive way to tie in the theme!
For the overall tables-cape I was inspired by bright colors and 60’s tie dye! The little napkin rings were made from a cute retro looking daisy ribbon I found at Hobby Lobby. Also from Hobby Lobby are the glasses, tie dye paper plates, rainbow beaded garland and napkins. From Target I scooped up the rainbow piñata, rose gold plastic cutlery (seriously so cute) as well as the mini cake stands and paper straws.
If you’re looking for another easy custom element buy these Glassine Bags from Michaels. They cost only $1.99 for 25 and they are thin enough that you can feed them right into a regular printer! That’s right-you can print any custom label you want directly onto the favor bag. For these I found really cool Hey Jude lyric graphics online so I printed various lyrics right on the bag.
Let them eat cake! Seriously, I made way too much cake for a party for 4 people BUT I hardly ever bake with the exception of birthdays and I really do love it. Each time I bake a cake I learn a little more on how to improve/what I would do differently next time. I am putting together a blog post on how to make your own tiered rainbow cake! Spoiler alert it’s very easy but very time consuming! At the end of the day these were all made with store bought cake mix, home made butter cream and lots of food coloring (thats it!) I spent less than $30 on ALL the desserts. Cake stands were a thrifted find from Goodwill.
If you haven’t made a balloon garland before DO IT! I could not believe how easy it was and once again how inexpensive. This rainbow cost less than $15 all in to create. The colorful Balloons are from Hobby Lobby, lettered balloons from Target and we used this balloon tape from Amazon. Next time, I’ll try and remember to take photos during so I can show you guys how easy this is to make! Great cheap way to add a wow element to your next party!
Celebrating Jude’s 1st Birthday in Quarantine was not what any of us had in mind. But, I was determined to do all the 1st birthday “traditions” including a smash cake! This tie dye smash cake turned out so cute! Jude absolutely dug into it! I don’t think he could believe we were letting him go wild. I wanted to make a custom sign for his chair but in this case connivence won out over DIY and I just purchased this Magical Mystery Tour record slip mat. We of course had a big FaceTime call with all the grandparents, aunts & uncles!
We did send out invitations before COVID 19 was really on anyones radar and in the end I am happy I did because I would have never created this fun invite otherwise! I am in no way a graphic designer so I owe this little creation to a combination of photoshop, Microsoft word, and power point! For anyone planning a Beatles Party you can find the classic Beatles font by clicking here. I used this font to create a fun menu which included Sergeant Pepperoni Pizzas & Strawberry Fields Fruit Salad! The devil really is in the details!
If you made it this far, thank you for reading! I know that was a long post but I wanted to share all the fun details from Jude’s Beatles Party. I hope it inspired you to try a little DIY and show how you too can pull off a party like this on a budget! Davis and Jude had an absolute blast. It really was an incredible day spent at home making the best memories.
Britt Heller 