Paw-sitively Fabulous: Holly's First Birthday Party

Since Holly's adoption day is coming up (November 4th!), I decided it was a good time to talk about the other major milestone from this year: her first birthday party.

When I adopted Holly, they estimated that her birthday was June 1st. I knew immediately I wanted to make it a huge event--and when I saw the date fell on a Saturday, I started planning.

Something as important as a pup's first birthday called for much more than a standard Facebook event, where people tend to RSVP early on and then forget the event is taking place, or simply not show up. Since I knew I would need to find a venue with enough outdoor space to accommodate the whole party, an exact head count was key. My friend's older sister had recently used Pingg, a website that has free online invitations that come in super cute e-envelopes, to create the evites for her bridal shower. I used the site to create both a Save The Date that went out in early May as well as the official invite.

Once RSVPs started to come in, I had a clearer idea of how many human and puppy guests we should be planning for. I wasn't the only one excited to celebrate Holly's big birthday--the final headcount was close to 20 people and 2 pups! After researching dog friendly venues in Manhattan, I settled on The West 79th Street Boat Basin, which has a large covered patio area that is pooch friendly and shaded from the sticky Summer sun.

With venue and guest list in place, it was time to get to work on the stuff that really mattered: outfits and sweets! I managed to score a Lilly Pulitzer "meadow" skirt on sale at the Madison Avenue store, which I paired with a Threads For Thought scoop neck tee for the party and later with my Ralph Lauren button down for our photo shoot. Holly wore her Sam & Tasha sundress, with the blue floral pattern facing out.

Holly was having so much fun she didn't even want to pose for a picture! The ribbon says "Birthday Girl."

We had special treats for puppies and people. For the four-legged guests, I turned to You Lucky Dog in Hoboken, New Jersey, which sells super cute dog-friendly cakes and "pupcakes" that can be personalized for any occasion. For Holly's party we ordered pupcakes with pink frosting and white "H" decorations. They were a big hit, but Holly didn't like that she had to share.

Wolfing down the pupcake before any of her human friends steal it!

For people treats, I used my favorite trendy Manhattan cupcake bakery, Georgetown Cupcake (of TLC's "DC Cupcake" fame). Georgetown allows you to make orders online for delivery (perfect for me since their downtown location is a bit out of my way), and if you are ordering over a certain amount, you can add a personalized "logo" for free! My very talented friend had made a pillow featuring Holly in the famous "Holly Golightly" pose for me for Christmas, and after sending over the image in an e-mail, Georgetown was able to use that image to create custom fondant for the cupcakes for Holly's party. As always, they tasted as great as they looked. We even shared some with our waiters, who were super accommodating with everything from finding us a table on a very busy afternoon to letting us sit and hang out long after our food was gone.

The custom cupcake motif was so cute! We got 2 dozen of Georgetown's delicious flavors--the biggest hit was peanut butter!

Holly posing with her cupcake twin! She was mad Mommy wouldn't let her eat this one too :)

Holly was spoiled rotten with so many sweet and thoughtful presents! I went a little overboard (it was her first birthday, after all), and got her several toys from the Haute Diggity Dog line of toys. In addition to the "Birthday Girl" cake, she got a "Muttsoni" purse. She also loved her Fab Dog MetroCard toy, and her PetProjekt Squeeki Shellz Conch (though she chewed it to smithereens).

I may have been as excited about the presents as Holly was.

The day ended with a tired puppy and an even more tired Mommy & Grandma, but I would call it a resounding success.

Sleepy birthday pup!

Now what to do for her SECOND birthday...

Until Next Time, Darlings!