We recently threw a joint first birthday party for my daughter and my nephew (who were born only a day apart!). When brainstorming for the theme of the party we knew we needed a gender-neutral theme and wanted to keep it very inexpensive. “Wild One” met both criteria and was a smashing success. For ideas and tips on throwing a Wild One 1st birthday party keep reading!

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Invitations

I took on the task of creating the invitations. I still think it is very important to mail invitations to special events but the invitations I created could easily be e-mailed instead (saving money!). Canva is where I easily create all my invitations to print at home.

Food

It was so nice to share in the preparation of food duties with my sister. Honestly, since the party was at her house and I had attended a wedding the night before, she did most of the work.

We came up with names to put next to each food for Wild One jungle theme continuity. Once again, I made these name cards in Canva and printed them out on cardstock.

Foods we served:

Jungle Juice (adult and kid punch)

Jungle Vines (Twizzlers)

Safari Sandwiches (open-faced sandwiches)

Tiger Tails (Cheetos)

Lion Dip (hummus and peppers)

Animal Cookies (animal crackers)

Creature Claws (Bugles)

Dessert

Being in charge of the dessert, I initially wanted to make a cake and cupcakes. Then I realized I would be traveling to a different state in a packed car with a huge dog, two kids, and all our stuff. I kept it simple and stuck to cupcakes.

I make chocolate cupcakes and vanilla cupcakes with raspberry filling. The buttercream frosting was split in half. One half of the frosting I colored orange and the second half a light brown.  The cupcake liners were animal print, I used zebra and leopard, perfect for the Wild One theme.

Monkey Cupcakes

To make the monkey cupcakes, I frosted the chocolate cupcakes with the light brown frosting. Next, I sprinkled chocolate sprinkles all over the frosting. Then I cut a mini Nilla wafer in half to use as the ears and used a whole mini Nilla wafer to dot the nose and draw the mouth on.

Tip: The mini Nilla wafers do not break in half easily. Using a butter knife to cut them in half worked the best but be prepared to throw out (eat) a lot of ruined pieces.

I used Cool Whip for the whites of the monkeys’ eyes. Using the black gel for the pupil wasn’t working so my sister came up with the idea of using chocolate sprinkles instead. If I had a do-over I would definitely use these candy eyeballs.

Tiger Cupcakes

For the tiger cupcakes, I frosted the vanilla ones with the orange buttercream frosting. Then using black gel made the face of the tiger and used orange Skittles for the ears.

Decor

The best purchase I made for this birthday party was this set of jungle animal figures. Not only did we use them as decor items spread out around the food but my girls now play with them every single day – decor and awesome toys all in one!

We kept it simple with the decorations using balloons, some handmade banners, and jungle leaves on the food tables.

Party attendees could wear gold crowns and I made special Wild One crowns for the two birthday babies. It was really simple. Just get some gold felt and stick-on velcro pieces and you’re all set.

A first birthday party can be fun without being expensive. I hope you like my suggestions for throwing your own Wild One first birthday party.