Abraham's Goldfish First Birthday

I love when photographers celebrate their children's birthdays... they're used to spending time behind the lens so the details get captured just right.  In addition to her beautiful photography, Michelle Dupuis is a brilliant DiYer.  She designed and crafted this goldfish themed first birthday party for her son from invitations to cake... and as it happens she's also the bride behind one of my favorite ever weddings.

photos © dupuis photography

From Michelle: My son, Abraham, loves fish (and swimming) so we decided to go with a beachy goldfish theme for his first birthday party. I started thinking about food months ago, wanting to create a fun lunch menu rather than rely on fish-themed sweets. We served sandcastle (ham & cheese) sandwiches, pasta shells with "seaweed" pesto (made with fresh basil from our herb garden), skewers with melons cut in fish and starfish shapes, tiny beach buckets with veggies and ranch dip, jello jigglers with Swedish fish, blue lemonade, and of course, Goldfish crackers. (Oh, and we served submarine sandwiches for the adults.)  I made all the food, the invitations, #1 cake, goldfish cake topper (inspired by these), happy birthday bunting, goldfish pinata, sidewalk chalk for the favors (using ice cube trays from Ikea), sandwich flags, beach buckets for the vegetables, and Abe's #1 birthday shirt. I knew anything I dressed him in would end up stained blue, so an old white onsie with an orange 1 ironed on the front seemed like a cheap, but festive option.  I picked up the orange and aqua metal pails in the dollar bin at Target. Polka dot straws from Isa Kay Boutique on Etsy. The glass cream bottles we used for drinks were from our wedding a few years back.