How to plan a budget-friendly birthday party for kids

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Do you want to plan an event that stands out, and you do not want to go broke paying for all that event planning services?

Planning an inexpensive birthday party for your kids at home, with a few close friends is easy. All it needs a little bit of hard work and efforts for planning a small family event or arranging a birthday party.

Even though event planning is a tough task, especially if you have a busy schedule and you may want to pay someone and get it done. Well, even that is okay if you have enough expense to celebrate a birthday and you are not worried about taking care of everything except paying the bills. But that’s not doable for everyone.

Although, we know plenty of event planning services that are doing phenomenal events like birthdays, baby showers and so much more, but you can always think about saving money and plan a super fun themed birthday party or a baby shower for less with a help of family members and friends.

Let’s get started and save some money.

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How to plan a budget-friendly event for your kids

First, you need to know what event it is. 

A birthday party 

A baby shower 

A bridal shower 

Baby’s arrival celebration. 

Baby’s first birthday 

Then you need to decide if you want to follow a character theme or just a beautiful color theme like

Girls Character Themes

• Unicorn
• Minnie Mouse
• Frozen 
• Dory
• Dora

Color Themes for girls

• Black and gold
• Pink, white and grey
• White and yellow 
• White and purple 
• Lilac, purple, grey
• Dark Pink, white and light pink 
• Green and white
• Gold and white
• Silver and gold
• Rose Gold
• Polka dots

Here you can see Girl’s color theme garland.

Pro-tip: Making these garlands may seem intimidating, but it is not. It is easier than you think. All you need is an electric inflator. Everything else is included in the kit. You may want to save the rest of it for some other event in the family.

Character themes for boys

• Cars 
• Paw patrol 
• Jungle Safari
• Mickey Mouse 
• Construction vehicles 
• Black and white stripe with yellow or green 
• Blue, white and grey
• Black, white and grey
• White, light green and grey for expected boy baby shower

Here are the Balloon garlands for boys’ birthday parties.

For one or a two-year-old, it is totally up to you. You do not have to follow a character party, once kids grow up they are going to tell you what character theme they like to have.

Once you have decided what color you want to choose. 

Plan an outfit for the day

Whether it be a birthday party or a  baby shower, you need to know what color dress the birthday guy or girl needs to wear. 

You may want to have a look for beautiful birthday dresses for kids.

Decide about Shoes and accessories for the event

Girls need more accessories than boys, so you need to decide what they are going to wear, from shoes, socks, underwear, necklace, tiara, bangles, and of course, hair accessories. 

Check out cute birthday accessories here.

Balloon Garland and decorations appropriate for an event 

Balloons are the fun part of any birthday or baby shower event. Balloon garland you can get from Amazon as per your choice of colors and all you have to need is an inflator. 

It is a beautiful time of the year, a fall season, and a lot of events are planned for the fall colors theme.

You may want to check out fall colors balloons garlands for your baby shower or bridal shower.

You can create a beautiful garland in less than 20 bucks. All you need is an electric inflator.  Just an FYI, these inflators are kind of loud but it ain’t too bad.

Dessert Table decorations 

If you are planning to put up a dessert table, then you need a table cover according to your color theme.

Check out some pretty table covers here.

Also, you may want to add a table skirt. You can choose your favorite from here.

Cake serving dish is optional, and you may want to use it or not. It totally depends on what kind of cake you are getting for the event.

A dessert table makes an event look more celebrated and needless to say, far more pretty than a regular cake on a table. You can check out some dessert table decorations for the dessert table according to your budget to spend on an event.

Cake, Cookies, and Candies

The cake is the biggest attraction for any event you plan. If you want a budget-friendly cake, that is not costing you half of your savings, I would highly recommend you to get a sheet cake from Wegmans.

Vanilla cake with Whipped cream and mixed Fruits is my most favorite. I am sure you can never go wrong with a mixed fruit cake.

Costco Sheet cake is easy in your pocket, not crazy expensive, and sure is delicious.

You can either decorate a sheet cake by yourself by adding your child’s favorite toy and making it colorful with edible color decorations.

Check out your kids’ favorite cake topper toys for cake decorations.

Moreover, a cake topper is a must as your cake looks super fancy and gives a richer look on a less budget.

You can create cookies at home or get customized ones from local pastry shops. You can also get ready-to-go from Safeway, giant, Walmart, Wegmans, Target, whole food or you can get custom-made as well. 

Pro-tip: If you have an event at the end of the calendar year, you can still use leftover candy from Halloween celebrations.

Find out 18 ways to use your extra candy from Halloween celebrations.

For other birthday treats you can choose either of these options as your budget allows. rest assured you can organize a wonderful event on a reasonable budget.

You can pick any of the following for dessert table decorations to make it seem like an event planning service.

• Cake pops or Cupcakes 

• Color-matched M&Ms or a candy or trail mix 

• Party Favors in Mason jars if you want that to be fancy.

• Party favor bags or boxes,

• You can also get personalized ribbons for the event to tie party favor boxes, mason jars, etc.

Thank you stickers on your mason jars or party favor boxes. If you are curious, these are Thank you stickers we have used on Mason jars.

Moreover, if you are interested in putting up Thank you tag instead of a sticker then you may want to check out thank you tags here.

Planning the food menu

• You can do tortilla chips with dip for kids and adults as an appetizer. Everyone is going to enjoy and love it. 
•  Tortilla roll-up depending on the number of guests
• Cheese Pizza for kids 
• Soda, juice or water whatever is your preference for kids and adults. 
• Food is as per your guests’ choice, either you can get it made from a restaurant or a local catering service.

Kids or adults activities

You may want to plan kids’ activities for a birthday party or an event if you are expecting more kids due to kids-oriented events.

Also for baby and bridal showers, you sure want to plan a baby shower game or bridal shower game.

Baby shower games that you can get from Amazon as quickly as in 2 days.

Bridal Shower game cards you can find on Amazon.

Although it may seem like too many options to choose from still it is worth your time and effort, instead of paying someone 350 bucks just for a garland is insane.

If you really want your event to stand out even it is celebrated in a hall or at your house, still, it is surely going to save you a lot of money.

Check out some awesome suggestions for toddlers’ gift ideas.

51 inexpensive gift ideas for making unique party favors.

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