Girl Power Party

Magnolia’s Girl Power 1st Birthday Party was one of our favorites to design because of the strong meaning behind the theme and adorable guest of honor! Karson Butler Events planned Magnolia’s daddies’ engagement and wedding and it is the biggest honor when a family invites you back to continue to create celebrations for milestone occasions! Scroll down for all the fun highlights and an interview with Josh and Matt.

Guests were greeted with a festive welcome sign specially created by Laura Hooper Calligraphy.

Our KBE Balloon Bar Garland, Large Mylar #1, and assortment of single latex balloons scattered on the ground were the perfect mix in shades of pink, magenta and gold.

KBE: What inspired the theme?

J&M: When it came time for us to consider having children and starting the adoption process, we didn’t have a gender preference but for some reason always envisioned having a son. We were surprised but thrilled when Magnolia’s birth mother called us during her pregnancy to tell us that she found out that she was having a girl, and we knew that we wanted to empower our daughter to be confident and strong. We’ve been lucky enough to have great female role models in Magnolia’s life, and wanted to represent that in her first birthday celebration. Matt and I thought a lot about how we wanted to celebrate our daughter’s first year of life and also our first year as parents. We knew that Magnolia would be too young to understand what was going on around her at the party, but wanted to have a celebration for her that she could be proud of someday when she’s flipping through pictures and can understand the meaning behind it. We were excited by the prospect of the first woman President and took Magnolia with us to the polls when she was a month old to vote for Hillary Clinton. While we were disappointed with the result, we felt that it was important for us to reinforce strong female role models and leaders to celebrate our daughter. Magnolia has two daddies, but is also fortunate enough to have a number of our friends and family who are strong women doing amazing things in the world. We wanted an opportunity to not just celebrate Maggie’s first year on Earth but also hopefully set the tone for the years to come.

We loved Meg from The Film Artist’s work so much, that Tiffany at Sugar Studio created the most epic cookies to match! Along with the scrumptious cookie favors, guests were invited to take a book home at the end of the party.

Charm City Cakes made our Mount Rushmore (with a twist) cake dreams come true!

KBE: Mount Rushmore – with a twist! What inspired you to pick the females portrayed on the awesome cake by Charm City Cakes?

J&M: Moving from left to right on the cake, we selected Dolly Parton, Lucille Ball, Frida Kahlo, and Ruth Bader Ginsberg. Matt is a huge Dolly Parton fan. Dolly is a talented musician, a philanthropist who has dedicated her time and resources to advocating for childhood literacy through her Imagination Library charity, and hails from Matt’s native eastern Tennessee. While we were in Los Angeles waiting for Magnolia to be born, Dolly just so happened to be performing at the Hollywood Bowl the week before Maggie’s due date and we were able to see her in concert a few days before our baby came into the world. Josh grew up watching “I Love Lucy” as a kid and had a long-standing special place in his heart for the comedic genius of Lucille Ball. Like Dolly, she wasn’t just a fantastic entertainer but also a shrewd, successful businesswoman who built an empire by blazing a trail in an industry that was historically dominated by men. Frida Kahlo was an incredibly-talented woman of color who used her art style to explore sociological issues in Mexico while also becoming one of the most highly-recognized and important artists in modern history. Ruth Bader Ginsberg is a role model whom both Matt and Josh admire for her perseverance and pioneering work on gender equality – she was one of only 9 women in her law school class of 500, was the first tenured female law professor at Columbia, argued and won numerous gender equality cases at the Supreme Court, and was the second woman to serve on the Supreme Court.

We didn’t forget about some of the traditional Girl Power heroes too – Wonderwoman mixed and mingled among guests. Perhaps we are partial, but that confetti balloon is sweet! Pick up a jumbo confetti pack in our shop!