1st Birthday Timeline: What to Plan and Do (and When)

Planning a first birthday party is always intimidating – especially if it’s the first birthday of your first baby. First birthday’s hold the pressure of trying to make it enjoyable for baby-going-on-toddler and all the family in attendance, because just as much as the party is for your little one, it’s also for you and the attendees.

A first birthday party celebrates you (the parent), and celebrates having one of the littlest family members, and having them in your family. But, if you’re planning on postpartum brain, or haven’t hosted a birthday party before, you’re struggling with what to expect.

So before you get into all the details of the party and overwhelm yourself before you even begin, here’s a breakdown of what to expect with a 1st birthday timeline from planning, to implementing, to the day of, and what happens after!

Planning a 1st Birthday Party: Start 4-8 Weeks Before the Party Day

I’m being generous on time because for most of my little’s first birthdays, I pulled them together anywhere from 8 weeks all the way to 3 weeks before the party date (and I don’t recommend a last minute, but sometimes it happens).

Planning out further in advance allows you to set and stick to a budget, usually a more generous budget, for decor, cake, food, and, if you’re diy-ing a majority of those, make a plan for easy party food.

Here’s how the party planning weeks go:

Psstt… also if you’re past a week, just play catch-up! It’s stressful, but doable lmao.

6-8 Weeks Before the Party

There’s little to do now, but it all depends on how you want the 1st birthday party to come together. This is more important if you’re getting a venue, hiring a baker for the cake, etc.

For example, in these two weeks you should:

Pick your birthday party day! Even if you’re not posting about it yet or inviting kids, it’s better on YOUR brain to know.
Pick a theme if you’re doing one. This is my fave part, we’ve done Wild One and One-derland, but there are so many good themes out there.
Book your venue (if you’re booking one). Depending on what season your little one’s birthday is and where you live, you may even need to do this sooner.
Order the cake. Especially if you’re ordering from a bakery or small shop baker vs. a grocery bakery, they appreciate the heads up!
Make a budget (and a plan). Map out what you can realistically spend on this party and the things you absolutely don’t want to DIY – and what you can.

4-5 Weeks Before the Party

This is when you finally start telling people about the party and prepping your 1st birthday party invitations based on whatever theme you picked! And if you’re not doing “formal” in the mail invitations, you’re still doing a virtual – people need to have the reminder about your party.

In weeks 4-5 before your party starts, you need to:

Buy + send your birthday party invitations. If you’re doing a Facebook event, that’s fine – but still post and start inviting people now. And call your elderly, they struggle with Facebook.
Order your cake if you haven’t already. This is the final call for working with a baker!! I like to DIY the smash cake, and order a cake (or cupcakes) for attendees!
Make your menu. Finalize what you’re planning to order for food – or what you’re planning to make! You’ll need an estimate of when to cook and what to pick up before you go further.
Order the clothes! I’ve always loved putting mine in something unique and on-theme. While we found something on Amazon for my middle, we order something custom to match the color palette for my youngest from M.K Threads.

ALSO, if you want a photographer a the party, now is the time! Get a short session for the cake smash portion so you don’t have to be behind the phone <3

REMINDER: ask for RSVPs! You need to know how much food to bring, how many desserts, and if you’re doing goodies, you need to know for that, too!

3 Weeks Before the Party

This is the week where you still feel like you have plenty of time, but you don’t!! This is the time to start your DIYs and grab your decorations so you’re not waiting on that next-day Amazon delivery (although I have done it plenty of times myself).

For this week, you should:

Order decorations. Grab your backdrops, your balloons, your tablecloths, and everything in-between. You want to know what you’ll have in-hand on the day of.
Start making your DIY decorations. For example, I DIY-ed the first birthday photo banner and the first birthday high-chair banner for the last party!
Plan activities! Coloring banners, bubble wands, splash pads, silly games, and stickers all make perfect ideas for toddlers to do!

If your baby is the first baby and there’s no other kids under the age of like, 10 (or there’s only babies), you can skip the activities! They’ll have more fun going through the presents opened and need less “traditional” entertainment at the party.

2 Weeks Before the Party

This is your “finish whatever needs to be done” time and officially order or start prepping food time. It’s also time to finish up any projects in progress and start eyeballing replacements for anything you haven’t at least started.

This week you should:

Start a grocery list. Anything you need to make what you want to make for the party needs to be on the list.
Place your food orders. Whether you’re grabbing platters from Publix or ordering bulk nuggets from Chick-fil-a, pay and get it on your calendar now.
Get your desserts in order! If you’re doing more than a cake + smash cake, make sure you’re placing those orders for pick up and/or grabbing what you need to make them.

0-1 Weeks Before the Party

This is mostly last minute things and picking up what you’ve already ordered – as well as waiting for whatever things you ordered last minute (same).

Things you can do this week:

Pick up desserts and food. This is more like the 1-2 days before, but still. If you’re picking things up day-of get a snack.
Pull together your remaining decor. Wrap up your DIYs, kiss whatever isn’t done goodbye, and order anything you absolutely have to have and hope it has quick shipping.
Tables and chairs need to start coming together. Or at least have a general idea of where people will sit and eat, or if they’re standing (which is fine).
Decorate ahead of time if you can! This isn’t always possible, but if you can start putting up some of your decorations or prepping them for the party before the day of, it gives you more time to breath!!

What to Do on The Day of Your Baby’s 1st Birthday Party

So you’ve done the prep and now it’s the day of!! I always recommend planning a first birthday party in the afternoon 2 hours before or an hour after naptime. This gives plenty of time for them to get the sleep they need, but also not (hopefully) wake up too grumpy to participate!!

Usually this means you’re partying early to mid-afternoon. And based on that 1st birthday party timeline, this is what I recommend:

The Morning of the Party

For the morning of the birthday party, go ahead and get into cozy clothes for decor and errands. If you can get your significant other or a family member for some child watching, even better. If not, let them help! Highly recommend having a baby carrier or a baby play chair (this thing was my savior) you can sit down and move while you do what you need to do.

Here’s the routine I follow in the morning for the party:

Get all the decorations to the place (or space) where the party is. This is your last opportunity to double-check that everything is where it needs to be and take account of anything you need to go out and grab last minute.
Decorate the main things, think the tables, backdrops, balloons. Anything that’s time consuming or something that will have other stuff on it, do it now.
Set-up tables and chairs, or mockup where they’ll go. This will also give you more insight on where to put what as you’re finishing up (and have the space for presents ready to go if anyone arrives early).
Go pick-up the food. If it’s not already there, I go pick up the food myself. I usually use this time to also grab myself food so I’m not party-prepping on an empty (grumpy) stomach.

The 1-2 Hours Before the Party Starts

This is go-time and usually when I’m on the way back with the party food. I love to save this time for true decorating, especially if you’re having an outdoor birthday where so much can go wrong if you’re doing everything wayyy before party time.

In the 1-2 hours before the party starts, you should:

Add your table decorations (and all the little decorations). Pretty much finish it out! Any decorations going up need to go up now.
Plan your food and dessert tables (or table) and have a timing plan. Start thinking about how you’re going to set up the food for everyone and when you’re going to bring out dessert (or how you’re going to organize the actual party timeline).
Get your little one ready. Any special outfit needs to be put on your little one now, don’t wait until you’re about to start the party. Unless it’s white. Wait until absolute last minute if it’s white.

15-30 Minutes Before the Party Starts

Final touches? Add them now! This is the final countdown to your little’s birthday party and any early birds are likely showing up and asking “is there anything I can help with?” and you’re thinking “yes, but I don’t have time to show you!”

Honestly, anything that needs to be done here is a must-do, so here’s what I recommend:

Put the food on the tables. Exceptions can be made for really hot days and you need to protect the food, but having everything ready before the party starts works really well.
Start the splash pad (or other activities). Make sure they’re ready to go for any kid that wanders past with their early-bird parents.
Get ready. If you haven’t yet, now is the time to get yourself ready. Hopefully all the hard to-dos are done and you’re not going to have the risk of party prep sweat anymore!

Your Party Timeline (for During the Birthday Party)

Now for the actual 1st birthday party timeline, the one during the birthday party! Luckily, 1st birthday parties are very flexible. I usually say whatever you can do to keep you freshly 12-month old calm, do it that way. Take what I’m about to share with a grain of salt and as a foundation, not a hard-core rule:

Start with activities and foods. A first birthday party is usually shorter than others as it’s mostly for the parents and at the risk of a baby needing a nap. Welcome your party attendees in by asking them to drop off their presents and then enjoy the foods and activities.
Next up is the cake. 1st birthday parties move fast. Let everyone see the baby and wish their happy birthdays, and then go ahead and knock out the actual cake around 30 minutes in. This also gives your one-year-old time to play around in the smash cake without feeling like you need to rush.
Play time! Let kids go back to activities, let parents talk and do all the things – your focus before you can do anything else is cleaning up the mess the smash cake made. Take your time and change the baby, let the others (and them) play, then worry about the next thing.
Presents. And if your little is tapped out by this point, make an announcement that you’ll be opening presents with them later and sending thank-you and videos of opening once your little one takes a nap. If they’re good and awake, have everyone sit down and start opening them your one-year-olds gifts together (pretty traditional party things).
Send everyone home. Most attendees will usually start drifting off by the 1.5-2 hour mark if not sooner! If they haven’t, start sending people home. If you’re not a direct person, comment on how baby needs a nap or it looks like rain, or any mix of what you need (no shame).

What Happens After the Party??

Your job’s done for the day!! At least, the most stressful part. But cleaning up has always been the most tiresome party in my opinion. By the time I’m finished with the party and it’s time to put everything away, I feel like I’ve been hit by a bus and the adrenaline is crashing.

So I love to do the rule of “I set up, you clean up” with my spouse. I also get that it’s not always possible! So when you can’t get support, here are some tips for post-party clean up:

Work with one thing at a time, and make use of the kids that are playing. Turn cleaning up into a game before they head home.
Move stuff as you go through the party, condense gifts into bags together and open any that would create a lot of trash or take up a lot of space just from the packaging (this will save the mess at home, too).
Come back the next day to clean or deal with it the next day if you’re at home. I always try and get the trash out of the way and the food put away and then save the rest for the next morning after I’ve had some coffee.

Of course, it all depends on how busy the party was, how late it went, and how much support you have. So don’t kick yourself if you feel like it’s not going great. It’s been a long day and you deserve a little grace.

Hope This Helped with Your 1st Birthday Party!!

While you could be reading this at any stage of planning (or even looking for tips the day before the party starts) I hope this helped give you some insight into what the average 1st birthday party looks like timeline wise – and gave you some relief for yours.

If you’re looking for more party tips and tricks, stick around! It’s at least 50% of what I chat about (mom things and hobbies being the other 50%). And if you’re looking for something more tangible to help, try this free printable birthday party checklist!