Hellobee Boards

My son's first birthday party was a 2 hour event at a fancy Chinese buffet. We got some balloons, made favors for the kids from Target's dollar spot and ordered a cake. All that mattered was the family was together. It was easy on us and our guests. In fact, some parents of young kids wondered out loud why they didn't do it themselves. Sorry you got stuck in this situation, hope the kids have fun!!

Kind of in the middle. I like parties to have a prettiness or special quality to them, but I am all about saving money and bang for your buck. I match colors and like themes, even if it's only colors, but my decorations are usually simple like party city pinwheels, balloons and paper banners. I use Pinterest for inspiration but I don't let it pressure me.

I would rate myself as a 3 or a 4. I always do paper invites and I like my parties to have a theme too. I don't go all out but I do love details and I think simple but thoughtful goes a long way. But I hear you that its a pain to do shared parties when you guys have different styles. I'm a designer too and I would be super annoyed if my friend just expected me to do the invite!

Not a fan of evites for bday parties. I like coordinating everything.

I am totally more like your friend!! Yikes- party mom-Zilla!

I wouldn't like throwing parties on a regular basis, but I only have one LO so I love planning her bday parties! I'm definitely not very Pinterest-y, but I do try and I don't mind splurging on it since it's only once a year. I voted 4.

I do Evites for adult parties (potluck, cookie party, super bowl, fantasy football draft, etc.), but like paper invites for kids' parties. We also did a theme (rainbow) for C's birthday and will do a theme for H's.

I consider myself in the middle because we only do 1st birthday parties, so I want to make it memorable. Nothing Pinterest worthy, but not too budget friendly. We usually rent chairs and a shade tent, a bounce house, and cater pasta and sandwiches.

I think I'm like a 3. I love evites - particularly Paperless Post ones. They're so beautiful! So I do those, and for the past two birthdays we have just done an outdoor bbq kind of deal (LO's b-day is May 26th). Not sure what I'll do as LO gets older and wants more input. For example, she already wants a Peppa Pig birthday. Which, okay, not totally my style, but it should be pretty doable.

We always do Evites/Paperless Post. For LO's first 2 birthdays, we catered food and did the party at home. We had a few decorations but nothing Pinterest worthy. The first year, I reused Sandy's pompoms and the second year I made some simple garlands.

I always do paper invites because I love stationary. However, I kind of hate party planning, so I voted a 3.

I like parties and I think I'm somewhere in the middle. We always mail invites and my kids definitely love other LO's bday invites on our fridge.

I like paper invites and some pretty decorations and a theme if LO wants something particular, but I don't overwhelm myself, I think kids really do not care as long as there is cake. I get why she wants these things but it seems rude to just tell you to design an invite, etc. If the flare is more important to her, she should take the lead on those elements while you maybe handle the more practical parts.

I'm probably about a 3 or so on party planning. I love paper invites. We've thrown LO's birthday parties at my parents' house to make it easier for family to visit. It may change when it becomes more kid friend oriented. For his second birthday party, we invited a couple of longtime friends and their kids. Those kids coupled with my brother's kids and LO made for a nice party.

Probably our biggest party planned party was his baptism. We held it at our home and invited a bunch of friends and family. It didn't require much planning, but definitely took time to order catering, etc. For us, it was our biggest party to date since having LO.

I was probably a 5 for her first bday and probably a 3 otherwise. Catered food, all out treats, rented tables and crap. But if I threw a party with a friend, I would either take it upon myself to do the extra things I like or I would tone it down.

I voted a three. I like decorating, themes, invited, etc. That being said I threw a party for ds' first bday and we didn't have a big party for his second. (Just family - no invites, simple balloons, no theme)

I think it's cute to have stuff match, but I'm not going to go crazy DIYing, designing, or doing fancy decorations or something. But it's not much of an effort to pick a color scheme or theme and have the cake/plates/napkins/etc match it. LO's first birthday was Mickey Mouse, so I went to th party store and got some cute Mickey stuff, had some ears on his cake, and served hot dogs to match the song. And it was a pretty small party with our immediate families only. I thought that was pretty simple but from your description it's partyzilla because of the Mickey stuff, I guess. I see that more as just a difference in preference.

On the other hand, the children's museum thing is way too over the top for my party planning style! Definitely not in the budget for us.

But regardless of all that, I don't really understand being very angry over her wanting to have some decor and a theme with paper invites. If you don't have time to design invites, tell her and you guys can just pick something online or in store or whatever. If you don't like the theme she has picked, tell her you're not into it. But being very angry that someone wants a theme and cares what the cake tastes like seems like a waste of energy and just kind of silly.

Do negative numbers count? How about 0? I avoid them like the plague- I invite grandparents and aunt/uncle and call it good. Keeping it small means we go out to brunch and back to the house for cupcakes and gifts.

I'll admit that I'm a 6. No shame. Sounds like you should break off and do separate parties if you guys are that different. I would think someone was joking if they suggested that I use an evite. And sometimes we have themes here for our Outfits going to the grocery store, so I'm no help. But happy birthday!!

I've only done one party so far, but I'd say it was probably a 4. I chose a theme, scoured Pinterest for ideas, handmade matching decorations, had a cake made etc. etc. Honestly, I enjoyed doing it and have already started thinking up ideas for LO's 2nd birthday! My Mum used to do the same for my parties and I loved it

I'm probably a 3-wanna-be-5. I like the idea of going all out (at least for 1st birthday, for later birthdays probably 3 or 4 until she was old enough to remember), but I'm sort of cheap and practical and so I don't think I actually WILL go all out, I'd probably take a middle road.

For future though-- could you maybe talk to your friend about either doing parties on separate weekends or alternating years? When I was growing up my bff had a birthday 4 days after mine so we/our parents agreed to alternate years having parties for our friends (Other years we'd just have a small family gathering).