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Park!! We are renting a small room at a local park district park Building.

Depends what you think is small. We think we have a small house, well we have a townhouse. The main part of the house is the second floor and it's about 500 sqft (30 ft x 16 ft) Some people might not consider that small which is why I asked. We have an open floor plan so it's kind of the living room and dinning room combined. We don't have an outdoor space because it's a town house.

We were able to have a small party with about 20 friends and family. It worked out well. We pushed our dinning table to a wall and put all our dinning chair against the wall for people to sit on. Some people sat on our stairs too. I think when it is close friends and family everything will work out. You are just trying to celebrate your LO's first year and that's all you should focus on.

Good luck!

Also public libraries usually have meeting spaces you could use. A Hellobee blogger hosted a birthday party at one and it turned out great.

Look up your local parks and recreation department. Ours has a number you can call and they have a person in charge of rentals, try neighboring towns too. We have the space but still frequently have get togethers at the park. Some churches rent out space too, if you don't belong to one try asking friends and neighbors if their church does it.

ETA- I was surprised at how reasonable it was to host a small party at a local pizza chain too, friends hosted for about twenty people and even picked up the tab for beer (although only a few people had one) and it was under $350 for dinner for everyone, they were allowed to bring a cake in from outside and the dinner included soda, salad, bread sticks and pizza plus they served the cake.

I'd definitely look into a park. I live in a small place (550 square feet) and my max for a party is about 12 adults. So if a restaurant was not an option, i would have it at the park near my apartment where i see lots of people having parties. Also do you know anyone who has a community room in their building? That could work too!

What season is your child's birthday in?

Chloe's bday is in the fall and sometimes we have snow on the ground in October! We held her first bday at my parents house because so many people were coming.

Her second birthday was super low-key but even with immediate family we had about 30 people. My house is tiny and we made it work, but ideally wouldn't host another party here.

If she had a summer birthday, I'd rent a pavilion at the park! I've looked into firehalls, local rec centers & the library for room rentals too.

@Foodnerd81: If there are kids invited to the party, I would definitely do a park. Good luck!

We do parties at parks. Our apartment is 1100 sq ft, and the living area is a decently sized, but when you've got multiple 2 or 3 year-olds involved, it's really nice to have some space for them to run around in. The chief consideration in most parks is the proximity to bathrooms, so I'd keep that in mind when reserving a spot, especially if toddler-aged siblings are in attendance.

Our house and backyard could accomodate a party, but we plan to use our neighborhood park for birthdays. The park is just outside our development and has bathroom facilties, a covered picnic table area. Every weekend there's a bounce house inflated over by the park for a party.

Does your condo unit have a clubhouse? A friend has a townhouse and had her sons BD party at the neighborhood clubhouse.