The Little Dumplings: Alpha's Sunny Lemonade Party

This happened ages ago (okay, a few months). We finally had our little riceball baptized. I can't tell you how much I love parties. I LOooooooove parties. Never liked spending for it though. haha. When you have your first baby, it's soooo easy to rationalize spending excessively. That's what I did with Adam. But now that we have Alpha, and Adam is already in school... Even if we want to throw big parties like we used to with Adam, we just can't justify splurging so much. It sucks being kid#2. :( I still wanted to give her a kickass party tho. To keep everything within our budget, I DIY'd a lot of things and extracted every ounce of creative juice inside my body. I think it turned out pretty nicely.

We didn't spend double digits to make this party happen. We totally got a great deal when we got the venue booked (Under 5k with tables and chairs + linens + chafing dishes + plates etc. + free coffee, water, and ice! How can you beat that?). We found a secret pocket in Marikina (Marikina Heights, near SSAM) that has a beautiful garden set up. It is a retreat house for a Christian Group (I couldn't remember what group for the life of me.). They rent the place out to raise funds for their scholars. The place itself has a beautiful, serene vibe. I started brainstorming about what could be a good theme that would match their beautiful gardens. I figured a morning brunch is appropriate. Breakfast fare would not only be cheaper, it would be easier to prepare as well! And since this would be the beginning of Alpha's life as a Christian, why not do the event at the beginning of the day? My theme was revolving around the color schemes yellow+white, and so I thought of doing a sunny lemonade party. I googled for some inspiration, and used pinterest to pin some of my favorite ideas. Here are photos and details of our reception. And here's the link to my pinterest inspiration board.

THE CANDY BAR

It doubles as "Thank You" souvenirs. My brother-in-law flew in from the States and he gifted us with extra candies that we added to our other Divi candy finds. Guests can put their candies in paper bags and close it off with a simple paper clip tied with yellow ribbons. We placed our candies in upcycled jars decorated with the cheapest lace I could find (4php per yard) and more ribbons. The signature frame is a gift from one of my good friends Mindy of Theme Park Inc.. She also helped in dressing up the place and generously loaned party linens and decors from her stash. Thanks Mindy!

WISHES FOR ALPHA

Totally knocked this idea off Pinterest. To save money, I did the layout using Photoshop. It's not as scary as I thought it would be! And it turned out pretty cute I think. Guests can hang their "wishes" to a "wishing tree". It's actually a bunch of branches on a vase. Those branches were literally plucked from the sidewalk by my friend Mindy. I bought the cheapest cardstock and had them printed at UP Arcade to save even more money. Total cost: 240 pesos!

THE BACKDROP

ALPHA letters made by Mindy. Curtains are plain white sheer curtains from Mindy's house. :D We hung them from a low branch, added pinwheels (another pinterest idea), and voila! Instant focal point.

THE CENTERPIECE

I decorated wine bottles with more lace and ribbon, then added tissue paper flowers in pink, yellow, and white! Tutorial for paper flowers here. Making all those flowers were time consuming, but it really added a lot of charm to the whole setup.

THE BUFFET

We served no fuss breakfast buffet during the reception. I didn't want to be a kitchen slave so everything on the menu was easy, one-step meals. Bacon, hotdogs, longganisa Alaminos, tapa, and tocino. I saved a ton of money by not buying in groceries but in Marikina Market. Lemonade (of course) was served as refreshments. We also had lemon cucumber water available. The venue brewed some kapeng barako as well. I couldn't find photos for the life of me! All in all, food costs did not exceed 2,000pesos. Crazy, huh!

ROSETTE CAKE AND ROSETTE CUPCAKES

Rosette cupcakes were gifted by a generous ninang. I forgot how much the rosette cake costs, but it is definitely not more than 1,000pesos. It's lemon sponge cake with lemon curd. Yum.

THE DRESS

I saved a lot of money by making Alpha's baptismal dress. I knew I couldn't afford buying her one that isn't tacky and cheap. I conquered most of my sewing fears by making this dress. I could have done a lot of things better, but all in all I am happy with the outcome. I also made a matching diaper cover and bonnet. You could say our little riceball was all wrapped up in her mother's love.

So that's Alpha's Lemonade Party. I didn't have a ginormous budget to begin with, but I poured in a lot of love in making her little party. I am also lucky to have super talented friends. They're crazy talented and super nice, sometimes I wonder why they're even friends with good 'ol me!

What? You want more pictures?