For Henry’s first birthday party I was having a hard time deciding on a theme. Then boom! I see Hole In One parties and I LOVE IT! The best part is that my parents have a small putting green in their back yard which is where we were already planning on celebrating. Ah, serendipity! Once I had the theme I went on Pinterest for some ideas and there are so many great Masters, Hole in One, and golf parties. Some stuff spoke to me and other things I was not feeling. However there was a common theme amongst SO many of these parties, they all had these great molded golf ball cups with straws. Unfortunately they were out of stock everywhere when I went to buy them. The frustration was real. If you are planning on doing one of the above themes I highly recommend them to top each plate. Fingers crossed they are in stock for you!

Backdrop

I decided to do a backdrop for the party and the wildest thing happened: I was driving and saw Barnes & Noble throwing out their tables in the dumpster (the legs were removed so they were essentially large slabs of wood). We grabbed them and my dad sawed the arch into them, a little white dove paint and they were perfect! Always keep your eye out for things you can use for your events. The cost of wood is sky high right now and I can’t believe the score. For the custom wooden words I went to Etsy and used this vendor. I told her how I wanted one line with 2 fonts and she was able to accommodate me no problem, and ship quickly so that I would receive it in time. I spray painted the sign green and adhered it.

Food

I may have an unpopular opinion here but I like to calm it down with the food selection at theme parties. I notice if you pick a theme you will see these parties with the oddest buffets. For example: hole in ones (donut holes), watermelon “slices”, fruit par-faits, birdie bites (chicken nuggets)… it’s like ok we get the puns but am I really supposed to eat 10 servings of fruit, a donut and a chicken nugget right now?! I choose what makes sense and work the pun. With this all in mind : club sandwhiches, and chip putts, aka sandwiches and chips. It’s not that I don’t love a food pun but once the menu doesn’t make sense anymore then we have gone off track. We had a very small crowd but if it was bigger I would have added “greens” aka a salad.

Cake

I bought a mini golf cart as a cake topper and did a simple white cake. I went to Safeway and asked them to add one more layer than they typically offer and keep it simple. This is a great way to go if you want to avoid the bakery custom prices. I found out that we have a local bakery that does those beautiful custom cakes with fondant but the crowd size did not make sense for the price tag. I will keep them in my back pocket for future parties. So how did I go so wrong? Do as I say, not as I do. You’re looking at the photos and thinking “Whitney, did you make that cake? What’s all this cake buying advice?” Well all I can say is: DO NOT DRIVE FAST/OVER HILLS! When I opened the cake box to plate it I realized the layers had completley slid en route to the party and there was very little I could do to fix it with the time constraints. I will say that it looked fabulous and simple when I picked it up at the store.

Cookies

I got my inspiration from A Bakers House blog Here. I haven’t done such technically challenging cookies before but I had a blast at my first attempt. I decided to be happy with my first batch (imperfections and all) and dive deep into the sugar cookie decorating world at a later date. Packaging cleverly hides all wounds. These were a great replacement for the molded golf cups that I was unable to get.

Be sure to check out my Instagram reel from the party that shows more details of the day!

Shop The Party Here:

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