Novella’s Groovy One | Atlanta Intimate Gatherings Event Photographer

Novella is thirteen months now but here are her photos from her first birthday. I didn’t get a lot of photos of her, because you all know, as mama has stressed, she doesn’t always like being in photos. It’s actually because she wants mama to pick her up but when mama is on the other side of the camera taking the photo, she doesn’t cooperate.

I love how everything turned out. It took a lot of time doing DIY things but that’s mainly because we had to space out time to do it. In-between nap time and doing yard work! Having a party outdoor is great! Having the space for it, is great! Cleaning up the yard, not so great lol. But it was all worth it because we celebrated my sweet Novella and had an amazing time with friends and family.

The Little Tikes Coupe was one of Novella’s gift but since we got it early I decided to make it over and sports the Volkswagen theme. At the time I wasn’t too sure if we were going to have a rainbow back drop but it worked! The cozy coupe was the perfect addition that brought everything together. I used chrome car trimming that can be found at any auto parts store. The Volkswagen emblem was from Etsy!

I normally order custom sugar cookies but mama wanted to DIY them since our friend made the same cookies (but a Cars theme) and they weren’t so bad. I tweaked the cookies buy decreasing the sugar by 1/4 cup because I knew I was going to frost them which would have made the cookies a little too sweet for my taste. They turned out so good!!! I was quite impressed with myself.

My friend Tam helped with making the flower power treats and my bestie Jenni provided the goodie bag contents. Shout out to my work wife, Genie for making the tissue papered number “1” prop!

Coming out of being pregnant and not really being able to do as much craft projects during my pregnancy with Nova, I was really on a DIY high lol. I attempted a rainbow cake and boy was I nervous!!! I knew if it failed I could run to Publix and get a white coconut cake as an alternative. But oh my my you guys. It turned out perfect! I mean, I could have probably did a better job at frosting but the whole point of a naked cake is the imperfection. Thank you Target for the rainbow boxed cake mix. All I did was make the butter whipped frosting. Butter frosting is quite easy and the recipe I used was from Preppy Kitchen on Youtube. I have yet to make a recipe from John Kennel that didn’t turn out. I’ve made his pizza dough recipe, his gingerbread cookies and his chicken noodle soup. I want to order his cookbook but haven’t gotten around to it yet.

We all thought the rainbow cake was totally RAD and GROOVY!!!

The kids station included a sand table, face painting and a beaded craft table. Atlanta Party People was a big hit for the kids! Their service includes costumed characters, magicians, Dj’s and even balloon artists. Do yourself a favor book their services for your next party friends!

When I saw the Volkswagen Coupe was a hit, I mean it was A HIT! It was the highlight of the day for our little friends, Jasper and Jules.

I remembered to take a photo with the hubby! We usually don’t get a photo with each other cause we’re always running around either hosting or cooking lol. I mean, Vu in a fro wig…yes we had to get a photo together, just mama and dada.

According to Vietnamese tradition (but also because I forgot about it for Brayden’s birthday and wanted to make sure I remembered for Nova), a small ceremony that includes placing twelve items in front of the one year old where he/she then picks from. Each “grab” item represents something and depending on your culture, you can have the items represent hobbies or careers. Nova touched the toy drill then changed her mind and picked up the puzzle pieces (which I looked up and saw that you can use puzzle pieces to represent Engineer/Architect). Of course my baby girl is an Engineer! Smarty and crafty.

After we sang happy birthday, we switched out her cake for her mini smash cake so she could go at it! I took her cake smash photo earlier on that morning and I’m so glad I did. We got smiling photos and she really enjoyed the session this go round. She also got to experience the cake smash in private and at her own pace. Without making an announcement when we started to sing happy birthday, all Novella could do was eye her cake and didn’t even care that people started to surround her. All because she knew that she was going to get her hands on some more yummy. Loves cake like her Mama!!! Happy First Birthday my love, my babygirl. We loved celebrating you and love you so much!