I know there are a lot of first birthday conversations but I'm curious what kind of budget people are planning on. 
A friend just had their child's first birthday party and spent $600. It was a picnic theme but they had it catered (30 people). 
We will have somewhere between 12-50 people, and will likely spend $100-$200.  I though $200 would be a lot, then i hear $600                
                

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Re: Party Budget
I made rachelmichelle1 my bitch.
We are spending $600-700 on the party. We are having it at a local restaurant because we don't have the room for a party of 30- 35.
The cake and smash cake are $85 and then it's $30 a plate for the adults and 5.99 a plate for the kids.
We put money away every month for this party. Next years party will be less than $30 - cake and ice cream at the house.
I think we are going to be looking at at least $600. We live in a very small apartment so we can't have it here and neither of our parents houses are big enough to accomodate an indoor party (in case it's too chilly/rains). So we're looking at fire halls and all of them around here are at least $400 for a 4 hour party. Add in decorations and food, with a guest list of probably 50 (DH has a big family) even with just very close friends and family. I'd LOVE to do something smaller, with less people and really wish I could have everyone at our place....I'm thinking the parties will taper off after birthday #2 probably. We spent I think like $1200 on his Christening, but that's because I did it at a restaurant/Irish pub so we had to pay for their food. It was totally ridiculous. However, what we did was take out a line of credit that will be solely for parties and an emergency fund that we just pay off within a month or two of the party.
Unless, someone has any ideas for party venues that aren't $400+ fire halls
  Needing to bring our own food is what basically narrows it down to a fire hall.
Unfortunately, our will probably be close to 700. We have just too many people to invite and since I don't want it in our house, it's going to be at a restaurant. I've looked at renting rooms, and they run around $600, then add food to that, it's just easier to have it at one place. We did something similar for DD1, and this time around there are more people - and that's just close friends and immediate family.
We go big on 1st birthdays, and then every other year is pizza and cake at the house for our parents and siblings and their kids. DD1 didn't really have another real birthday party till this year when she turned 4. We're Jewish, and didn't really make a huge naming (just family) so I'm ok with spending the money, especially since right now we do have it.
We opened the line of credit for his christening....because as I said, we have a very large family (that's close family/immediate family only) and close friends adds up to about 50 people and because it was a christening we had it at a restaurant. DH's family is religious so we wanted it to be very nice since christenings are such a big deal for his family.
We paid it off right after the party and decided to keep that as our party fund. That doesn't mean we're going to use the entire thing for every party. Trust me, if I could have a $25 party I would.
We throw an annual labor day pig roast bbq every year with around 60 people that costs us about $600, but $300 of that is just for the pig and I have every one else bring the rest of the food (sides, desserts etc).
Haha, I wish I had the balls to do that!
I figure we'll have about 15 to 20 people over for it, all adults, and mostly family. I suspect the family attending will want to pitch in and buy something to help out, so I doubt the expense will be too much for DH and me. Most, if not all, of the expenses will be on food and beverages.
I think Henry's party will be pretty casual...I suspect he'll nap through half of it ;-)
:-*
The more I think about it, the more I think that I seriously doubt even 15 people will show up. Probably closer to 10.
I agree - we are having about 30, out of the 30, 10 of them are under 10. And this is only our 3 sisters and their families, our parents, 2 uncles, 1 grandfather and 3 families that are very close to us. The number adds up quickly.
I have no idea what's gonna happen but I suspect my dad will want to go out to eat w some family since they're not here often. That's fine but anything beyond like cake and ginger ale is on his dime.
And any theme stuff I do is, obviously, for me not the one year old who will be oblivious
Thinking about it I might go closer to the $300 range bc my BIL will be home from Afghanistan for the week and this is the big opportunity for us to all get together.
I'm going a lil overboard with DIY stuff for the party because I need a project. So I'm making invitations and decorations. It feels good to be crafty.
Our budget is normally at least in the $1000 range, but we typically have around 50 people, hire a photographer (that way I don't have to worry about capturing pictures and I can be in some!), we usually cater food, and serve alcohol. So, it's pretty easy for things to add up. I'm also obsessed with high quality paper good/decorations and have someone make decorations, favor tags, invitations, food/drink labels, etc. to go with our theme and typically have outfits made for my kids.
The parties are always a huge hit with family and friends (we have several family members that travel to town just for my twins' party each year) and are a time of celebration for me and my husband too (we survived another year!). But, most importantly, my kids pick the theme (or I picked based on their favorite things when they were little) and LOVE every second of their party. The pictures captured are some of my very favorite and the girls' have one from each year hanging in their room.
That being said...they are SO time consuming and tiring and I'm not nearly as into with Max as I am with my girls. Soooo not fair to him, so I have to get it together! I will not fall victim to third child syndrome!