Last weekend we finally threw my son’s first birthday! It was so much fun! I had my doubts about whether or not I could actually throw a boy party and well to be honest, I was all over the map with different themes, but about 6 months ago, my husband ultimately chose the theme and it was honestly perfect.
Top Gun is one of his favorite movies and we were actually watching it one night when it hit him that we should do a Top One theme for our little guy. To be honest- I think Joey is just now really getting into the birthday party planning more than ever before because he finally gets to throw some parties that align more with his interests, if you know what I mean lol. Not that he didn’t enjoy the themes we did for our daughter, but the boy things are obviously more within his realm/world.
So anyways, we landed on the theme and I was so excited to see how it all came together on the big day! As usual, I spent months planning and designing things I wanted to make for the party. We chose an outdoor brewery that is local to us to throw the party, ironically it’s called Hangar 24 and fit our theme perfectly! We rented out their rooftop patio and it was so much fun. Enjoy my photo diary of the day and I’ll link what I can!
Upon arrival upstairs, guests were greeted with our little aviator walls!
+ we bought the wood pieces from Home Depot and then painted them and my husband glued on the pegs (we took the sunglasses with us to pick pegs from Home Depot and got the ones that fit both sets of sunglasses).
+ baby sunglasses for the little little ones : on the smaller circular board
+ the little frame I bought at Ikea (actually bought 12 of them), and then I created and printed graphics with quotes from Top Gun on Canva to put them around on tables at the venue.
+ American Flags in bulk : bought these flags and then used my girlfriends amber vases throughout the venue for table centerpieces.
The rooftop had this really cool indoor hallway which we thought was perfect for some makeshift Top Gun movie posters. My husband made these and now one of them is hanging in our playroom (next to a poster we made of our daughter for her 2nd birthday) and the others we gave away to family! They’re so cute and such great keepsakes! The venue had a live band playing (they do every weekend), but in this little hallway area, we brought a bluetooth speaker and played songs from the Top Gun movies, which was really fun.
The color scheme I wanted was very specific, I didn’t want the vibe to be anything like “the 4th of July”, but still knew we needed to incorporate that all American feel since the movie is about the American Navy after all. So I chose dark reds and dark blues and had that military green color to add in the mix, along with pops of tan and gray/silver. I love how it all came together.
For the dessert table, my girlfriend made cupcakes and cake pops and a smash cake for our little guy! We had a bigger cake delivered later, we went for something simple with the cakes and actually had some old toy jets that were my husbands from when he was little, which we put on top of the cakes. Then I made the TOP ONE cake topper on Canva as well!
+ gray table covers (bought 2, one for the activity table)
+ jet cupcake toppers : this is the exact link I used, the toppers that came obviously did not look like the picture presented, but I actually ended up liking them more!
+ american flag cupcake toppers
+ plastic toy jets : bought about 3 packs of these to decorate the dessert table, and then also the various tables around the venue.
+ american flag paper straws : bought these at Hobby Lobby! But linking similar from amazon.
+ silver spoons, forks, knives : bought at Party City before it shut down!
For the activity table, I had the goodie bags laid out and then we had magnets of all shapes out on the table with acryllic paint pens for kids to make their own little magnets!
Goodie Bags
+ navy blue goodie bags : I made the gift tag logo on Canva and then printed them, cut them, and tied them to the goodie bags!
+ TOP GUN stickers : I bought the 100 pack of these and then put 2 on each goodie bag and then a few inside each goodie bag as well.
+ red, white, blue bubbles (bought enough to put 3 in each goodie bag)
+ paper airplane toy (put 2 in each bag)
+ toy parachute army men (like 4 in each bag lol)
+ custom aviator tag : we bought these and then using our cricut machine, made stickers of all the kids names on them!
*one thing about me, I hate trash party favors, like I’ll never do fill the bag with chips or crap candy. I like to be on theme with everything in the bag and I also like it to make sense, like maybe the kids open some of the toys (which they did) to play with at the party, and then if it ends up in the trash after 10 minutes, cool. I’m fine with that lol. If I can, because I’m a little nerdy, if the things I pack in the bag can be educational or sensory provoking in some way, I like incorporating that aspect too, for example, for my daughters 3rd birthday- Under the Sea, I did kinetic sand for everyone to take home! Love an on theme and useful/fun goodie!
Next to the goodie bags we had these little canvas magnets for the kids to draw their own “badges” was the thing we were going for lol. My husband grabbed the acrylic paint markers and magnets from Hobby Lobby.
At the end of the hallway, we had this cute little backdrop set up. I’m a sucker for a cute, custom backdrop and don’t think any party is complete unless there’s a balloon arch/garland of some sort.
+ gray backdrop cover (set of 3) : so we bought this one and had planned to use 2 of the 3, but when we got to the venue, the second arch didn’t end up working in the space, so we just stuck with the biggest one. My husband drew on the logo while we had the arch set up in our garage and then I painted it. He also made the little make shift cardboard jet that we hung on the wall.
I bought three separate packs of balloons to make the arch. I exclusively use this balloon garland tape. It’s always hit or miss if Amazon actually has it, so if I am running low I immediately order one just to always have some in my garage lol. I’ve made a lot of ballon arches over the years and this garland tape is by far the most reliable and easy to use. I hate the garland tapes that are plastic and super rigid, this one is very flexible which gives you some more creative control with balloons.
Now it wouldn’t be a first birthday party without a cute highchair moment for the smash cake! Little hack– I did this with my daughter for her first birthday,- go to Ikea and get the $20 highchair they have, it’s plastic and white which will go with any theme, and use it. Rather than using your high chair from home and stressing about cleaning it, you can toss the plastic one right after the party!
The little army print skirt fabric, I bought at JoAnns. I didn’t want the skirt to feel girly but wanted to decorate the highchair somehow and had this vision of using fabric that the Navy would throw over a jet to hid it if it was doing recon in the hills or something, and JACKPOT, JoAnns had the perfect fabric for it!
The sign behind the highchair was DIY. We measured and bought the fabric at JoAnns and then my husband drew the design and I painted it. We used the actual Top Gun flag design for inspiration- and before you even *think* why didn’t you just use the actual flag– google it. I was not allowing that bright ass colored flag to throw off my aesthetic lol. Also, it is a standard flag size and we wanted something bigger anyways for the wall behind the highchair.
Outfit Links
+ my jumpsuit – I absolutely loved the jumpsuit and will for sure wear it again. For the party, I bought stick on velcro tape and stuck on the “Mom” patch and the “Top Gun” patch, which I just peeled off after the party and now I have a cute jumpsuit for later!
+ Toddler pilot suit – we did the same thing and ordered an “Avery” patch and then used the stickers to velcro the patches on, although her costume suit did come with the velcro already on the suit itself, we just had to stick on the specific patches. We also ended up cutting the pants because the were a little too long for her and we planned on having her tuck them in to some Doc Martin boots, but the weather got too hot so the boots were out lol.
+ VELCRO tape – so easy to use!
+ Dad’s TOP GUN bomber- okay, this is a little crazy I know, but I mentioned that Top Gun is one of my husband’s favorite movies, so we actually went online and bought an authentic, real leather, replica of the bomber Tom Cruise wears in the movie. I’m not linking (message me if you want the exact link) because it was $$$ lol.
+ Baby pilot bomber – this came as a costume with pants and the whole pilot hat/goggle situation. We just wanted the bomber so tossed the other stuff and had my son wear a white tee and jeans with it, basically how Tom Cruise wears it in the movie.
I am (as usual) already having party blues and am just so happy with how everything turned out, and really more than anything, it was just a great celebration for our little guy turning one!
On Another Coast 