So my daughter will be ONE in October, we cannot believe it! We seriously cannot believe we have been parents for almost a year. Time has flown by so quickly and we're enjoying every moment. Seems like just yesterday, we were getting ready for baby showers, now here we are planning her first birthday party. I am having so much fun planning her birthday party, I literally spend all day on my laptop or phone looking at things to order lol. This is our only child's first birthday so we are going above and beyond for our princess. She won't remember anything, but we will have plenty of pictures for her to look back on. So, we (my husband, my parents, my in-loves, and myself) are pretty much done with the planning, at least most of it. Her party will be October 28th. We have already booked a venue (our home is big enough, but my husband and I do not really like a lot of people to be in our home plus the decoration will look better in a venue), hired a decorator, hired a photographer, ordered invitations, started ordering party favors, found someone to dress as Princess Tiana (in pink haha). The theme is African Princess just like her nursery and one of our baby showers. The only thing left to do is order cakes and cupcakes, plan a menu, order more favors, give/mail invitations out, order her party outfits, order our shirts (I'm probably gonna dress like her), but everyone else (my husband, parents, and in-loves)will wear shirts. Any advice on when to start giving out invitations? We can't decide whether or not we're going to cook, have the food catered, or a mixture of both. I absolutely love to cook, however I have never cooked for a large amount of people. We're expecting a huge crowd because we both live away from family and many family members will be coming into town for the party. Not to mention my sorority sisters' children, my husband has several fraternity brothers with children, and he has a few co-workers with little children. I'm leaning more toward ordering food because there's no way we can cook enough for everyone. For those of you who have already been through this, what did you do? Also, how can I include my mom? My husband and I want to include her in the party because her and my daughter share a birthday. However, she insists that it's all about her granddaughter. They're having a small joint party back in my hometown the week before the extravaganza lol. She says the small party will be enough, but I would like to include her in some way in the big party also. Maybe order her own cake? Please ladies, leave tips regarding food, invitations, anything, etc. And please NO rude comments. I do not know what rude comments anyone can say about a child's birthday party, but I've seen people make rude comments on so many topics.