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Planning a Fire Truck or Firefighter Birthday Party: Invitations

fire life, Living Life, Parenting 2 Responses »

Nov 082010

This week I’ll be giving you insight into how to plan a fire truck or firefighter themed birthday party. You know, since I am.

Today I’m going to talk about invitations. I don’t know why, but I love picking invitations. Kind of like I enjoy looking through site after site for the perfect Christmas card. I found quite a few during my month long search. I ended up going one route, but I thought I would share a few possibilities with you.

First of all, I love photo invitations. I hit Etsy first this year, and really liked this fire truck photo card.

I love the colors! (Though, as the designer states, you can change them. She even shows the yellow as a blue background which is equally adorable.) In fact, this whole Etsy listing is really awesome. I love when designers are willing to work with customers, and Announcing You sounds like she really, really gets the concept.

As an aside, because I love giving credit when it’s due, the photography in this photo card is by Captured Moments by Mandie.

Next up, a digital-scrapbook-like photo card design.

This scrapbook-like fire engine invitation from Scrapless Press is stinking adorable. I love the dalmatian spots detailing, the hose at the bottom with the RSVP date and the general “vintage” feel of this particular invite. I also love the wide spot for a photo. So perfect.

I also found a surprisingly large number of non-photo firetruck invitations that were just as cute.

This red and yellow fire truck invitation was my favorite on Etsy.

By RachelP at Etsy, this listing is actually for a printable invitation. You tell her what you want on it (names, dates, locations, etc), she whips it together and emails it to you. (Just like the above invitations, in fact.) I love the bright, bold colors, the fun uses of font and that spectacular fire engine!

This fun fire truck invitation by Invitation Consultants rounded out my favorites.

Apparently yellow is a big color to compliment red, and it works well here, too. I like the simplicity of this card combined with the general fun of the flashing lights. I can almost hear the sirens. As an added bonus, Invitation Consultants are fancy-pants and offer matching things like address labels and postage all in one place. Super fun.

As much as I liked all of these invitations, I went with another one — for a few reasons. I got generally overwhelmed by the choices and waited too long to print them myself. I definitely wanted a photo card. And, really, who doesn’t like ease of use combined with a good price?

I ended up going with a fire truck photo card invitation from Snapfish.

Ease of use is huge for me with our schedules. I imported my photos from flickr to Snapfish, inserted them into the fire truck card, added the info, paid the extra for one day shipping (oops) and, voila! We have ourselves a firefighter themed birthday invitation with two of my favorite little firefighters! (If the link doesn’t work, go to Snapfish, log in or create an account (it’s free), click on products, cards, browse all cards and search for “fire birthday.” It will be the first result.)

Honorable mentions go to Tiny Prints’ fire engine birthday card (non-photo), Lil’ Duck Duck for their “brothers” fire engine birthday invitation and simplicitycitypapers on Etsy for an elegant black, white and red fire truck invitation.

Tomorrow I’ll talk about fire truck party decorations. Which means I should probably make a final pick and order ours today. Let me get right on that…

[Disclaimer: I paid for the invitations I ordered. I accepted no compensation for linking to other invites. This is pure opinion up in this piece.]

What Do I Want for My Birthday? Glad You Asked!

Living Life 18 Responses »

Apr 092010

FireDad asked me what I want for my birthday, which falls near the end of this month. I looked at him and said, as I do every year, “I don’t know.”

I lied.

I didn’t do it intentionally. The “I Don’t Know” answer is an automatic reflex. “What do you want for dinner?” I don’t know. “Where do you want to go on our date?” I don’t know. “Why can’t you ever just answer my questions with a decisive answer?” I. Don’t. Know. I usually have answers to these things. Something spicy. The theatre, and not the movie kind. Because I like to drive you crazy? Right?

The truth is that there are a lot of things I might want to open on my birthday. A funky fisheye lens and adapter from Photojojo would be swell. Or some good books. Or even what I assume is a horrible book, though I still feel compelled to read it. I’m also eying this awesome necklace on Etsy.

But I didn’t feel like telling him any of those things. Sure, stuff is nice. But, what I really want for my birthday is for someone, be it my (loving, attentive) husband or my (loud but loving) sons or my parents or my friends or my (stinky but loving) brother or, really, anyone to make a Big Deal about my birthday. Not with gifts. Just a Big Deal. I want someone to bake me a cake. Or buy one. Or cupcakes! I want a nice dinner with my family. Or without them. I want music to be playing. I think I might want a glass of wine. Or three. I want to hear laughter. I want to be surrounded by my friends and family. Not a fancy thing. Not a big thing.

That’s right.

I want a birthday party.

When I was thirteen, which is a big birthday for a girl, none of my friends remembered that it was my special day. No one said, “Welcome to teenagedom!” No one gave me a card. No one passed me a note in the hallway wishing me a happy day and year. I got on the bus and cried all the way home. The year that I turned twenty-five, FireDad had to work. I stopped at the grocery store to buy myself a cake mix, some frosting (these were my pre-baking/cooking days) and margarita mix. When the cashier asked if I was throwing a party, I said, “It’s my birthday!” She said, “You’re baking your own cake? That’s sad.” I cried the whole way home. I know the song goes, “It’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to,” but I’d really like to experience a birthday without tears. Unless they’re ones of happiness or laughter.

I’ll soon turn twenty-nine. I remember being young and thinking that 29 sounded positively ancient. It’s not. In fact, I’m realizing as those numbers loom at the end of this month that it is so very young. And you know what? I’ve done a lot with my twenty-nine years. And I’m proud of it, of myself. Even though LittleBrother told me, just this morning, that twenty-nine was “vewwy, vewwy owld.” I’ll remind him of that some day but, knowing him, he’ll probably just laugh. I could learn a lesson or two from his easy-going personality.

I’m unsure if I’ll throw something together for my birthday or not. I know that my parents will probably drive out, given that my birthday is on a Sunday. April weather is fickle so I can’t necessarily plan a cookout or anything spectacular. But I know I want people to be around, and not just my three favorite boys. I’m not asking for a surprise party (I hate surprises). I’m just asking for a get-together. Without a house/brush/vehicle fire calling my husband away from the house as happens almost every year.

Is that too much to ask?

So, who is coming?

_
[Disclosure: Some of the links above are through Amazon Associates. Others are not. And if you buy that Etsy necklace for any purpose other than gifting it to me, I'll cry. See above for how I feel about crying this birthday.]