Modern And Unique Party Idea: Glam Safari And Unlimited McDonald's Food

It is every mom's dream to plan a fun and memorable party for their little one especially if she's a first time mom like me. I started envisioning my baby's party starting when he was around 9 months old. I have envisioned something grand and big since my husband and I have agreed to celebrate my baby's 1st birthday AND baptism in a 2in1 party.

However, reality hit us while planning the party where we encountered challenges on the date, guest list, and budget. My son's birthday is on December which is a busy holiday for our friends and family so we had a concern that a lot of people may not come. We also realized when we were planning the guest list that most of our guests are adults with only a handful of kids so having a full entertainment for the children (i.e. magicians, party hosts, customized prizes etc.) may not be useful. Finally, money was a huge consideration to us because we're"kuripot" (thrifty) and we decided to spend our money to travel with our family instead of having a big party. So, there goes my grand party idea down the drain. I had to accept that our priorities come first before our... okay fine! MY dream party haha.

My husband and I decided to have our son's baptism in Santuario De San Antonio Parish in Taguig because it's closer to our home and the church allows private baptism. The fee is Php 4,000.00 which includes the private baptistry venue, 1 small towel, 2 baptism booklet, 1 print of baptismal certificate to be released after a week. If you need additional booklet for the godparents, you can purchase more from the parish office it’s around Php 20-30 each. I got 10 additional booklets from a generous mommy in one of my Mommy FB groups for FREE!

The church specifically requires parents to purchase smokeless candles in glass container so it will not drip and cause bad smell inside the air conditioned baptistry. You can purchase the special candles in the parish's admin office for around Php 50 each if I remembered it correctly.

We booked MR Villar, a wedding photographer and also our friend. He gave us a free quick family photo session before the ceremony and we just love the output of the photos!

I bought all baptism outfit from SM Department Store. I love the brand Little Blessings! They have a wide selection both for baby girls and boys depending on your budget. I bought 2 sets and each set costs around Php 1,500 for the top, shorts with attached suspender and a cap (ala Prince George!) and the baptism white gown with hat. Quite pricey but I bought the unisex type so I can just use this again for my future babies. The hanbok (traditional Korean outfit) that he wore was a gift from Min Joon’s haraboji or Korean grandfather. He bought it from a market in Korea, Seoul.  

For the godparent souvenirs, I was certain that I wanted to give them something one of a kind and not the usual baptismal sonuvenirs like cupcakes, cookies, succulents or rosaries. I wanted to add a wow sossy factor haha. I've inquired several grazing boxes via FB and IG but I couldn't find the best supplier that can meet my (low) budget so, I just DIY-ed my grazing box which is already good for 2 pax.

BTW, after posting my DIY grazing boxes online, several friends messaged me asking who my supplier was and they were amazed that I just DIY-ed it. It was a lightbulb moment for me when an ex-officemate ordered a customized SOLO box in bulk for her baby's baptism souvenir as well. Long story short, I now accept bulk orders as my side hustle. Message me on my Instagram (@tincowashere_) should you wish to inquire and order.

They say that the less resources you have, the more you become creative with your plans. After so much discussion with my husband regarding the reception, we finally chose McDonald's as our venue for a hassle-free preps that's within budget BUT we wanted to style the venue so it will not look like the McDonald's usual kiddie party. We also added extra frills or "pakulo" so our party will be unique, memorable, and appealing for both kids and kids at heart.

We held our party in NXTGen McDonalds McKinley West, Taguig. This is the very first NXTGen store in the Philippines. We chose this branch because of spacious parking lot, it's very close to our chosen church, and the interiors are modern which is perfect for my party theme.

The theme was glam safari because I'm into this modern, green and gold motif, and gender neutral theme. Then as an added wow factor, we declared UNLIMITED ORDER OF MCDO and MCCAFE to all of our guests (est. 90 pax attended. max capacity of the whole 2nd floor was 100). Note that the idea came from us and we asked permission to the branch (all the way to their GM daw) if we can execute our wild idea. We were turned down for the first time because initially, we wanted our guests to do self-order and self-service however it would cause disruption of flow and traffic in the kitchen department so they've agreed to our unli order idea only if they will take orders manually to our guests (like a sit-down restaurant).

NOTES: Not all branches would allow you to have the party venue styled. There are restrictions when it comes to the themes. I believe it should not have any conflict with their own characters AND character partnerships or licenses. Not all branches will also allow you to execute this unlimited order scheme too. You need to really talk to the manager first.

There's a Php 2,000 reservation fee per time slot if you want to have a party in McDonald's. I booked 2 slots so that my party stylist can do their ingress at least 2-3 hours prior. The Php 2,000 fee includes FREE use of party room, full hosting, 30 invitations/ party hats/ activity traymats/ balloons, 10 giveaways, 15 prizes, free gift for the celebrant, free McDonald's character appearance (up to 2 characters except Ronald).

You also need to ask how many is the minimum order of their food mix in order to secure your desired room. We reserved the entire 2nd floor so we ordered 50 sets of food with this breakdown: 30 sets of Mix#2 (chicken spaghetti with fries, drinks, and sundae) @ Php 195/set and 20 sets of Mix#4 (same as #2 but with additional happy meal) @ Php 206/set.

I booked Party Dish, a professional kiddie party stylist to help me transform my ideas into life. I initially wanted to DIY the venue styling however, I didn’t have time and manpower to help me set-up the venue so I hired a professional to do it for me. I'm very particular with the styling and I would really browse each suppliers' portfolio to check whether their work is beautiful and I am very happy that I found Party Dish because their styling was really on point.

Since the ordering process would be manual aka sit down restaurant style, McDonald's requested that we put table numbers so that they will not have a hard time delivering the orders to our guests. I gave them the instruction to get the names, table number, and order to have a smooth transaction.

For the cake, our friend and owner of Felynn Cakes made this 2 tiered beautiful and super moist chocolate cake. It was exactly how I envisioned my baby's cake would look like. This is 8x6" edible top and 12x7" dummy bottom. I love working with Felynn as she is very prompt, organized, and she gave me several options depending on my budget. The cake was sponsored by my sister so I will not disclose the price here but you may inquire directly to Felynn Cakes since prices will also vary depending on your requirements and design.

I photoshopped the party mechanics and had it printed in a tent card type at Superstore Inc. because we didn't hire a party host anymore. We don't want to keep on announcing or reminding our guests on what to do so we just printed these materials for everyone's convenience. I paid around Php 1,200 for 20-30 tent cards. I initially thought of printing the mechanics in 1 big tarpulin but I figured that guests might not read it so I opt to place tent cards per table (1-2 pieces each) so no more questions asked--good idea right?

I DIY-ed my baby's Doljanchi or Dol table (see explanation below) and placed it outside for our guests to check out and vote. I gathered all props from home and did not spend anything in creating this Dol table.

I also didn't contract any kiddie activity supplier anymore--you know those art and crafts area because there's a McDonald's Playplace already and it's for FREE! The children enjoyed climbing up and going down the slide.

For my souvenirs, I wanted to have something customized, useful, and appealing to both kids and adults so I booked Stamp Studio. The custom stamps were made on the spot (need to wait few minutes of course) and it was such a hit for everyone!

I'm super OC when planning an event and very particular when it comes to execution and designs so I made my own design via photoshop and downloaded "millennial" fonts and free vectors online. The idea was to make a family/ personal monogram or gift stamps that are perfect for the gift giving season (or any occasion!).

I didn't buy additional prizes anymore because the giveaways and prizes included in the package is more than enough for the number of children invited. I also purposely chose Food Mix #4 so that the 20 happy meal will serve as additional game prizes as well.

Part of the package includes free party host who helped us with the entire program but since we added few special segments in our agenda (the Korean Doljanchi ceremony and the playing of 365 days growing up AVP... yes, we brought our own TV haha!), my husband volunteered to host those parts as a personal touch.

My husband was so thrilled because our baby chose the soccer ball during the Doljanchi Korean ceremony which signifies a professional (soccer) athlete. I wanted my son to get the money (wealth) or microphone so maybe he can be a Kpop idol someday haha!

As a prize for the Doljanchi ceremony, we said that we will draw 1 lucky winner to get a chance to win up to Php 200,000 as the grand prize (for real!). Our guests didn't know that the prize was a sweepstakes ticket!

We showed our DIY AVP showing our son's first 365 days. My husband and I filmed each milestone and travels with our baby. It was our special project for our beloved son. Please do watch the video below and please please subscribe to our YouTube channel!

For the finale, we sang happy birthday and did the cake ceremony with Grimace and Birdie. Everyone went home so happy and so full with all the food they ate that day. Our hearts as parents were so full as well seeing our baby happy and pulling this wild party idea successfully.

Mommy Tin's Tips:

1. If you will not hire a party coordinator, ensure that there's someone from your family or trusted friend at least to help monitor if all pre-ordered food came out completely (monitor the release of your ice cream because they usually serve this last). Ensure you get all inclusions from the package as well because we didn't receive the special gift for the celebrant and the free GCs promised to us.

2. McDonald's party manager will most likely not be able to identify a dedicated party host and team until 1-2 days before the event because they work on a shift and availability. What you can do is to get the contact person of the manager and coordinate everything to him/her. All special agreements must be put into writing (with signatures) and must be cascaded to the team handling your party. Mine was stapled together with my contract.

3. You can customize the program flow like what we did. We shared the program flow to our host the day itself. Ensure that program is simple and organized because of time constraint.

4. Talk to your party stylist if they have experience setting up in a fast food chain venue. Usually there's a 30min. window per slot for the ingress that's why I booked 2 slots just so my stylist can set-up at least 2 hours prior. Our party started on the 2nd hour and entire program lasted for 1 hour 30 mins. only.

5. Payment must be settled after the party. Our bill was close to Php 30,000 net for the pre-ordered food and unli food + reservation fees. It can still be lowered if you chose the cheaper food mix (#1) and if you have few guests of course (ours was close to 90 pax).

So, there you have it! That’s how we planned our son’s birthday and baptism party. You just have to work on what you have, stick to your priorities and budget, and of course, you need to be creative to make it memorable. At the end of the day, a party that’s big or small or perhaps no party at all won’t matter. What matters most is that you and your family are together celebrating your child’s milestone and your little one is happy.