Fishing Themed Birthday Party Inspiration

If you’re on the hunt for some fishing-themed birthday party inspiration, you’ve come to the right place. I had so much fun with this fishing themed birthday party for our little one-year-old!  I went with “Reeling in the Big One! He’s O-Fish-ally One!” While I try not to go too overboard with birthdays, I do love a good themed birthday party, especially for a first birthday! Conquering that first year of babyhood is such an accomplishment, so why not celebrate big?

Everything turned out so well! But if I’m being honest, I have to admit that I definitely over-extended myself this time. As always, I should’ve done more prep-work leading up to the big day. A huge thanks goes out to my hubby, my parents, and our niece and nephew for helping make my vision come to life the day of the party! Woof. It just wasn’t going to happen without more hands on deck, and eyes on children. haha!

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Okay, let’s talk details!

Fishing Themed Birthday Party – INvitation Details

First, you’ve got to start with a great invite – but make it easy! All I do is find the perfect invite on Etsy; they’re usually in the $3-$10 range for an instant-download of the file. Once I make my edits, I get it downloaded and then just send it as an image in a group text or email to our guests. I like to send the invite about three to four weeks ahead of the event, and then I usually send a reminder and request for RSVPs about five days prior to the party.

Here’s the invite I used for the fishing party:

Fishing Themed Birthday Party – Inspiration

Once you get the invite sent, you need to start thinking about how you’d like to incorporate the theme on the actual day of the party. You can go hog wild, or keep things simple. I think I ended up somewhere in the middle for this one. Ha!

I use pinterest to gather ideas in one place for food, decor, and other pertinent ideas. You can see my pinterest board that I used for inspiration here. There are SO many ideas out there, and using a platform like Pinterest really helps you hone in on what you really like and envision for your fishing themed party.

Keep in mind, I was using this theme specifically for a first birthday. I definitely think you can repurpose these ideas for a more general “Gone Fishing” party, or just use the “O-Fish-ally” tag for any age!

Fishing Themed Birthday Party – Menu

Food is a big component when gathering people for a party. Don’t overlook the importance of planning a menu, budgeting for things like table service, and understanding how much food you need to feed your crowd.

For our menu, I wanted to make it simple, easy to make ahead (which I could’ve done better!), and serve comforting foods.

Menu:

• Entree: Pulled Pork Sandwiches
• Side: Hot Cheesy Potatoes
• Side: Cold Italian Pasta Salad
• Side: Fish ‘n Chips
• Dessert: Dirt ‘n Worms (instead of cake, we had a small cupcake for the birthday boy!)
• Snacks: We had plenty of candy and goodies that went along with the theme (see photos)
• Drinks: Bottled Water, Punch (see photo), juice boxes for kids

It was really fun to incorporate the fishing theme into our food displays and preparation! Take a look:

Bait ‘n Tackle Box

For the Bait ‘n Tackle Box, I did buy a new tackle box because our oldest has an overflowing tackle box that won’t currently close. So, I bought this with the intention of using after the party, which works great! I’m sure you could find cheap options, or do something similar. You might even be able to clean one up that you already have, and then line it with some paper for added health safety.

I loaded the tackle box up with a bunch of snacks, and it was such a hit! I used a variety of gummy worms, swedish fish, and then goldfish crackers for something a bit more savory. One thing that I did not get to was making cute little labels for everything, like “bait”, “worms”, “minnows”. You can find more inspiration for that on Pinterest, too!

Fish ‘n Chips

The Fish ‘n Chips display was so clever and cute! Again, we didn’t have a fishing net for our young fisherman, so I did buy one new and he’ll use it for future fishing adventures (here’s a similar option). You could very easily repurpose one you already have or buy one cheap. I simply bought individual packs of chips and loaded up the net with them. While I had mind spilling out of the net laying on the island, I did see a display that had the net hanging up. That was neat, too!

Dirt ‘n Worms

We love Dirt ‘n Worms! It’s an easy dessert that can be made quickly (putting it all together takes more time than actually mixing and prepping the ingredients), and it’s delicious!

I envisioned making these in the little white ice cream cups that have lids, which look very similar to the bait containers you buy worms in for fishing. I was going to write in sharpie on them “Bait”, too! But, I had no such luck when I was at the store. So, I pivoted and ended up with these cute “Fuel for Life” cups instead.

Eric ended up getting these completely put together, and it worked well so that everything was already together for each individual. He layered in the pudding mixture with the crushed oreos, then added the spoon and the lid, and the little fishing pole pick was the finishing touch!

Fishing Hole Punch

This punch is so good, and so incredibly easy! It’s only three ingredients – Blue Hawaiian Punch (or whatever color you need to fit your theme!), Pineapple Juice, and Sprite. But, the most important ingredient for this recipe is the bobbers – haha!

Fishing Themed Birthday Party – Decor

As far as the decor, I kept things fairly minimal. I used a metallic blue disposable tablecloth for our main food display (see above photos), and then we draped this fish net over that to play on the theme a bit. It turned out cute!

For first birthdays, I’ve always displayed each month’s milestone photo for the kiddo’s first year. I found this adorable felt bobber banner that you can use to display the photos. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality; it’s a great set, especially for the price point!

We used the photo banner and included streamers as the backdrop for the birthday boy’s cake smash celebration. We were outside, so we just taped everything to the siding of our house. It worked well.

He is the third and final baby of ours to sit in my childhood highchair for his first birthday celebration! It is a small, but special, sentiment for me. I highly encourage making use of your childhood things that have been passed down. I even have the matching rocking chair to this highchair that each of my kiddos have used. So special!

Anywho, that was the main decorated area outside for the party. The only other small touch we added were these cute fish-shaped paper lanterns that we hung on our umbrella up on the deck. They are really cute, and great quality!

Fishing Themed Birthday Party – Added Touches

And one final, simple touch that will be so fun to look back on in the future – an on-theme Guest Book! I totally saw this in my Pinterest searches, and knew I had to do it! And bonus, we already had the “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish” book in our collection! I had all of our guests sign the book for the birthday boy to enjoy when he’s older.

And I have to share this adorable little on-theme outfit that I was so very close to purchasing. I didn’t end up getting it because I had already purchased a simple little onesie for him. I knew that money could be better spent – ha! This t-shirt is a cute option, as well!

We had such a great time celebrating our little one. I hope this post gives you some ideas and inspiration for your next fishing-themed party! If you have questions, please leave a comment below. I’ll also be sharing some photos and video/reel footage over on my Instagram account…follow me there, too!

To the Chaos!

-MG

 

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