FIRST BIRTHDAY PIZZA SMASH

FIRST BIRTHDAY PIZZA SMASH 

The first birthday cake smash has been a tradition for quite some time now and was made even more popular with the rise of social media. Professional photographers, studio set ups, expensive cakes – a lot of time, money and effort I never felt I could justify just for my baby to smash a cake and then maybe eat some of it. Yes, it’s totally in part because I was upset I would have to watch someone waste a great cake I could be eating. So when B turned one I felt the pressure to have a cake smash done and did a pretty shotty DIY version. I made some Minnie Mouse themed decor to hang on her Ikea high chair, attempted to make an awesome cake that looked more like something from an episode of Nailed It but luckily still got some awesome photos to look back on. Oh, and she barely ate that cake and shoved the entire thing off the tray after ten minutes of poking it. 

So as the twins first birthday approached I could feel the pressure once again setting in. I didn’t want to avoid a smash completely – I’d feel bad if one kid had those photos to look back on and the others didn’t. But doing a cake smash just felt so unoriginal and for once, Pinterest was kind of letting me down. So after some thought I decided, why not do a pizza smash? We all know my love for pizza, the twins loved eating pizza and it was an idea I hadn’t seen done before. I checked Pinterest and saw a few Italian ones, but none that were just loving on everything pizza. 

So that’s how we came about to doing a First Birthday Pizza Smash!

THE SET UP

I decided that keeping this simple was the best option for two reasons. One, I wanted the focus to be two things: pizza and cute kids. Second, I wanted to keep it as cheap and low waste as possible since I knew there’d be a lot of uneaten pizza and I wouldn’t have the need for any pizza decor later on.

Letterboard: we already owned.

Pizza lights: we already owned (I wasn’t kidding about the love for pizza…)

Pizza board: we already owned

Cake Stand (I couldn’t find a cheaper one at any other store around me, not even the dollar store!): https://www.partycity.com/ca/white-cupcake-stand-609114.html

Streamers: leftover from past birthdays – purchased for $1 each at the dollar store

Pizza: we did bagel bites, pizza pockets, pizza bites and then two cheap, no name brand freezer pizzas. I spent under $15 total on the pizza! 

EAT, EAT MORE AND BE MERRY

Did they love it? ABSOLUTELY! I mean, it is pizza… How could they not? It got messy, it was yummy and I totally joined in a few times to steal a few slices. I got the shots by putting my Canon 70D on a tripod and using my phone as the shutter button. Canon cameras that are wifi enabled have a Canon app; so you can join them onto the canon wifi and use your phone as a shutter button, see the camera screen on your phone and then access the camera’s camera roll too. This means I can have the camera at the perfect height and angle but move anywhere in the room I need to to get a good shot. I usually have it on high speed shutter to catch the smiles! 

PIZZA NOT YOUR FAVOURITE?

That’s okay! There are so many foods that you can make into a first birthday smash, like

• Donuts
• Tacos
• Pasta
• Cookies
• Cupcakes
• Fruit
• Pie 
• Cereal

Whatever food you or your baby love. Go for it!