Mermaid Themed. First Birthday. Cake Smash. Photo Shoot.

When I was pregnant with my daughter, we didn’t make her a nursery. We just bought her furniture and stuck it in our bedroom and kept the guest room the way that it was. Second child syndrome for sure. The only thing we had to decorate for her area was a beautiful hand made one of a kind piece of artwork made by Veteran Earth featuring a mermaid.

When we bought our house, we finally made the baby a bedroom, and decided to go with a mermaid/ocean theme.

So when I was planning for Cadence’s first birthday photo shoot, we already had a theme in mind. MERMAID!

The next step in the planning process was to find the perfect photographer to document the occasion. I looked no further than Charlotte Fristoe. Not only does her work speak for itself, but she is a very close friend of mine. And I may or may not be one of her wedding day photography assistants. We brainstormed and she sent me some theme ideas and we ran with it!

What is a cake smash photo shoot without the cake? In comes Helda Sperry with LV’s Bakery. She had made the cake for my son’s birthday and it was gorgeous. I talked to her to see what she could do with a mermaid theme and she immediately had an idea. I told her I trusted her and to do what she does. This is what she came up with:

Perfect, right?!

Now for the styling of the shoot. Some of the theme pictures that Charlotte sent me gave me the idea of making a tutu. I am a pretty crafty person, so I knew I could make one myself and not have to pay someone else to do it. Then I thought, “I bet I could teach other people to do it too!” It was seriously so easy to make. Even if you aren’t crafty, you could totally make this tutu! So here we go:

Go to your local craft store and buy some tulle. I got a yard of each color and it was the perfect amount for what I was making. If you are going to make a tutu for an adult, you obviously would need more. You also need to buy some ribbon to tie the tulle around.

Next, I spread out the tulle so that it wasn’t folded and then bunched it up at the end to make it easier to cut into strips. And by easier, I mean WAY faster! I started out cutting strips and then realized I could streamline the process by bunching. Took me the same amount of time to cut the rest of the strips as it did to cut the first few before I started to bunch.

I took the ribbon I bought over to the baby and measured her waist with it and then added some room at the ends for the bow to tie it. Then I added a little bit more just in case. You can always cut more at the end. You can’t add!

To create the tutu, first you need to loop the fabric. Basically fold the piece in half length wise.

Place the looped tulle over the ribbon and then loop it back around the ribbon and through making sure to place both ends through the loop but also make sure that you have the ribbon in the middle. Don’t forget to leave room at the end of the ribbon before you start so there is room to tie the bow!

Pull tight! Then repeat with your other colors.

Continue the pattern of colors pushing the knots close together so there is no space between and no ribbon showing.

Continue until you either use all the tulle or you come to the end of where the ribbon needs to be to be able to tie the bow. Make sure all the knots are facing the same way and are fanned out!

Had to try it on to make sure it fit!

Now that I have tutu, I need some accessories to go with the color scheme and the theme. I took a trip to our local accessories store called Country Dollar. Everything in that place is $1 and there is something for everyone. I knew that it would get covered in icing, so only spending $1 was right up my alley. I thought some cute pearls would match well. And I found a green glittery headband and a purple flower to attach to it! Y-E-S!