I love putting together events for people. In fact I dream of starting my own event planning business, that would also include photography. Last summer I was given the opportunity to throw a baby shower for one of my closest friends. It was so much fun! I waited with baited breath to find out the sex of the baby so I could begin to plan. Once we all found out it was going to be a girl my mom and I went into planning mode.
Ok, so showers have become way more exciting than they were when I was a kid. Then you had blue or pink cake, balloons, streamers and napkins. Now there are so many possibilities that when I began to plan I was overwhelmed! I finally decided to begin with the invitations. That way there would already be a theme picked and we could have a jumping of point.
I really wanted the shower to be as personal to the mommy as possible so I brought her in on the theme picking. We sat down in front of the computer and looked at tons of invitiations @ www.tinyprints.com . In the end she was drawn to all the invitations with a woodland theme (which I thought was super cute too). The funny part is that we ended up not getting any invitations because she is the youth pastor's wife at my church so we just announced it to the church :)
Alright, I'm going to warn you now that I will be mentioning the Hostess with the Mostess website www.HWTM.com alot! It has become one of my favorite go to sites for event planning.
But anyway, since we didn't need any invitations I moved onto decorations. Since none of us involved in this shower planning had lots of money, I wanted to see what I could DIY. I decided to start by looking at blogs and websites for baby showers. It was so exciting to find that the Woodland theme was pretty big, so there were alot of great ideas. The spots that became my favorite were:
- Hostess with the Mostess - www.HWTM.com
Here are some pictures of the finished product!
This was a free printable from The Hostess with the Mostess website.
I thought it was perfect for the dessert table!
I found these cute little cupcake toppers (the circles with the little animals) on etsy.com. I paid may $3 for the PDF and could print out as many as I needed. I thought they made great confetti also. We got scrapbooking paper with the color scheme but different prints for each table. Then the doilie under the mason jar to add some frill, since it was a baby girl shower.
We alternated the centerpieces with each table. For one we used mason jars we had at home, then picked up some rocks and candles. For the other we bought small flower pots and moss. We then got sticks from the back yard and hung little socks and my etsy find from raffia for (I think) a cute centerpiece.
I printed this "sign in" sign on scrapbooking paper and framed it in a frame I had at home. Then broke out the mason jar, rocks and candle again for this sign in table.
The little Mommy wanted to have a frame signed for baby Gracelyn's room. It was a really cute idea!
We had friends that made lemonade and sweet tea. It was a great way to share the cost of drinks and for everyone to get involved :)
.....I also found those cute cups, with matching plates and napkins @ www.partycity.com
I decided to get really brave and make the cake myself! I used a chocolate cake mix, then found recipes online for chocolate ganache filling and white chocolate whipped icing (it was REALLY good, if I do say so myself). When it came down to it though I chickened out on trying to decorate it with fondant. So I printed of the little "Welcome Gracelyn" card and bought fresh flowers at Kroger. It's important to google what fresh flowers are safe to put on a cake so no one gets sick!
Carrot Cake Cupcakes
(Mom made from scratch...mmm)
Plain chocolate cupcakes with chocolate icing. Then one of our friends made these beautiful white cupcakes (she iced them so pretty).
I picked up the "cake pop" sticks at Hobby Lobby and we used scrapbooking double side adhesives to stick two little cake toppers on the sticks. Arent' they fun?!
The dessert table... we used yellow and white material on the ends. Then put a sheet with a checkered prints to it and tied raffia with fresh flowers to the sheet.
We also had various dips, sandwiches and veggies that friends brought. It was alot of fun and a success! (Hurray) Bringing in friends to help with the food and drinks was a great way to help the budget and allow those who are busy to still be a part of throwing the shower.
Here's a few more pictures...
We discoverd that my friend Lis is the Master Wrapper! She wrapped the big gifts that people had gone together and bought! Talent!
Here's the gift table with a comfy chair, we swiped from the church nursery, for Mamma.
Here's Mommy and Gammy holding up a quilt one of the ladies made. How cute is that!
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