Real Party: Dual Gender Baby Shower

My friends Katie & Casey are expecting their first child. I recently helped to throw her baby shower with 4 of her other girlfriends. 

They have decided to wait until he or she is born to discover the gender.  Katie's bff Sam was determined to avoid the standard "gender neutral" shower. Instead, she wanted to throw a shower celebrating both genders. A dual gender shower. We all had so much fun designing a shower that was 1/2 pink, 1/2 blue; 1/2 masculine, 1/2 feminine. There were so many fun touches! 

Enjoy... :)

Of course, we turned to my go-to invite designer Jennafer of Oh Creative One to capture our vision.  She knocked it out of the park as usual. 

Guests were greeted with the following display:

...and encouraged to "wear their vote" to predict the gender.  Snails for a boy, flowers for a girl.  Sam made the adorable snails with poster board and twine.  Too cute. 

Guests were also asked to sign the guest book. 

I found the perfect book on Amazon to compliment our theme.  The Book of Boys (for Girls) and the Book of Girls (for boys) is a funny kids book full of gender stereotypes.  Ha! It even mentions snails and sugar & spice! I could not resist.  Guests signed the inside cover. 

Then it was off to the backyard, where we had two food tables set up. 

One feminine: 

And one masculine:

For the "girl" table, we used soft pink linen and a lace runner. We used our prettiest serving trays and bowls.  Food labels were pink polka dot labels held by clear glass photo cubes.  Pink and white poms hung above. Food items included green and fruit salads, turkey and vegetarian roll-ups, and a "dessert tower" which featured cream cheese stuffed strawberries, cake pops, and strawberry mini cupcakes. 

For the "boy" table, we used blue a blue linen and burlap runner and pulled out all our rustic serving trays.  Mini chalkboards were food labels. We topped it off with brightly colored party poms and a bunting banner.  Food items on the boy table included pulled chicken sliders, mac and cheese muffins, potato salad, monster cookies, and "dirt" cups. 

We had a seated lunch at tables that continued our theme. 

Two were feminine: 

And two were masculine: 

 We used the same linens as the food tables. 

The girl tables featured clustered flower arrangements, rhinestone napkin rings, silver chargers, and wine glasses.  

The boy tables featured a simple wood centerpiece, mason jar drinking glasses, brown wicker chargers, and burlap napkin runners. 

Even the chairs were part of the theme: brown for the boy table, white for the girl. 

Party favors were inspired by something I found on Pintrest.

Lindsay and I made 1/2 pink and 1/2 blue striped pretzels and packaged them up for guests to take home.  Cute and easy!

I managed to capture almost all of the guests with their wearing their gender guess pin. (A couple people managed to escape me & my camera!) 

What a fun record for Katie to have! 

There were definitely more snails... :)

Congratulations Katie!!

I cannot wait to meet him or her!

Resources: 

Invitations: Oh Creative One

Party Rentals: Danny Thomas Party Rentals

Katie's bridal shower is here. 

Katie & Casey's wedding is here and here.

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Invitation: Elephant Sip & See

Yesterday I shared the inspiration board I was working from when designing this get-together to honor my friend Shannon and her new baby. 

Here's the invitations I made: 

I used my Martha Stewart elephant punch.

Come back tomorrow for all the details of this little party...

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Real Party: Hungry Caterpillar 1st Birthday

I have a very cute birthday party to share with you! 

The party was based on the adorable chidren's book The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  The birthday girl's crafty mom, my friend Joanne,  did a great job tying in the brightly colored book with all the decor.  

The sweet invitations set the stage for the party.

Welcome sign at the entrance to the party. 

Joanne had cute tented cards throughout the food table with lines from the book on them. 

The cake was made by a local bakery: Cake Creations.  Adorable & yummy.  

Joanne had a little activity to keep guests occupied.  There was a caterpillar banner with a picture of Kyla from each month of her life.  

Guests were asked to put the pictures in order of her age.  It was surprisingly tough! 

There were also coloring sheets on the tables for little ones. 

Each child at the party took home the most creative party favor...They each got their own caterpillar!  The caterpillars were ordered from here.  They came with instructions and everything needed for the parent and child to see their little critters all the way through to becoming a butterfly. Isn't that fun? 

The best part of this party? The sweetest little birthday girl ever, in her strawberry dress!

Happy Birthday Kyla! 

And thanks for the fun party Brian and Joanne!

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Real Party: Fiesta Owl Baby Shower

I helped a few of my friends throw a co-ed baby shower last weekend. It turned out really well, and we really lucked out on the weather that day!

Let me explain this wacky theme...The parents-to-be decorated the nursery with an owl theme.We decided to get a morjority of the food catered by one of the couple's favorite Mexican restaurants.  Putting these two things together and we had our Fiesta Owl Baby Shower.  Woodland touches, bright colors, and a few sombreros set the scene for this bash.  

Lindsay found these cute invitations on Etsy.  The invite helped us define our color scheme: aqua, lime, brown, and orange. 

Guests went straight to the backyard to enjoy the rare warm January weather. We had simple appetizers (veggies, tortilla chips, tater tots, and lots of dipping sauces) and drinks (margaritas, lemonade, assorted sodas, and beers) set up on the patio. 

Burrito fixin's and salad comprised the meal. 

You may recognize the centerpiece from my New Year's Eve party.  With the addition of some aqua and orange ties, it was transformed for this party. 

We used stump risers for the main dishes. And if you look closely you can see a few little yarn owls in the tree.  

My friend Lindsay made these little cuties following this tutorial, and then added felt features. 

Dessert was owl cupcakes, inspired by this.  We used cashews for the beaks, chocolate chips for the eye, and oreo cookies for the ears & eyes.  People went crazy for these!  If I made them again, I would put them together the day of the party rather than the night before to keep the cookies more crisp.  

Yarn owls wearing sombreros, perched by the cupcakes.  I loved the way the embroidery hoops and lanterns hung above the desserts looked. 

Since we had such a diverse crowd of invitees we decided to skip the traditional shower games, and have a few activities to keep people occupied. 

First, we tried to capture each guest in the photo booth and have them write some wishes and advice for the parents-to-be.  These things will be put together into a book as a keepsake for the parents-to-be to remember the day. 

First, the photo booth: 

We strung a sheet and one of my owl bunting banners in the backyard.  We had a few sombreros on hand for guests to pose with.

We had a little station set up near the photo booth for people to write their notes to the parents-to-be. 

The sign says "Be a Wise Old Owl and Share Some Advice with Bernadette & Kelley".  And of course, the wise old yarn owl was wearing glasses.  We found a cute little photo album at Michael's and cut papers to fit inside.  Later we'll add photo booth pictures. 

The other activity was a S'more station.

We had all the fixin's and guests roasted their s'mores over the fire pit. 

The sign reads: "Bernadette & Kelley are adding S'more to their family" 

After dark we served Mexican hot chocolate, a perfect end to the evening. 

Congratulations Bernadette & Kelley!

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Invitation: Housewarming Party

This may be one of the cutest invites I've ever received!

My friend Lindsay is having a housewarming party...and these mailbox invitations are to-die-for-cute!

Here's what's inside when I pulled out the mini envelope inside...

I believe she's planning to use them as change of address notices to out of town friends who won't be able to attend the party also.  

Adorable, don't you agree? Can't wait for the party! 

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Invitations: Black Lace Bachelorette Party

My friend Lindsay (my best crafting partner) & I spent our Sunday making some invitations for an upcoming Bachelorette Party. 

We are so happy with the finished product! 

 Drea is using purple as one of her wedding colors, so we started with deep purple paper. 

We folded it into three panels, and added a little black lace.

We punched holes down the sides and wove shiny black ribbon through.  

The final touch were the little purple rhinestone stickers-- a little bling to tie in the purple color.  

The insert slides out and contains all the details of the evening.  

We hope they'll get all of Drea's friends excited for the party!  
Thanks to Lindsay for taking pictures for me! :) 

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New Sponsor: The Age of Paper

I'd like to introduce you to Oh Baby! Shower Decor...the blog's new sponsor: The Age of Paper!

I was so excited when Kristen contacted me.

She sells beautiful hand-made invitations from her Etsy store and wanted to get the word out to all my party-girl readers!

 How gorgeous are the fabric and paper flowers she's using? 

And the antique embellishments?  I think I'm in love. 

I hope you'll click on over and visit Kristen's store.  

And keep her in mind for your next special occasion!

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Inspiration Board: Angel Baby Shower

One of my readers, Makeba, contacted me recently and asked for some inspiration for a baby shower. She was considering the theme "Heaven Sent an Angel".  So sweet!

 I agreed with Makeba in that mostly-white event would be perfect for this theme. Hints of silver would be nice also. I think there should be just a hint of angels to keep the decor classy. 

Here's some fun items I've found. 

The angel wing invitation was for Kourtney Kardashian's baby shower, and it is definitely classy.  Something similar could be made in pink for a baby girl, or in white or silver for if the gender is not known.  

If you've been reading this blog, you know how I love a children's book for a guest book.  The Littlest Angel would be perfect for this shower! 

I am completely in love with this idea for a party favor! Heaven body lotion.  It's a Gap lotion, but I couldn't find it on their website. Luckily I found it on Amazon.  There is also a entire line by Victoria's Secret of lotions and perfumes named Dream Angels. It would be worth checking the store for sample sizes to use as favors.  Lotions would be cute wrapped in white tulle and tied with a ribbon. 

I love these cupcakes with angel wings. Or serve angel food cake, just be sure to label it!

White party poms are a must for this party! This one is from Pom Love on Etsy. Or a DIY tutorial is here.

Amy Atlas's famous white dessert table...simply beautiful.

Sweet onsie with angel wings from Etsy.

White candies and desserts, by Martha and Sugarcoated Events, can serve as decorations, food, and party favors. 

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Real Party: Jungle Animal Baby Shower

I went to a jungle-themed baby shower recently. 

I think these invitations, by Graham & Snow, are adorable. 

They'd be cute for a kid's monkey-themed birthday party too.

The hostesses had a couple simple ideas for decorating that I wanted to share:

They used lots of greenery down the center of the table to create a jungle feel.  Balloons were tied to the plants to give the tablescape some height. The plants doubled as favors. I snagged a cute one to add to my husband's herb garden! 

 They bought several wooden animal puzzles, like this one, and scattered the pieces around the table.  The puzzles were given to the mom-to-be as gifts later.  It was a cute way to incorporate the theme, and add some whimsy and color to the the table.  I love decor that doubles as a gift too! 

I know I've mentioned it before, but I love brunch showers! The food is always delicious, and there's still a lot the day left when the shower ends. 

Congratulations Sheila! Can't wait to meet your little one!

This is not related to the shower, but I couldn't resist sharing anyway! Aren't these flowers at the home where the shower was held to die for?  Beautiful! And they smelled wonderful too!

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