First comes love then comes marriage then comes a baby in a baby’s carriage…ok I’ll stop singing now.
Many of you might be planning baby showers in the near future and so I wanted to share with you the one I co-hosted for my best friend a couple of weeks ago.
Baby showers are a very American concept and at first thoughts they might seem a bit unnecessary and self-indulgent, but believe me they aren’t. In fact they are a brilliant way for the mum-to-be’s nearest and dearest to get together to celebrate the imminent arrival. A time for lots of girly chat, food and fun. You can even throw in a few games if you so choose.
I had a vision for the baby shower décor and couldn’t wait to make it a reality. Planning my wedding and immersing myself in pretty imagery on blogs and magazines gave me all the inspiration I needed.
As I am so proud of what we created, I just had to share some the baby shower pretty with you.
It started with the invitations, I used Paperless Post for these. I love this company, it is such a novel idea and adds that something special to your event planning. As it is all online it also allows you to easily track RSVPs, send follow-ups and it allows your guests to direct message you. It is fab as you can include links to gift lists, maps or whatever additional information you might need to send. Depending on the option you choose your invitees will receive an image of an envelope which they click to open and out comes the invitation.
Guests enjoyed a welcome strawberry mocktail. If you want the recipe for the home-made cocktails let me know, they were delicious and I’m sure my friend won’t mind sharing it.
The red velvet cake was from Hummingbird Bakery – divine.
The mum-to-be loves popcorn so when I saw these “About to pop” mini popcorn boxes from Kate Aspen I couldn’t help myself, I brought them from the Ultimate Baby Shower online shop. They took longer than expected to assemble and fill with popcorn but it was definitely worth it, and it was nice to have baby shower favours.
I’ve had my eye on these tissue paper pom pom decorations for ages and have been waiting for an excuse to buy them. They would make lovely wedding decorations and Martha Stewart has instructions on how to make them. I was too busy for that so I brought them from Deco Poms Poms and was delighted with how they turned out. They come flatpacked and you just have to take a bit of time to assemble them. These will be definitely be making another showing and I think I might try my hand at making them next time.
There was plenty of food, and the mum-to-be’s Dad made a West Indian curry so everyone left with full bellies.
All in all it was a lovely day and it made me wish I was more DIY/craft inclined, as there is scope to make such gorgeous and cost-effective things. What about you guys, how do you feel about being a DIY bride?
I really would like to be a DIY bride, the money saving aspect more than appeals to me and I love the idea of making everything from scratch.
I do feel overwhelmed by all the time, planning and organisation which would go into doing it all though, so I guess the stress aspect puts me off. But I suppose roping people in would soon solve that…..
Hi Natalie, yes I know what you mean that’s the reason I didn’t do as much DIY as I would have liked, there just wasn’t the time. I think the key to it is to plan loads in advance and like you said delegate to those around you.