Party Ideas: Baby Showers

Archive for Party Ideas: Baby Showers

A Modern Organic Vintage Eclectic Baby Shower

By Leslie · Comments (14) · April 12th, 2011

I love throwing showers! This weekend I got to co-throw a baby shower for one of my closest friends, Autumn. Autumn has recently started a fabulous blog called M.O.V.E Lifestyle which stands for Modern Organic Vintage Eclectic (definitely check it out!), so we used that as our inspiration for this party. So without further ado, let’s down to it!

Here is the darling invitation:

The very talented Jenn from Way of the Wong designed these cute guys! We just loved these little owls and used them throughout the entire shower.

For more on the invites, see here.

Here is the sign that the very talented Ashley from Coco Rose Events painted:

The sign hung at the front gate to let people know where the party was. (my house can be tricky to find)

When you walked in, you could see the table all set up. We chose to go with one long table and served the food family style to create a more intimate setting.

As guests came in, we had them grab a cocktail,

then we had them write some words of wisdom to the parents-to-be on a little tag and had them hang them on this tree made from a manzanita branch:

We also had all of the guests bring an unwrapped kids book and we had them personalize them with these book plates. Sweet right? I love giving books at a baby shower!

We had all the guests drinking out of mason jars with these little owl stir sticks:

Here are some shots of the table:

We used old wine bottles with the labels removed as water pitchers and all the flower arrangements were done in re-used cans and jars.

The name cards doubled as the favors. I planted herb and vegetable plants in soup cans, then we tied ribbon around them and sealed them together with a sticker with each guests name on it. The place mats are a sheet of scrapbooking paper with an owl stamped in the corner. These gave the place setting a little personality.

Ok, here comes the good stuff: the food! Like I mentioned, we did family style, so all the food was on the table as the guests sat down. We served quiche, 3 different tea sandwiches (cucumber, caprese and chicken salad), mixed green salad and orzo salad.

We turned my dining room table into the dessert table. I had some butcher paper so we laid it out on the table, placed the desserts on top and used crayons to identify all the goodies.

I made chocolate salted carmel cupcakes, red velvet cupcakes, salted chocolate chip cookies ”potted” chocolate pudding (I saw these in Martha Stewart’s magazine months ago and have been dying to make them!) and Autumn’s Mom made her famous cheesecake.

How cute are those little picks? Our friend Courtney made them. They are little owls!

Here is the Mom to be in front of the “It’s a Boy” sign:

Here is the sign after opening presents and hanging them with clothespins:

I absolutely loved throwing this shower! I hope you enjoyed reading about it : )

Tools I used:

Comments (14)

Categories : celebrations, Party Ideas, Party Ideas: Baby Showers

A "Bun in the Oven" Baby Shower

By Leslie · Comments (8) · January 27th, 2011

I am so pleased to be part of another amazing baby shower! This one was for my good friend Ashley. What made this one so intimidating is that she is one of the best professional event planners I've ever met! Her company is Coco Rose Events if you ever need anything : )

The theme was a "bun in the oven" so it only made sense to make a lot of baked goods and of course cinnamon buns! The color theme was red and turquoise. It was a fabulous afternoon! Here is a shot of Ashley with all the girls who helped with the shower. And yup that's me on the far right and no I'm not that short, I'm on my knees : )

To stick with the theme, the favors were spatulas in our theme colors tied with ribbons accompanied by coordinating recipe cards for the cookies I made.

Colleen, Ashley's business partner came up with this fabulous idea that I'm totally stealing! So all the signs would match, she glued the napkins to a hard piece of paper and mounted a letter on top. So smart!

Here is the food table with the dessert "bakery" in the background:

Cute right?
So here is the menu with pictures:

Crudite with my "ranch" dressing. I served this with celery, carrots, tomatoes, boiled potatoes, mushrooms, cucumber and orange peppers.

Cucumber Cups with Hummus:

Deviled Eggs:

Quinoa Salad with Arugula and Apples:

Rainbow Salad: Rainbow Salad:

And for the dessert table:

Chocolate Covered Strawberries:

Cinnamon Bun Cupcakes:

Sugar Cookies with Coconut Frosting:

Ashley's Mom's top secret chocolate chip cookies:

And instead of doing a game or craft, Autumn got this adorable apron and little note cards to write a little note to Ashley or the baby. It was super cute!

I hope you enjoyed!

Comments (8)

Categories : celebrations, Party Ideas: Baby Showers

A Storybook Theme Baby Shower

By Leslie · Comments (5) · December 21st, 2010

Yes, it's the time in my life where everyone I know is having babies. I love this time because I get to be a fabulous Auntie and I get to help throw these amazing showers!! Here is one we threw for my sister. Yes, if you are keeping tabs this is her second shower, first one was in a different city. You can see that school theme shower here. There was a lot of help with this shower so I can't take all of the credit. I threw this one with my Mom and my sister and sister in-law.

{PS another thing I can't take credit for is this adorable sign that my very talented Uncle made! So cute right?!}

So our theme: Storybook! My sister was and is a big reader so this theme was a perfect way to start her child's library.

For the decor: We used a lot of books! Here you can se we used some real books displayed around the house and then we printed some book covers from the internet and framed them in these ever so cute red frames. To make the vase, we taped the four frames together from behind and slipped in the flower arrangement. The red frames came from Ikea.

We really stuck to the primary colors with all the flowers and decorations.

Here was the lunch table:

The menu was as follows:

Beverages:

Iced Mango Tea, Mint Lemonade, Champagne Punch, Hot Apple Cider, Coffee and Tea

Lunch:

3 kinds of wraps: Grilled Vegetable, Turkey with Provolone and Roast Beef with Horseradish, Mac n' Cheese, Roasted Tomato Soup, Fruit Salad and Rainbow Salad.

Dessert:

My sister in-laws gorgeous decorated cookies and chocolate dipped oreos and brownies.

How cute are these pots for the soup?! My Mom found them at Cost Plus World Market. How cute are these pots for the soup?! My Mom found them at Cost Plus World Market.

For favors we found these mini lotions and hand sanitizer and tied them up with appropriate bows: For favors we found these mini lotions and hand sanitizer and tied them up with appropriate bows:

The party was a big hit! Hope you enjoyed the pictures!

Comments (5)

Categories : celebrations, Party Ideas, Party Ideas: Baby Showers

School Theme Shower

By Leslie · Comments (6) · December 6th, 2010

I got to throw a really fun baby shower the other weekend! It was for my older sister which of course made it even more fun! She and her husband are super smart and there is no doubt that this baby will come out a genius, so what better way to welcome him than with a "school" theme shower?!

We decorated with lots of #2 pencils, crayons, books and of course red apples! Here are what the tables looked like:

I used butcher paper down the center for a runner and left crayons in shot glasses so people could get creative with their coloring during lunch. For the napkins, I wrapped the silverware and wrapped with colored paper in different colors and a blue ribbon in the same and fastened with a diaper pin.

The flowers all came from the flower mart that's in downtown Los Angeles. I then arranged them in square vases and wrapped them in paper and ribbon. (I don't like seeing the bottom of stems in a vase)

Here is the appetizer table:

I had to do celery sticks with peanut butter and raisins!

For the punch, I did a cranberry, lemonade, champagne cocktail. And I make an ice ring using fresh cranberries, mint leaves, cranberry juice in a bundt pan and freezing. it. Great way to keep your punch cold and make it pretty : )

The menu is as follows:

Drinks:

Champagne cocktail punch

Hot apple cider with a rum optional mix in

Iced tea

of course water

Appetizers:

Celery sticks with peanut butter and golden raisens

Butternut squash soup

Pumpkin dip

cheese and crackers

Lunch:

Mixed green salad

Mac n' cheese

Mini sandwiches consisting of peanut butter and jelly, chicken salad and turkey with provolone

Bean and corn salad

Dessert:

Peanut butter chocolate crunchies

Pumpkin cupcakes

Chocolate chip cookies

Brownies

I'm sorry I didn't take more pictures! I got busy and then the shower was over! But here are some other cute things we did. I had my sister find great school and kid pictures of her and her husband when they were kids and we did a big bulletin board full of them.

Instead of games, we did a craft to help decorate the nursery. Lisa found super cute canvas tiles and we had everyone paint one:

So cute right?!

Comments (6)

Categories : Party Ideas: Baby Showers

Baby and the City Shower pt. 2

By Leslie · Comments (8) · September 1st, 2010

As you saw in the previous post, we recently threw a baby shower for our amazing friend Tania to welcome her baby. It was a blast! Let's talk food!

One thing about the menu was it all had to be diabetic friendly. So aside from the bread in the bruschetta and some of the desserts the whole day was diabetic safe! Here is the menu:

Drinks:

Mint Lemonade, Iced Red Lavender Tea, Champagne Punch and of course water

Lunch:

Hummus in a cucumber cup

Grilled zucchini goat cheese rolls

Heirloom tomato bruschetta

Mini peppers stuffed with quinoa

Carolina's chicken curry salad

And we served a big mixed green salad

For Dessert:

Chocolate ganache cake

Fresh fruit sticks served with creme fraiche and brown sugar. I have to tell you, if you've never never tried fruit with creme fraiche and brown sugar you are missing out. It's incredible! (and it looks pretty!)

Diabetic friendly Chocolate Mouse Pie:

We also served my red velvet cupcakes, which if you haven't tried, I would highly recommend : )

As a favor, we wrapped two beautiful macarons in a little box and tied them up with cute little ribbons.

Aren't these cute!? Now you may be asking, how come Leslie didn't just make macarons?? Well, I will tell you. I don't really have many kitchen disasters, but I have tried my hand at macarons a few times and not so great results. Not that they were inedible, but they were a far cry from the delicious little treats that I love! So we picked these up from the best macaron place in town! Paulette's in Beverly Hills has the prettiest little cookies ever!

And I was lucky enough to have my Mom in town this weekend to help out! PS she tied those oh-so-perfect bows on the macaron boxes and so much more!

Stay tuned for all the recipes this week : )

Comments (8)

Categories : Party Ideas: Baby Showers

Baby and the City Shower

By Leslie · Comments (4) · August 31st, 2010

So last summer was all about throwing bridal showers and this year has been all about the baby showers. This past weekend my super awesome girlfriends Autumn, Carolina and I threw a baby shower for our bestie Tania. The four of us loved watching Sex and the City! BTW who didn't?? So we decided to throw a super chic baby shower to help welcome Tania's baby girl : ) Autumn is supreme with the decor, Carolina was the producer and I was in charge of the menu and hosting.

Here is a little peek:

This tray was a little inspiration for us so we placed it on a table for people to see as they walked in.

For our color theme we really stuck to sherbet colors as you can see in the flowers:

Aren't these pretty!? Autumn and Carolina went down to the wholesale flower market to pick these up and Autumn did all the arrangements herself!

Here is the balcony where we had lunch:

How cute are the yellow chairs? We rented them and the tables from Pico Party Rentals

PS Autumn sewed all those sweet little flags!

Here is the buffet station: (more on food later)

And here she is in front of our drink station:

So as Tania was opening her gifts, we hung all the cute clothes on some twine with clothespins to display for everyone. Fun right?

How cute is Tania in her gorgeous blue dress?? She's standing in front of the T we put on the front door so everyone would know where the party was.

Here are me and the girls:

The shower was so much fun and a huge success! Check back tomorrow for the menu, how-to's and recipes!

Get the "all natural" plate look with these really cool palm leaf plates

xoxo

Comments (4)

Categories : celebrations, Party Ideas: Baby Showers

Baby Shower part 2

By Leslie · Comments (1) · November 17th, 2009

The shower was very successful!! We all had a great time!! Please enjoy these pictures and recipes! Me, Kelly and my Mom! While everyone arrived, we served a couple appetizers, "jungle punch" and pink champagne with blueberries! Here is the recipe for our jungle punch that was delicious!!

Here is the first guessing game we played while everyone mingled during appetizers. Guess how many m & m's are in the bottle. The person closest won a prize. This is a nice game to do while people are first coming in and can write their guess at their own leisure.

We played a memory game next. We loaded a tray with a bunch of baby items and covered it with a sheet. Everyone got a piece of paper and a pen. We took the sheet of the tray for about 1 minute and then covered it again. Everyone had to write down all the items they remembered on the tray. The person who got the most won a prize!

Here is Kelly showing off her beautiful belly (in a adorable dress from 'pea in the pod') in our next game! Everyone got a ball of yarn and had to cut a piece they thought perfectly measured her belly. Here is a picture of everyone measuring!

Lunch! Here are some pics of what we ate!

We served three kinds of sandwiches. From top to bottom we made: cucumber, watercress on wheat, turkey and cranberry on potato bread, chicken salad on sourdough and cheese puffs. Finger sandwiches are great for luncheons! Everyone loves them and you don't need utensils!

I made a caprese inspired salad. I just used mixed greens, chopped basil, cherry tomatoes and small mozzarella balls! I dressed it in a homemade balsamic dressing, but you can make your own or use store bought. Here is a picture of the orzo salad, chicken curry salad and zucchini rolls

After lunch, we did a little art project! It was so fun!!! We painted onesies for the baby! Here are the tools needed:

Paper towels, heat n' bond, puff paint, scissors, cute fabric characters, onesies (we got a variety of sizes to keep the growing baby outfitted), and a piece of cardboard.

You are going to iron on the heat n' bond to the fabric character then with the scissors cut it out. Then iron on the character to the onesie. Place the cardboard in the onsie. (so it doesn't bleed through!) And paint around the character and the rest of the onsie.

Here's me painting my onsie for the baby! And here are all the onesies done!:

Sooooo cute!!!! And now the baby will have all sorts of fabulous clothes to wear!! We finished the day with some yummy desserts and opened gifts!! (my favorite part of the day!)

I made some mini cupcakes in red velvet and carrot cake! A triple chocolate bundt cake! : ) And those are free form cheesecake parfaits with fresh fruit! So yummy!!! Here is the recipe.

Well, that was the shower! I hope you enjoyed and found this helpful for your next baby shower bash!

Comments (1)

Categories : Crafts, Party Ideas, Party Ideas: Baby Showers

Jungle Baby Shower! (part 1)

By Leslie · Comments (4) · November 16th, 2009

Last weekend my Mom and I planned my sister in-laws baby shower!! So excited! Kelly is my beautiful, wonderful sister in-law and is nice enough to let me document her shower! Our theme is "Jungle Animal Babies" As I say whenever I plan a party, it takes 3 days. Day 1 is creating the menu and shopping. Day 2 is prepping all the food (meaning baking everything that needs to be baked, washing, chopping all that) and decorating. Day 3 is putting everything together and the party. This is the most efficient way to throw a party!

The shower was on Sunday so on Friday, my Mom and I created a menu and went out and bought all the food. Then Saturday, we did all the baking, prepping and decorating. For the menu, we are sticking to some go-to classics with a little touch of new recipes. When you are throwing a large party, I recommend you stick to things you've made before. An experiment gone wrong can ruin your day.

Here is the menu:

Appetizers

Tortilla roll-ups (made by my fabulous Aunt Margie and cousin Christy)

Acapulco Dip (made by my fabulous Aunt Margie and cousin Christy)

Blue cheese gourges

Zucchini roll-ups

Fall Salad

Orzo Salad

Finger Sandwiches: Turkey and cranberry, chicken salad and cucumber, watercress

Mini red velvet cupcakes

Mini carrot cakes

Triple Chocolate Bundt cake

Cheesecake Parfait with fruit

Beverages: Jungle Punch with a fresh fruit ring

Pink Champagne, with blueberries floated (we don't know if it's a girl or a boy!)

Wine

Lemon Water

So Day 2 we baked the cakes, made the cheesecake and and gourges and prepped the zucchini, chicken salad and sliced the turkey breast. Getting all these things out of the way will make assemble on Day 3 so much easier! Another great tip is to label all of the serving dishes you are going to use with a post-it of what you are going to put in them. This way, you know you have a platter for everything and you won't forget any of your dishes! Here are some of the awesome decorations!

My Mom, who is amazing with flowers, did this arrangement in a trash can we found at Target! I think it turned out adorable!! She cut florist's green foam to fit in the opening and then just arranged the flowers and filled with water. They have so many cute trash cans in the bathroom section, they had frogs, ducks, etc.

This sign was so cute!! My very talented Uncle made this. He free handed the animals that were on the bedding she registered for. This made a great addition to the decor! If you are not as artistic (like me!) you could make a similar sign with butcher paper and stencils.

These were the table centerpieces. We got a little plant and wrapped it in a piece of burlap and tied it with a piece of twine. We then set the plant on a woven plate charger and added some jungle beany babies. (was nice to reuse those little guys) We also had some jungle stuffed animals around the house and little toy plastic ones we decorated the food with which you will see in the next post. : )

Here is a pic of our fresh fruit ring for the jungle punch. I love making these anytime I make punch! I think it adds a really nice touch! It keeps the punch cold and as it melts you have beautiful fruit floating in it!

Use a bundt pan and place mint leaves and all your favorite fruit inside. Gently fill with water and freeze overnight. When you take it out the next day, run the metal side under some warm water until the ring pops out. If you try to force it, it might break.

Stay tuned for tomorrows post when I include finished shots and recipes!

Comments (4)

Categories : Party Ideas, Party Ideas: Baby Showers

Archive for Party Ideas: Baby Showers

A Modern Organic Vintage Eclectic Baby Shower

A "Bun in the Oven" Baby Shower

A Storybook Theme Baby Shower

School Theme Shower

Baby and the City Shower pt. 2

Baby and the City Shower

Baby Shower part 2

Jungle Baby Shower! (part 1)

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