Baby Shower Fit for a Queen

January 22, 2018 10 Comments A Well Crafted Party

When my friend Yvonne King was having a baby girl after two (gorgeous and wonderful) little boys, I was more than a little excited when she agreed to let me host her baby shower! I could just imaging a queen themed baby shower in honor of the newest baby King. My friend Yvonne is one of the most kind, strong, and smart women I know and she is a wonderful mother to boot. I just know her daughter is going to grow up to be a Queen in her own right. Read on to see the details from this queen-themed baby shower.

Party Inspiration for a Queen-Themed Baby Shower

When planning a queen themed baby shower I knew I wanted to have a few crowns on display, but really just wanted to fill the space with beautiful flowers, delicious foods, and bits of glitter and gold. The shower colors of mint and peach were based loosely on the colors from the baby’s new nursery. I’ve always felt that using nursery colors in the baby shower makes it easy utilize some of the nursery decor in the shower or some of the shower decorations in the nursery.

Queen-themed Party Decorations

I met the mother-to-be a few years ago through blogging world. She used her background in fashion to design her beautiful home. When it came to decorating this party I knew that I didn’t need to go crazy on decorations because her house would be a delightful backdrop that I did not want to cover up! I kept the decorations to some beautiful flowers (both real, fake, and the paper variety), glitter crowns, and small balloon arrangements. I usually do not use fake flowers in my decor, but I wanted to have something that wouldn’t wilt in the balloon decorations so I did break my rule and utilize beautiful fake blooms in the balloon arrangements. I got all of my decor supplies on Amazon. (Affiliate links below.)

For the flower arrangements I picked up blossoms from my local super markets (I think I ended going to three different ones to get the blooms I wanted) but I focused on peach, pink, and cream blooms with eucalyptus. I actually arranged them on site of the party because I wasn’t entirely sure about how I wanted to use them. A few blooms were cut to their heads and placed in the beverage bucket as well. I also used fresh fruit to decorate the food platters and beverage station.

Baby Shower Activities

If I’ve said it once I’ve said it a million times… I’m just not a fan of most baby shower games. In nearly every party I host I keep it to activities rather than the more traditional games. (Not saying I won’t play and enjoy when I attend a party… I just don’t do them when I host.)

The mom-to-be actually picked out the main activity! She knew she wanted to create onesies with black text on white after seeing parties online. I loved the idea but just couldn’t find the right typeface for the tiny little onesies. Thankfully, our mutual friend Suzannah, of Create/Enjoy, had a Silhouette machine (affiliate link) that we were able to use to create iron on messages in the fonts and sizes we desired. (See her post on creating custom T-shirts.) The guests in attendance got to pick a blank or printed onesie and add a message for baby-to-be. We had a table with the Silhouette machine and computer set up as well as a ironing board and iron. The onesies doubled as party decor!

In addition to the onesie activity I did have a small set of envelopes set out asking guests to write their addresses on them. I gifted the mom to be a set of coordinating thank you cards that she could fill out after the party and not have to worry about sourcing addresses.

Queen-themed Party Favors

(Items marked with asterisk (*) is an affiliate link.)

I am a fan of party favors in general. Seriously, it is a must for my parties. But, for some reason, it is difficult for me to land on the right favor for each party. I never want it to be things that people will just want to trash. I ordered beautiful mint colored boxes from Oriental Trading*, rock candy in pink*, sparkling rose from Trader Joes, and crown pins from Amazon*. I then created a card for for the crown to go on and slipped them into a plastic sleeve. I am hoping that the guests placed the pin on their bags or some place that they may be reminded of sweet baby King. The cards shared a quote from author Adrian Michael, “She is the type of queen that knows her crown isn’t on her head, but in her soul.” (Download my printable queen favor cards and thank you tags here!)

Lunch Themed Baby Shower Menu

The time of day of a party always helps determine the party menu. I’ve enjoyed doing brunch baby showers before but really thought it would be fun to try a lunch-time shower this time around. I knew that we had meat eaters, vegetarians, and some who avoided gluten so I wanted to have a variety of lunch items. The menu consisted of:

Caprese sandwiches
Ham and Brie sandwiches
Salad
Veggie Platter
Fruit Platter
Assorted pastries
Homemade ice cream

I made most of the foods other than some of the assorted pastries and the salad which was created by the blogger behind The Spicy Bee. To make the sandwiches I just halved baguettes and filled them with goodies. The caprese sandwiches had mozzarella, roma tomatoes, and basil with a balsamic vinaigrette dressing. The ham and brie sandwiches had a ground mustard with ham and slices of brie cheese. I then wrapped the sandwiches in tan parchment paper and twine.

Baby Shower Beverages

I really wanted to keep the beverages simple to compliment the light lunch. When serving alcohol at morning or mid-day parties it is advisable to keep the beverages light. I went with sparkling wine, pink lemonade, and sparkling water for the baby shower beverages. What really set off this beverage station was the gorgeous glassware that the mom-to-be had in her home. Can you believe it? They are BEAUTIFUL!

I don’t know if there is a greater honor than being able to celebrate a friend in a special moment such as a wedding, milestone birthday, or when they are having a baby. I’m so thankful that I got to help celebrate my friend Yvonne and her baby King with this shower fit for a queen.

Have you ever had the pleasure of hosting a party for a loved one? What was your favorite detail? Comment below!

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Natural Elements Brunch Baby Shower

July 24, 2017 3 Comments A Well Crafted Party

Whether baby number one, three, or five…. I whole heartedly believe in celebrating each addition to a family. When I found out my friend Lindsay, of Running with Tongs, was expecting her third child I had to make sure that she got a moment of celebration before her family of four became a family of five. We decided to celebrate with a brunch baby shower. Lindsay is vegan and this is the first vegan baby shower I’ve ever attempted. I was thrilled and a bit relieved when mutual friend (and awesomesauce blogger) Lisa from This Beautiful Day Blog offered to take over the food portion of the shower.

Read on to see all of our ideas for this vegan-friendly, gender-neutral baby shower with natural elements.

Gender Neutral Baby Shower Idea

Lindsay and her husband chose to not find out the gender of her baby beforehand. I sort of love gender neutral baby showers in general as I try not to associate specific colors with genders. (Though, lordy knows I probably would have done a very pink party had I ever had a baby girl!) We chose the color green more as a default from the beautiful natural elements that we wanted to incorporate into this party.

Choosing to do greenery and succulents as the “theme” of the shower made for a really beautiful set up without a lot of work beyond sourcing the plants and greenery.

Invitation

I created the invitations using a watercolor greenery elements and black text on white background. I liked that they looked graphic and modern with the black and white and slightly softened (perfect for a baby shower) with the water color. I also decided to line the envelopes wth the same motif that surrounded the invitation. We let the beautiful food platters and DIY Terrarium activity really take care of the rest of the decor.

Beverages for a Brunch Baby Shower

We chose an array of classic brunch beverages for this brunch-time baby shower including coffee, tea, pressed juices, orange juice, and mimosas. We also served a few cold beers and flavored soda waters for a bit of variety. Juices from Salad Power and Genesis Organic Juice made this fresh alcohol-free option more fun for those who did not partake in mimosas. The individual containers also made for easier pouring of orange juice when guests made their own mimosas.

Should I serve alcohol at a baby shower?

Whether or not you serve alcohol at a baby shower really depends on how your guest of honor feels about it. If the guest of honor was not someone who enjoyed an occasional alcoholic beverage before pregnancy then do not serve alcohol at the event unless she specifically requests it for her guests. If the guest of honor has been super sad about not getting to have the occasional night cap then it may not be the best idea to serve drinks that she can’t partake in. No matter whether you decide to serve alcohol or not DO have a fabulous not alcoholic beverage option for her and guests to enjoy beyond water or tea.

Vegan Brunch Party Menu:

When I think of brunch the word BACON comes to mind pretty quickly, so coming up with a vegan menu for a brunch time baby shower seemed on the edge of impossible to me. However, the brilliant Lisa Ng put together a delicious vegan brunch menu with ease. She created a perfect menu with both sweet and savory brunch items that left the group satisfied and raving about the foods. I didn’t miss bacon at all!

The menu included a DIY Avocado Toast Bar, Chick’n + Vegan Waffles, and Vegan Cheese Platters with crackers, fruit, crudites and dip. A vegan dessert topped off a wonderful brunch!

Check out tips on how to put together a DIY avocado toast bar and a vegan cheese platter over on This Beautiful Day Blog.

Baby Shower Activity That Doubles as a Party Favor

I’m pretty much obsessed with the idea of doing a party activity that doubles as another part of the party. The DIY Avocado Toast bar is a perfect example of that because it is an activity that guests will enjoy spending time doing AND it is a food item that they will eventually eat ( you know, after all the Instagramming). The party activity for this shower not only doubled as a favor but made for a beautiful decor element as well!

DIY Succulent Terrariums

We chose to create DIY succulent terrariums. These were a nice reminder of the time and energy it takes to “plant” something and watch it thrive and grow… sort of like pregnancy and motherhood in a way. It was really fun seeing how different each of the terrariums came out even though everyone was utilizing the same ingredients.

I simply bought the ingredients for the terrariums and placed them all out on a table. You could spend an arm and leg on terrariums, but I wanted an affordable option that didn’t take up a lot of space so I found beautiful round glass containers from my local Dollar Tree and placed printable instructions into each bowl. They were so beautiful all lined up on the table together!

You can absolutely create a terrarium bar by purchasing the ingredients seperately. However, I felt it was so much easier to just pick up two kits at my local nursery. While I was there I went ahead an picked up several small succulents.

We ended up having a lovely time eating, drinking, talking and making our DIY terrariums. We of course had some time for opening up presents as well! It was so much fun showering our friend Lindsay with some extra love right before she added her third baby to the family.

Big congrats to Lindsey who welcomed her baby girl to the world in late June 2017.

A Succulent Themed Baby Shower (Running with Tongs)
How to Create a Delicious Vegan Cheese Board (This Beautiful Day Blog)
How to Create a Brunch DIY Avocado Toast Bar (This Beautiful Day Blog)

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Pitter Patter in PDX Baby Shower

January 15, 2016 4 Comments A Well Crafted Party

I was absolutely honored when my friend Joan offered to host a sprinkle for me and my newest baby. A sprinkle is similar to a shower, but is designed to be a smaller celebration for a second child because the mother likely has some items from the first time around. I was super touched that she would want to throw me a party in the midst of her own move into a new home. My friend Alicia jumped in to help with the sprinkle and the two of them even outdid the amazingness they pulled off in my first baby shower that they hosted together— A Robot Themed Baby Shower. I offered up my backyard for the party and they based the color scheme to match my newly decorated porch area. This is a LONG post with lots of ideas for hosting a Portland-rain themed baby shower as well as some free downloads! If you enjoy this post, I’d be super duper happy if you PINNED an item to your Pinterest board or SHARED via your favorite social media platform.

This post contains some affiliate links. Purchases made from affiliate links do not cost readers any money, but does help keep this blog running. Thank you for reading and supporting A Well Crafted Party. To learn more about my for-profit policies click on over to my policies page!

They themed the party around the “Sprinkle” theme as well as my love of all things Portland, Oregon. The Pitter Patter in PDX Baby Shower was born and with it came Food Truck-themed foods and rain drop decorations. We even got to be spoiled with some local gourmet ice cream! I ordered event sized portions of King Creamery’s amazing ice cream flavors. It went perfectly with the theme… also, the champagne pear sorbet was simply the most amazing sorbet I’d ever tasted in my life.

Rain Themed Baby Shower Decorations

Joan is an amazing graphic designer and she created a beautiful rain themed items to use throughout the event including the above Facebook invitation cover. (The image is free for personal use in case you’d like to throw a Portland rain themed baby shower! Just click on the image, right click to save to your computer and upload to your Facebook event cover area!) She built a cloud out of balloons and pillow stuffing utilizing this great “How to Build a Cloud” tutorial from The Farm Chicks.

Baby Shower Party Favors

Joan utilized the graphics she used on the invite on the labels she created for the awesome party favors she put together. Utilizing the same graphics and color scheme in different areas throughout your party can help pull together different elements to make the party look professionally put together! Joan found corn on the cob from a local farm that simply goes into a paper bag with a little oil and is instantly microwave popcorn! How cool is that? I have a fantastic umbrella that has the “Thank You” in several different languages printed on the inside of the umbrella. We added that detail at the last minute because it went with the theme AND was the perfect addition to the favor table!

Baby Shower Beverages

We kept the beverages for this party pretty simple with sparkling waters, coffee, tea and—because it was a Portland theme— beer! Joan created little tags for the coffee cups to make it coordinate with the Portland theme. She named the coffee shop “Bumptown Coffee” a play on words from the famous Stumptown coffee! Seriously one of my favorite details. The coffee cups and sleeves (aff link) were totally affordable from Amazon and she simply printed up her label on round 2-inch sticker sheets (aff link). An affordable and simple way to bring the coffee bar up a notch for a party!

Food Truck Themed Party Food

My absolute favorite detail of the party was the food. Now, that isn’t JUST because I was 8 months pregnant and eating everything under the sun. Though, that helped. The girls came together with different ideas for Food Truck themed food. Joan then made these amazing little food trucks using a great free template sourced from The Fox is Black and an artist by the name of Goopymart. The food trucks included Mac and Cheese, Please!, Sweet Elvis PB&J, Nom Bowl, Taco Taco Taco, and The Waffle Beneath My Wings. The food containers such as the paper food trays with wax paper and the bamboo bowls (affiliate links) added to the whole “food truck” feel. And, of course, we had a REAL Portland food vendor present with the cute little event size King Creamery ice creams. They do home delivery of their monthly flavors with their club membership, but they also cater events.

Baby Shower Activities

I don’t have any photos of the cute little activity that Joan put together for the event. She had hand cut out felt items so that guests could help put together a mobile for the baby. (There is a great little tutorial for felt mobiles over at Craftiness is Not Optional.) I seriously prefer crafts and activities over baby shower games, so this was perfect for me! In addition, she whipped up cute little cards with a link to a meal train that she had set up for me on mealbaby.com. It was amazing to have food delivered those first few weeks after the baby was born.

Joan, who has a rad little business with her husband called Stogle Studios, put together these fun designs for the party’s food trucks using the template from The Fox is Black. You can download them and use for free for your next party! Want to create your own? The template is free to download over at The Fox is Black’s Food Truck Design Contest Post! (Personal Use Only)

Directions for printing and putting together your free food truck party paper food truck:

Click here to download your five free printables, download by right clicking the image and saving the PDF to your desktop.
Print on 11X17 paper — you can also choose to “fit to print” to 8.5X11 paper or 8.5X14 paper, but please know you will have a smaller food truck if you do that.
Cut out along outer edges of design.
Fold along solid lines and glue along flaps. Cut out the window area and put in your food truck window as the pictures show.

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