Sunday, April 19, 2009

Maybe, Baby!

A few years ago, I found myself in a flurry of wedding party madness. I was throwing bridal showers and bachelorette parties like it was my job. Now, all of these girls are having babies and instead of vodka-filled weekends in Miami, we’re playing baby bingo and marveling at onesies. Times are a changin’!

We opted for high tea at Mint Julep in the suburbs (Palatine). The private room was beautiful with lots of natural light. We had several different kinds of tea sandwiches, scones, pastries and teas.

I thought I’d share some of the highlights with you.

Décor
The baby will be a boy so I tried to stick to a color scheme of lavender, periwinkle and eggshell. I bought 15 or so helium balloons and scattered them throughout the room. On the gift table, I had a gorgeous bouquet of blue and white hydrangeas.






Parting Gifts
I purchased tiny clay pots and potted pansies in them. Finally, I added a blue or purple ribbon to the pots. One was given to every guest and the end of the shower. Mom had decided on a jungle nursery theme, so I ordered these darling jungle animal cookie cutters online. I made several batches of monkeys, lions, hippos, giraffes and elephants and then frosted them. They were placed in small plastic bags and tied with a bow. Every guest got to take a cookie also. The pansies and the cookies brightened the table considerably and gave the room more character.

Activities
We did three activities and I gave prizes to the winner of each. Note: it is advisable to bring one or two extras i
n the event of a tie. For gifts, I tried to keep it around $5-$10 for each bag. I found lots of cute girly gifts in China Town (small compact mirror and jewelry case) and I also checked out Cost Plus World Market for little earrings, chocolate, etc.
  • Baby food sniff test - Take 6-10 cans of baby food and discard the label. Then number each can and have the guests smell to determine the flavor of the baby food.
  • Celebrity baby name - I listed celebrity names on the left and their cute/outlandish baby names on the right (out of order). Guests then match up which baby belongs to the celebrity.
  • Nursery rhyme game. Take an old classic like “Rub a dub dub, three men in a tub…” then leave a space for the guests to fill in the missing words. I printed the activities on colorful paper, keeping in line with the color scheme (that makes a big difference!)
Noteworthy Gifts

2 comments:

T said...

Aw. You really know how to throw a fab party dear!

Elise Kern said...

Thanks for the great shower babe! It was just lovely, though I am still a tad bit chagrined over my extensive knowledge of celebrity baby names...