Friday, June 10, 2016

Hugs, Kisses, Sweet Baby Wishes - Gender Neutral Baby Shower

Any of your friends or family members expecting a little bundle of joy this spring, summer, or fall?  Many expectant couples want to be surprised when baby finally arrives so keeping the baby shower simple, gender neutral and a little vintage works for either gender.  I recently helped organize a baby shower with this theme in mind.


I combined a neutral palette including burlap runners, a khaki-white-gray color scheme, baby's breath and other white flowers, and cute little chalkboards.  The scheme was just right - not too boyish or too girlish.

INVITATION - We're Having a Baby...Shower



I also had the graphic artist create an "advice card" for the mom and dad to be.  I used kraft paper envelopes to mail invitations.


I purchased a chalkboard art inspired invitation and additional card insert which instructs guests to bring a board book instead of a card.  Etsy has many shower invitations which can be customized for your occasion and then downloaded.  I highly recommend having your invitations printed at a local print shop such as Kinkos or FedEx, especially the blackboard invites because these take a lot of ink.





FRONT DOOR DECORATION - Welcome Baby J
I created chalkboard art which looks very similar to invitation. It's hung with burlap ribbon to welcome guests.



DINING TABLESCAPE - Books for Baby
Using the vintage dough riser as the center piece, I mixed children's books with glass bottles or jars filled with baby's breath and lilies.  


The small chalkboards interspersed in the arrangement have chalk art messages like "You are my sunshine" and "I love you to the moon and back".  I also interspersed typography letters - J - in different styles.



KITCHEN ISLAND - Let's Eat
My co-organizer and I decided that we would order food for our shower to save time.  We ordered Petite Pita Sandwiches and the Hummus Trio Tray from Zoe's Kitchen.  A couple of other helpers brought a pasta salad and fresh strawberries with cream.  It was a perfect light snack for an afternoon shower.  We draped two burlap runners on the island then arranged the food on white serving dishes.  I created little chalkboard "place cards" to identify the foods and drinks in the decanters.

KITCHEN TABLE - It's All About the Cake
I purchased black chalkboard cupcake toppers at Hobby Lobby. I embellished toppers with the onesie stickers and "sweet baby" in chalk pen then dusted lightly with chalk.  


The small but special cake (for mom-to-be to take home) sits front and center on a footed cake stand.  The single tier Coconut Cream Cake is first frosted with coconut cream frosting then covered in fondant.  I tinted and texturized the fondant to look like burlap.  I used a onesie cookie cutter to make imprint on top of cake and filled in the frosting.  I wrapped an embossed fondant ribbon around cake and created a bow as well.  A chalkboard inspired cake banner with ribbon welcomes baby.  Confession time - I may have pressed the onesie cookie cutter into fondant a little too hard which cut all the way through.  Not good!  It doesn't show in the picture below but by the end of the party the fondant had gradually fallen down the sides of the cake.  It was such a mess that I couldn't bear to take a photo of it.  In hindsight, I wish I'd made the Coconut Cream Cake as I did in the original recipe and added something babyish to top.


For the shower guests, I baked 5 dozen Coconut Cream Cupcakes in gray cupcake liners using the same recipe for the small cake.  Using two cupcake risers, I place rings around main tiered cake stand, placed a gray and white dotted table cloth over risers.  Cupcakes were placed in two concentric rings around main cake.



FIREPLACE BUNTING
I interspersed chalkboard and burlap triangles for the fireplace bunting.  I found the burlap bunting in the dollar section at Target.  I alternated pink and blue bows and white onesies on the black triangles.  I threaded a twine ribbon to hang the bunting.  



JELLY BEAN GAME


I placed blue jelly beans in one small jar and pink jelly beans in another jar.  The party goers guessed how many jelly beans were in each jar.  The best guess without going over won that jar of jelly beans. 


The hardest part of setting this up was counting the jelly beans.  I also placed Hershey's kisses in middle of pink jar to displace jelly beans so each jar had a different number.  



PARTY FAVORS


We arranged the party favors on top of the piano in the entryway so people could grab one on their way out.  We placed a burlap runner along top of piano.  The party favor sign was placed in the middle on an easel then flanked by two silver cupcake tiers filled with favors.  A few extras were interspersed around the sign.


I found tan and white chevron print baking cups at World Market for $3 for a package of 12.  I filled each one with Hershey's Kisses and Hugs.  I tied a kraft circle tag and sticker with burlap ribbon and embellished with a little silver pacifier charm that I found on etsy.


Hugs, Kisses, and Sweet Baby Wishes!

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