I’m going to be an auntie in just a few short weeks… and I can not wait! My younger sister, Mackenzie, and her husband are having their first baby in September, so recently my mom and I threw her a small baby shower to celebrate. Today I’ll share the details of the shower, because if I haven’t mentioned this yet, one of the many things I want to be “when I grow up” is a party planner and I just loved this venue and how everything turned out.
Disclaimer: I didn’t take nearly enough photos! We were staying in a VRBO rental house and the night before the party Amelia had a really hard time sleeping, so come party-day, she was cranky, I was TIRED, and I was hyper focused on executing the party and less focused on photographing it… oops!
Theme
My sister is not big on “themes” per se, and we don’t even know if she is having a baby boy or girl (exciting, right?!). So we decided instead to theme the shower around things that remind us of her — she is outdoorsy, loves to garden, and used to want to be a honey-bee farmer, so that’s where we landed. The shower was loosely themed honeybees, with some subtle honeybee decor, sunflowers, and bee-themed favors. Otherwise we just tried to keep things, simple, elegant and classy.
Venue & Decor
For the venue, we chose The Fig Room in Jacksonville Beach. I loved that it was filled with rustic and feminine furniture we could use, had multiple rooms that we could use for various purposes, and allowed us to do as much or as little decorating as we wanted. We really didn’t have to do much, though it felt like a lot of preparation!
One general tip is to purchase a bunch of flowers from Trader Joe’s (I got sunflowers, yellow roses, small white/yellow flowers and greenery in bulk) and make your own flower arrangements if you are able. These turned out beautifully, and I purchased a few vases ahead of time to display them in that were on theme with the shower.
In the entry we set up a welcome sign with some instructions for guests on where they could find a photo op (complete with some honeybee themed photo props) and leave some wishes for baby, words or wisdom, and guesses on when baby will come. On the opposite side of the door we displayed our favors for people to grab on the way out, which I made by tying together some honey sticks and honey stirrers with twine, a thank you tag, and a bumblebee charm – they turned out so sweet (pun intended)!
Upon entering the main rooms, we spread out three large, wooden top tables and chose to go without linens to keep it a little rustic and less formal. We topped the tables with some small vases of yellow roses and accent flowers, and set up a gift table behind Mackenzie’s table so guests would know where to drop gifts.
In the back of the dining area there was a bar, where we set up a Pinterest-inspired “MOM-osa Bar” complete with multiple juices for people to mix the bubbly beverage of their choosing. We also set up a diaper decorating station to make those hazy newborn midnight diaper changes a bit more fun. Just off this area was the buffet where we displayed all of our savory, brunch-style foods on one side and Mackenzie’s heavily requested doughnuts and cupcakes from Sweet Theory on the other. #PregnancyCravings
Speaking of food…
The Menu
The shower was from 11 AM until 2 PM, so our menu was brunch/lunch style, and mostly prepared by my mom, myself and my aunt:
- Fruit platter with cream cheese, chocolate, and yogurt dips
- Shrimp cocktail
- Roasted vegetable platter
- Crockpot sweet & sour meatballs
- Spinach, onion & swiss quiche
- Sausage & cheddar quiche
- Bread assortment
- Charcuterie board of meats, cheeses, nuts, spreads, pickles, olives, crackers and dried fruits
- Green salad
- Baked macaroni and cheese
- Sandwich assortment: Waldorf chicken salad, Egg salad, Turkey/swiss/rasperry, Ham/cheddar, Cucumber/hummus and, of course, Avocado Toasts
- Sweet Theory Maple Bacon doughnuts, Chocolate doughnuts, and Salted Caramel blondie cupcakes
- Mimosa bar: Champagne + Orange juice, Strawberry peach juice, Peach juice, Pomegranate juice, and Cucumber mint water and Lemon lime water
The food turned out great, the guests seemed to have a good time, everything was beautiful, but most importantly, my sister and my future niece or nephew were celebrated by those who love them most, so I really couldn’t as for any more than that!
I’ll end with my attempt at “photo prop” pictures of the babies at the shower. They didn’t understand the assignment, and mostly ate the photo props, but looked pretty cute if I do say so myself.
