I recently hosted a baby shower for my youngest sister, Regina, who is due with a baby girl in about 6 weeks. This was the first big party I've had at my house, aside from my sons' baptism party 7 years ago, which I hardly remember since my twins were only 3 months old at the time and life was pretty hectic and I was very sleep deprived. I had dreams of planning a nice party for them and then the boys were born and life became crazy pretty quickly. The grandparents wanted to contribute food for the party and all I remember doing myself is cleaning the house before and after. Aside from having small birthday celebrations, a cousins pizza party and our annual 4th of July pizza party, we haven't hosted much else because life is still hectic with twins. I always hoped that when my sister became pregnant I could host her baby shower. Thankfully, everything worked out in order for me to do so.
This was the last baby shower out of the seven girls in my family, so we invited a lot of people (70!). I was happy to have the chance to host a large group of women (43 women/children attended + 3 babies) over the long President's Day weekend. I cleaned my house like crazy over the span of a few days and my husband took our sons to visit his dad in Delaware, which made cleaning and setting up the tables and decor a day before the party much easier! The party was a joint effort in terms of the food, drinks, flowers, decor, games/prizes and favors. I couldn't have pulled it off without help from my mom, sisters, aunt, cousin, and my brother-in-law's mom and sister. I had fun planning the party so I'm sharing the recipes we used and some of the items I purchased and ideas I had that made it all come together nicely in the end.
For the invitation, I used a free template from Canva. I was trying to find something pink and decided on this one with balloons, but later wished I had chosen one with flowers. I had not seen my sister's baby registry yet and wasn't sure what her taste was but she registered for several baby outfits with flowers. The invitation I chose was simple and cute and still worked well. My cousin Gabrielle and my Uncle John printed and cut the invitations, and I mailed them in some extra plain white 5x7 envelopes I had left over from past Christmas cards. I purchased a self-inking return address stamp which is something I had been meaning to buy for a while. I also ordered some pretty floral stamps to use, but they were delayed in getting to me so my husband picked up some regular stamps one day.
There wasn't a theme for the party but we went with an aqua and pink color scheme. Regina loves aqua and so do I, which made it an easy choice! There is nothing pink in my house but I have several aqua colored items that I was able to incorporate. My Aunt Maria put together beautiful flower arrangements with flowers she bought at Trader Joe's (she went two days before the shower - on Valentine's Day, and as she says, she hit the jackpot). She used my 4 16-ounce and 5 32-ounce aqua Mason jars for some of the flowers and her clear Mason jars and cylinder vases for the rest. The flowers looked so nice and added a much needed pop of pink and purple all over the house!
My sister's mother-in-law likes to buy themed paper goods for parties and she purchased this set for the baby shower, which was cute and added more pink!
Before the flowers were put together, I purchased 3 round acacia trays, 3 sets of different size aqua pillar candles, and pink and white rose petals. These were centerpieces on the kitchen and dining room tables and dining room buffet, along with the aqua flower vases. The centerpieces were simple and the only decor I put together - the rest was done by my aunt and cousin.
My sister Paula lent me 24 glass votives and I ordered tea lights to use in them - we used these on the basement tables and in various other places around the house. I also borrowed 3 of her scented candles to use in the bathrooms. My cousin Gabrielle coordinated with the two mothers and gathered a bunch of old baby photos of my sister and her husband. She matched them up according to ages, holidays, etc., framed them and arranged them on tabletops, counters, end tables throughout the house. She also hung some photos up in the dining room and family room. The photos were a really special surprise for my sister. We borrowed an "Oh Baby" sign from my aunt and hung that by the fireplace with some photos hung underneath it. That was all the decor we had and I thought it was the perfect amount.
Gabrielle also came up with a few games, prizes and prediction/advice cards. None of these were even on my radar so I'm glad she took care of them, and she did an amazing job with all the printed materials for the shower, with my uncle's help cutting them.
In terms of set up, in addition to the 12 chairs at the kitchen and dining room tables, we have a table in our basement that seats 7 and my nephews also set up four 6' fold-in-half tables in the basement and as many folding chairs as my parents have (24 + 2 of ours). This is the max amount of tables we could fit in the basement, but we had enough seats at the various tables for 45 people which was more than we needed! My aunt lent us her white tablecloths and taupe table runners which were a huge help in making everything look nice. At some point I would like to get some 6' tables that do not fold in half (they never lay completely flat when they're set up) and some of our own folding chairs, as well as some neutral colored table clothes. I usually buy table cloths at Home Goods so I'll have to keep an eye out for ones that will fit the folding tables.
For drinks, we served punch, lemonade, Italian sparkling water, water and white and rose wine. I set out our wine glasses and borrowed some stemless ones from my aunt, but hardly anyone drank wine, and no one drank the sparkling water. The punch was a hit though! I'm not sure what recipe my sister Caterina used, but it is similar to this recipe, minus the Club Soda and pineapple slices. She used 1 can each of frozen pink lemonade and frozen pineapple juice (thaw in fridge for about 30 minutes before using - do not mix with water, just pour the contents of the can into the punch bowl), a 2 liter bottle of Sprite, scoops of raspberry sorbet (we opted for one without artificial colors) and some frozen raspberries. It was so good!
For the lunch menu, I wanted to go with something light that did not need to be cooked or heated up since I only have one oven and we had a lot of people to feed. My mom and sister Maria made Italian Chicken Salad (3 recipes, with a lot left over - they had one bowl with no cheese and no nuts). My sister Caterina made Orzo Salad with Cranberries and Mozzarella (5 pounds of orzo with a lot left over, plus 1 pound made with gluten-free orzo - she left out the fennel and onion in both and they were not missed!) and a spring mix/romaine salad with pistachios and apples. My sister Diana put together a veggie tray with hummus. My mom bought 5 packages of mini croissants from Sam's Club and green grapes. Lunch was delicious!
For dessert, I made Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes (I don't buy Oreo brand anymore, I buy the Newman-O's which are made with better ingredients but still taste like Oreos) and Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake Cupcakes. My niece Emma made Vanilla Cupcakes and Chocolate Cupcakes both with Whipped Frosting. Emma and I used pink and aqua colored grease-resistant cupcake wrappers, which are our favorite to use. My sister Maria made her delicious Chocolate Chip Cookies. We also served a bowl of Strawberry and Yogurt Pretzels and Lindt Lindor Strawberries and Cream White Chocolate Truffles - both from Costco/Sam's Club, compliments of my sister Paula (it was perfect timing to have a baby shower around Valentine's Day when they had their seasonal pink items for sale!). Like the lunch food, we had a decent amount of dessert leftover.
I used to want to be a party planner, a few years before I was married and had kids. Somewhere along the way while working for a photography company that photographed a lot of events I lost my desire to work in that industry, but coordinating everything for the party reminded me why I used to want to do it. I love having a vision and coordinating everything in order to see it come to life. I put a lot of thought into the little details and I had a lot of fun planning a special day to celebrate this important milestone for my sister and surprise her with a few things, like the old photos. I'm also happy I finally got to use some of my entertaining items that I've never used before, like my punch bowl (we always had punch at family bridal and baby showers so it was a bit nostalgic to have it at this one), and incorporate some of my mom's serving pieces too. I also managed to take a lot of pictures with my camera even though the lighting wasn't ideal as it was dark and rainy for portions of the party. The party was a lot of fun and my sister looked radiant!
Not pictured here are the more personal and most important aspects of the party - my sister and her husband and their family and friends who came and surrounded them with love and support. Hopefully it won't be such a long time before I host another big party, but this one was a beautiful celebration and worth all of the time and effort to honor my sister as she becomes a mother and to see how happy it made her.
