baby shower

i absolutely love throwing parties. i love entertaining and i love hosting. i used to get really really stressed out over little details but what i’ve come to realize that if you put a little love and creativity into events, the stress isn’t really needed.

this past weekend we celebrated the pending birth of my first niece or nephew from my side. i have 4 nieces and 1 nephew from joes side but none from mine so i am so so excited to be an aunt to a baby hoppen. the shower was at my house and was hosted by her friends katie and sam,  my mom and i. we served a simple brunch of chicken salad croissants, cream cheese french toast, quiche, donuts and parfaits. my grandma made all of the delicious cupcakes. i mean insane. i have a small stockpile of them in the fridge. (it’s my opinion they are best cold because the frosting feels super thick..) she made vanilla buttercream with a bavarian filling. to drink we had a selection of coffees, flavored water and punch. we ate inside because we didn’t know how the weather would be. turns out it was absolutely perfect. 70, sunny and a light breeze. we opened gifts and had dessert and coffee on the back deck. it was perfect.

it is a good thing that i am a hoarder of vintage glassware, table linens, cake plates, furniture, napkins, pedestals, pretty much everything. with the exception of flowers, everything came from my secret storage out in the barn. i didn’t have 5 of one i went with a theme of pedestal type items. not every centerpiece has to be the same. but i did try to get the same amount of height. i layered the folding tables with vintage bright floral linens. flowers are super expensive. so to cut back on the cost (we needed flowers for 5 tables, dessert and food tables) i went with a less is more approach. i bought 5 hyacinth plants from horrocks, mixed in with succulents and house ferns. they were $2.99 each and looked really nice and full. i then bought 3 bunches of flowers that had multiple buds which amounted to about $25. i trimmed the buds and placed individual ones in each jar to create a full arrangement type look. the pots from the succulents and ferns and hyacinths were that boring plastic. i wrapped them with some craft paper tissue that i had on hand and tied gold ribbon around them for an instant decorative pot. i thought they turned out pretty good!

in the entryway is where we put the gift table. my friend mark from lost and found let me borrow his vintage wooden storks! since we didn’t know if it was a boy or girl we thought it would be fun to place your bets when you place your gift on the table. (ps chalkboard is also a score from lost and found). majority of people say girl NOW. but i’ve said it from the very beginning!

we thought the best place to serve drinks and dessert was in the screen room to encourage everyone to head outside because it was such a gorgeous day. we made flavored water with lemons and mandarins as well as my favorite sherbet punch. the mint cart might just be one of my favorite lost and found purchases of all time. mark cleaned it all up and put a reclaimed wood finish to the top. it is the perfect bar or coffee cart. we could just wheel it to wherever our guests were sitting. also, good thing i hoard anthropologie coffee mugs. enough to service 35 guests haaha.

we ate dessert while opening gifts enjoying the sunshine. it was the perfect day to have a baby shower. i can’t wait to be an aunt again. feeling the baby kick and knowing that this is the next generation of our family is something truly truly magical.