Description
My dear friend was due with a baby girl in December 4 weeks after my due date! When we both found out we were pregnant we automatically wanted to throw each other baby showers. Little did I know that we would be buying a house and moving in 1 week before I was due to throw her shower! So, while my house was sparse, the shower was lovely!
Design Inspiration
The mother-to-be is very modern-classic, so I decided to throw a build-a-library shower with no particular color scheme except for it to be bright! We based all of the food on the children's books that were displayed and asked guests to bring a book in lieu of a card with their gift. I drew a lot of inspiration from Project Nursery and Pinterest. Enjoy!
Decorating Style
Modern-classic. I love the test of time of classic things, but I appreciate all things clean and modern. I love using splashes of color with neutrals as a base, and I think it's fun to mix things up!
Project Details
As I said before, I found a lot of my inspiration on Project Nursery and Pinterest. I started out by picking favorite children's books that I could match with a food for the shower, ie: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs with meatballs, Strega Nona for the pasta salad, Pinkalicious with the pink raspberry lemonade, The Sandwich Swap for the pita and hummus, The Very Hungry Caterpillar with the fruit salad, The Cat in the Hat for red velvet whoppie pies etc. We have two wonderful local bakeries that did the desserts. The cupcakes were done by Wicked Good Cupcakes® - Shipped Nationwide. Order Online. They were darling and had little tea cups, crowns, red & white striped hats, carrots and bears to represent the different storybooks. The red velvet whoopie pies were done by Baked to represent Cat in the Hat.
The expectant mom is an art teacher, so we decided to have an art project as an activity at the shower. I loved the idea of "custom" onesies for the baby. I got fabric bundles from http://www.fatquartershop.com/Fat-Quarter-Bundles.asp?Store_id=499&Page_Id=15&sid=156026178581560 and downloaded patterns from the internet, printed them out and had the guests use those as templates for the designs. I gathered the onesies from various places (Target, Babies R Us, Walmart) and used non-white ones as well - I loved the stripes and polka dots as the background for the designs.
Favorite Items
Oh definitely the DIY onesies! Everyone did such an amazing job and the baby has the most darling and unique set of onesies ever. The mom loved all of them, and everyone who attended the shower thought it was an awesome idea.
Advice
Plan ahead and just do what you love. Don't feel like you have to be too "themey." If you keep a general idea in mind and go with it, it will turn out lovely!
E&L's Mommy
Friday 10th of January 2014
Can I ask, how did you avoid the guests bringing multiple of the same book?
Alison Mar
Tuesday 12th of February 2013
I love the theme and the bring-a-book-instead-of-a-gift-card idea!