Paige's Baby Shower

One of my best friends, Paige, got married one week after we graduated from Texas A&M University. Being an extremely broke college student at that time, I wasn’t able to host a shower for her wedding. But when I found out that she was pregnant with a baby girl, I knew I wanted to throw her a baby shower that she would not forget. Paige has always loved birds, so I thought that a bird-themed shower would be extremely appropriate (it also didn’t hurt that she was definitely in “nesting” mode at this time!)...

Décor…

Paige is known to have a flair for the dramatic, so I knew I wanted to have very eye-catching yet thoughtful decorations for the shower. For the flowers, I defaulted to my favorite flower, the hydrangea, as the base for most of my arrangements. Add in a few spray roses, mums & voila! For one of the arrangements, I decided to be especially cheeky & placed a grapevine wreath around the lip of the vase (secured with wire) & added a few feathers to it to mimic a nest.

I handmade a mobile out of scrapbook paper, fishing line, dowels & ribbon to suspend over the dining room table. I chose a variety of different patterns of scrapbook paper, but stayed in the same chocolate & purple color scheme. I made three stencils that varied in size. I connected each bird with fishing line & hot glue. The result was an interesting & modern decoration for under $8!

I also created a feather wreath to hang on the front door of my apartment so that the guests would know they had found the right apartment (I moved into a new apartment 3 days before the shower, so no one had been there yet). I simply took a styrofoam wreath and hot glued a white boa onto it. For an added pop of color, I added single, purple feathers around the wreath. It was so easy! I liked the wreath so much that it is still hanging in my living room!

For the name tags on the wine glasses, I simply used a nest stamp that I found at a local crafts store, stamped it on a piece of cardstock & secured it with a piece of chocolate ribbon...

Activities..

I strongly believe that the more personal a shower can be, the better. Here are some of the things that we did at the shower... 

On a 5x8 piece of cardstock, create three columns: the first should list certain attributes (such as: smile, eyes, sense of humor, intelligence, etc), the second column should have the mom’s name at the top and the third column should have the dad’s name at the top. Guests decide which attributes of the baby should come from the mom and which from the dad and mark the appropriate column. I then asked Paige what her answers would be and if the guest matched Paige, they would receive a point. As an added bonus, I had interviewed Paige’s husband, without her knowledge, and would read his response after she gave her response. Everyone got a good laugh about the answers!

On one of the tables, I had a thickly matted framed picture of Paige's first ultrasound. Guests were asked to write special message to Paige, Ryan & Adair. They had one of these at their rehearsal dinner, so I thought it would be great to carry on the tradition to the next exciting adventure in their lives!

I also planned another activity that the guests were able to work on throughout the shower. Out of cardstock and scrapbook paper, I made “Wish cards” that everyone was to complete. Across the top of the 5x8 page, I wrote “What I Wish for You” and vertically along the left side, I wrote A D A I R. Each letter was to be the first letter in a wish that we had for Adair’s life.

For example, mine read:
A lifetime full of health and happiness
D reams that really do come true
A best friend to be with you through thick & thin
I nfinite amount of love
R eally, really great first kiss

Food...

My favorite meal of the day is breakfast, so I loved the idea of doing a brunch. But as an added twist, one of the guests has Celiac's disease; she is not able to have any gluten, so I needed to ensure that I had plenty on the menu for her to eat. I made Paula Deen's Baked French Toast Casserole (which is always a hit!), a gluten free breakfast casserole, a fresh fruit salad, gluten free sausage balls & mini quiches. For drinks, I served a variety of fruit juices (with the option to spike), a mimosa punch & coffee. Everything was delectable!

Favors...

For the party favors, I made nest cupcakes. I just used a regular box of cake mix, toasted coconut & Jordan almonds to create a nest. I used printed cupcake liners to add a little touch. I placed each cupcake in a Chinese food take out box that I had decorated using the same stamp that I used to make the name tags for the wine glasses. Not only were they inexpensive to make, they were quite cute & tasted great!

Carolyn's Lingerie Shower

When Carolyn & Henry got engaged in the spring of 2009, it was not a surprise to anyone. They had been dating for almost 7 years & have known each other their entire lives (their moms were best friends in high school). Being that Carolyn was one of my closest friends from college & my roommate of three years, I knew I wanted throw a very special & memorable lingerie shower for her!

This was the first shower I had ever thrown... so it was a HUGE learning experience for me!  And it also gave be a great excuse to go out & purchase serving dishes, cake stands, matching wine glasses & so on. I am slightly OCD when it comes to dishes matching, so everything I bought was glass... I spent a pretty penny once I bought everything that I needed, but I knew that it was a good investment & that it would all be used a lot! And it also helps that I bought almost everything at Tuesday Morning & TJ Maxx.


There were about 13 women at the shower- all from different stages of Carolyn's life.. The list included both her mom & Henry's mom (along with their best friends), childhood friends, college roommates, sorority sisters & co-workers. It truly was an exceptional group of women; the shower definitely wouldn't have been as amazing as it was without this awesome group!

Activites...

One of the activities was for the guests to record “Advice for the Bride” on pieces of cardstock that I had decorated. When it came time to open presents, I read the cards aloud & Carolyn had to guess who had given her that piece of advice. Whoever’s card it was, was the next gift that the opened. Some of the women had sweet advice, some had some pretty racy advice. It was SO entertaining to find out who suggested what. The things you learn about your friends when some wine is involved!

                                                                                                                                                                                    After the wedding, Carolyn & Henry moved to Dublin, Ireland so that Henry could start his first year of medical school at Trinity University. Since she was soon to be Irish, I thought it was only appropriate to give her a leprechaun outfit! Carolyn said that she was going to save it for their first St. Paddy's Day in Dublin! (And in case you are wondering, yes, I also bought her a few more "practical" outfits).

At many lingerie showers/ bachelorette parties that I have been to, the hostess has asked the groom to answer a series of questions to test his knowledge about his soon-to-be bride and their relationship. I decided to take it one step further and to video tape Henry's responses to my questions. I tried to ask a variety of different questions. The result was a heartwarming & also hysterical video.

At the shower, I would read the question, ask the Carolyn for her answer and then play Henry's response. I asked about 20 questions that ranged from what is your favorite restaurant in Dallas, when was your first kiss, to when did you know you wanted to marry Carolyn. The last thing that I asked Henry was to send a heartfelt message to his bride- after I played that video clip, there was not a dry eye in my apartment! Being able to see the his facial expressions & hear the emotion in his voice made this the most memorable part of the evening. I definitely recommend doing this for any shower!

Décor…

If you are looking for one flower that makes a bold statement, one word: hydrangeas! Not only are the colors of the flower bold and delicious, the sheer size of the bloom is always a head turner. For Carolyn’s lingerie shower, I combined amazing, electric blue hydrangeas, with lime green mini-hydrangeas with hot pink spray roses to create show-stopping centerpieces. Thank you Central Market Floral Department! Not only do they have an AMAZING selection of fresh flowers, the associates are always there to help you pick out the proper flowers for any occasion!

To the wine glasses, I added name tags to each stem. Not only were the guests ecstatic to have something personalized, but it was also very practical because they were able to keep up with their own glass! I attached each nametag with brightly patterned ribbon & an engagement ring. I did run into the issue that some of the guests did not realize that they had their own, specific glass. But it was an easy enough fix- just had to switch out the name tags & problem solved!

But other than my three floral arrangements, I really did not do that much more decorating (seeing that I blew a large portion on my budget on my start-up serving dishes!). I put some  cute pictures of Carolyn & Henry in frames & scattered them around the apartment, lit a few candles & that's all folks!

Food...

The menu was thoughtfully planned out after two "tasting sessions" with some of my friends (I am lucky that a group of my friends are self-proclaimed "foodies" & love to cook & eat!). I probably made about 20 different items before deciding on the menu. I ended up with: fried ravioli with red pepper marinara sauce (a complete hit), Mexican pinwheels, orzo with feta & shrimp salad, watermelon & tomato salad (I know, I know- it sounds bizzare, but it is awesome & bonus- it adds a gorgeous POP of color to your spread), chicken salad sandwiches on Hawaiian rolls (thanks Court!), stuffed mushrooms, bacon & cream cheese croissants & spinach dip. All homemade with the exception of the spinach dip (from Central Market).  I made bite size brownies and strawberry lemon bars for dessert. For drinks, I bought a few bottles of both red & white wine. I also served limeade with the option to spike it. I wanted to vodka that was not only tasted great but also came in an aesthetically pleasing bottle. Luckily I ran across Rain Vodka (http://www.rainvodka.com/Home) which met both criteria. 

Favors...

A simple, heart shaped wine stopper was a hit with the guests! Cheap, practical & who couldn't use another wine stopper?