Ok so Parker is now four months old but better late than never right?!!
My baby shower was such an amazing day, I absolutely loved it!
Obviously I love parties and organising (code words for super anal!) so I wanted to help and be involved in the organising process as I had some very specific ideas.
I knew that I wanted a woodland type theme with lots of greenery. I wanted a specific space to have photos with friends and family,
and I also knew I wanted one of those amazing big grazing table platters. I also didn't want the usual - guess which food is in the nappy games. - A lot of 'wants' I know! I figure you really only get one baby shower so it should definitely be the one you want!
As we had not long moved into our house, we hadn't done a lot of renovating other than painting. Our kitchen was gross and it didn't really feel like home yet so I decided I didn't want the party here and started searching for a venue. I couldn't find anything I liked and that had the right 'feel' (crazy pregnant lady!) so at 30 weeks...with six weeks to go until the baby shower, I decided we needed to renovate the kitchen!
We managed to find a kitchen company who could fit us in with our tight time frame and everything else fell into place.
I definitely don't recommend such a big renovation when pregnant but we got there in the end - literally putting the skirting boards on the day before the party!
Now that the venue was sorted I was able to do a lot more planning... cue scrolling Pinterest at all hours of the morning!
The grazing table fitted in perfectly with the woodland and greenery theme and I decided I needed a backdrop to go with it. I loved the idea of a green wall but wasn't quite sure how I was going to do it in a cost effective way. After lots of searching and a bit of trial and error I worked out I could collect fresh foliage the night before, store it of buckets of water overnight and then hang it in the morning.
I assembled the green wall by using core flu sheets from bunnings and a staple gun. I stapled a few leaves to the wall then worked my way down, covering the staples with more greenery until I had a full wall. It certainly was a mission as it took several hours to complete but it really was worth it and worked so well with the theme I was going for.
For the grazing table in the weeks leading up to the party I would grab a few extra things in our grocery shop each week to help keep costs down. At the time of the party I had quite a collection of crackers, pretzels, nuts, wasabi peas etc so all I really needed to purchase was the cold meats, cheeses, breads and dips. I also bought some bamboo plates and little containers to put the dips in to keep in theme with the natural feel.
Just before the party my mum assembled the food by randomly placing the crackers and bread and then adding in the meats, cheeses and dips and scattering the pretzels, nuts and peas in the gaps.
We had the main grazing table in the dining area with the green wall and then a mini grazing platter in the lounge. It honestly was the best way to feed a crowd! No one had to slave in the kitchen heating up sausage rolls. It was all laid out ready to go and all we had to do was occasionally top up the crackers and cheese.
The drinks were a help yourself system with drink dispensers and a few bottles of wine set out on the kitchen bench with glasses to occupancy.
The baby shower cake was made by my very talented mum and the cake topper was made by Moth & Co.
We served the cake for dessert...and spent many days after eating it!
For the decorations I wanted the green wall to be the feature and everything else to compliment it, so I went with fairly simple decorations. We had white balloons floating around on the ground (I had actually purchased some large round balloons with confetti to fill with helium but ran out of time!)
I made a garland for the lounge with left overs foliage and had little jars filled with foliage scattered around the place.
The area to have photos was created the night before. My friend Mel came over and we hung twine in rows across the wall stuck on by Washi tape (from kmart) and then attached little pieces of foliage with mini wooden pegs. It was quite time consuming but again was so worth it! It was nice to have a space dedicated to photos so it meant I actually had a photo with almost everyone who came to celebrate.
My Beautiful friends Mel and Deb wanted to help out (even though I'm super anal...they really are true friends!!!) so they were tasked with the 'games' for the party. The girls crated awesome 'baby prediction' cards, 'wishes for baby cards' which went into a wish jar and 'advice for mum' cards. These now sit in a jar on my coffee table for me to read from time to time. - No one correctly guessed his due date or size!
These cards were awesome as people could fill them out in their own time and they are a lovely keepsake
They also played a game called 'The price is right' where we had to guess the value of items such as nappies, baby shampoo etc
The last game we played was guess the belly size! everyone was given a piece of string and a tag that they could put their name on and they had to guess the circumference of my belly. We then measured the string around my belly to see who was closest..My sister in law Aimee was spot on! - I have kept her piece of string in Parkers keepsake box as a momento of how big my belly was!
The last 'game' the girls organised was 'Paint a Onesie' where they set up a table with brushes and fabric paint and lots of white onesies for everyone to paint...everyone was so artistic!
For party favours I planted little succulents in ceramic pots (from kmart!). The succulents had been planted from my wedding bouquet and had grown over the past 2 1/2 years, so it was pretty special to be able to use those - as well as some others from various friends gardens.
I honestly had the most amazing day and am super thankful to my beautiful friends Mel and Deb for organising all of the games and everything else they did on the day. A huge thank you to my mum for the beautiful cake and all of the set up help.
To all of my friends and family who came and spoiled me and the baby, thank you for sharing not only this day but also being a part of Parkers life today.
To the boys for taking Dom to the pub - and bringing him home in one piece you guys are awesome!