Welcome

Our graphic designer Julia Ensign, who happens to be one of my best friends, created lots and lots of pretty printables and signage for the event, starting with the welcome sign. I printed it using my Canon IP8720 on 13″x19″ photo paper and mounted it to the wood with spray glue, the perfect welcome for all my guests…

Name Tag Bar

These name tag rosettes were probably my favorite project, even though they took me and Shea O’Quinn almost 7 hours to make just 40. We printed a name tag for each guest and printed these darling, funny name tag additions like “Mommy Support,” “Advice Maven,” and “Baby Whisperer” that would allow everyone to customize their name tag. It was so much fun to see everyone wearing their name tags, they really got into it! You can find out how I made them in this blog post that I wrote over on Cricut’s website.

Martha Celebrations

Most of the paper decor you’ll see is from the new Martha Celebrations line at Michaels, specifically the mint and blush items. I took inspiration for the party from the line when the Martha team offered to provide me with anything I needed for the event, and I’m so grateful.

The Centerpieces

My Dad and I created all these centerpiece vases, 36 total and the fabulous Jacki made all the flower arrangements. We actually sealed the holes we drilled in the wood blocks, so the vases are water-tight and I’ll be sharing the full tutorial on them here on Friday! All the flowers were from our partner Fifty Flowers and they came right to our door, which is the best part of ordering from them.

The Location

The shower was held at my parents house in their driveway and the driveway of the next door neighbor, who happens to be our fabulous floral contributor Jacki. We used rental furniture from Baker Party Rentals, the pretty wooden umbrellas and the whitewash room dividers to make the driveway feel less concrete and more cozy.

You might recognize these custom balloon sayings from this post, except I added “hadley jane” and “it’s a girl” to all the balloons!

The Invitations

I ordered these invitations and thank you cards from Minted, my favorite… and will be sharing more about them on Wednesday in this post. One of the best things I did for the shower was asking everyone to add their address to a thank you card if they brought a gift, that way when I wrote them I had way less work ahead of me.

The Favors

I already shared the DIY tutorial for these gorgeous air plant favors and you can find it here! These were a huge hit and doubled as favors and seating cards as I had them waiting for each guest at their place setting.

The Food

I definitely craved Mexican food, more than normal, while I was pregnant so having a taco bar was a must. We used Sabor Catering from Whittier, Ca. and they were absolutely fantastic! I highly recommend.

The Drinks

To compliment the Mexican food, we served lemonades and Vodka or Tequila in a mix-your-own kind of situation… I called it “Spike It Yourself”. Strawberry lemonade, regular lemonade with a splash of Blue Curacao to make it turquoise and Jalapeño Limeade, and our guests could add their type and amount of alcohol themselves, it was great.

The Desserts

My lovely mom made all the desserts, Churro cupcakes and cookies! The cupcake wrappers and cookie flags were made with my Cricut and I’m sharing the how-to and the files here on Cricut’s blog.

Fabric Banners

I wanted to create banners for each area of the shower but wanted something different than the normal, flag horizontal type. So I created these vertical fabric banners using my Cricut, find out how and use my files over on the Cricut blog.

The Games

We played two games, “whats in your purse” and also a “baby shower bingo”, just like our free printable bridal shower bingo. Two fun games that were quick and enough to get a few laughs. The prizes were Starbucks cards that we wrapped in their to-go cups.

Baby’s First Alphabet Book

This was the best idea! Julia created the most adorable printables for this element… we printed letters A-Z and numbers 1-10 and each guest created the item and colored it. We wanted to show off everyones artwork so we made a display that all the sheets could be hung up on. The book is amazing and I cannot wait to start reading it to Hadley. The printables and the how-to will be shared on Thursday in this post.

“To-Be” Sashes

I wanted to honor the moms who came before me, Deans mom, his Grandma and of course my Mom… so I had Mary Katherine our hand-letterer create these custom Cricut cut files! I’ll be sharing the tutorial and the free files for these sashes tomorrow, don’t miss it!

Diaper Raffle

WOW, do you go through a lot of diapers each day. I’m so thankful that we did a diaper raffle because we got SO many diapers!

Photo Booth Fun

My Dad set up his photo booth and we all sure had a lot of fun in it! Shea made all the props for the booth and we created the background using lots of these 3D paper banner streamers from Amazon.

My Love

My Dearest Dino. My love. My best friend. My truth warrior. Thank you for making me a mama and for being such a wonderful father. You’re a dream come true.