Holly's Baby Shower

This past Saturday was a dozy! My closest girl friends and I threw our dear friend, Holly, a baby shower Saturday morning and then we all headed out around 1pm for the SEC Championship! Days like this are so fun to look forward to, even more fun the day of, but the day after the next few days after are such a lull. Needless-to-say, I felt exhausted throughout the day on Sunday and now Monday hasn’t been much fun either. My girl friends and I began planning for the shower months in advance to make sure we threw Holly the best baby shower we possibly could! Little did we know UGA would be playing in the SEC Championship so they ended up being on the same day – cardinal FAIL in the world of SEC football! However, the problem was solved by moving up the shower time from 10-1 which everyone seemed to be pleased by anyway! I was so proud of how it all came together so I wanted to share the labor of love that went into this shower with all of you. Enjoy!

I loved the neutral theme Holly is using for baby Henry’s nursery. She is using Black and White gingham fabric with a mix of natural fibers like burlap and 100% cotton. Because this neutral theme was so fitting for the mom as well, we decided to go with it for our baby shower inspiration as well.

First up, here is the Yarn Wreath that greeted everyone at the front door. I was inspired by Pinterest to create this yarn wreath and my loving little sister, Christy, helped wrap this baby with yarn during the Thanksgiving holiday. (Thanks, Christy!)

Next, we asked our guests in advance to personalize their favorite baby book in lieu of a card. Here is the little note we inserted into all the invitation envelopes along with a group gift donation as well.

On to the food/drink display. We continued the neutral theme on the food and drink tables with a black and white gingham table cloth and burlap table runner. I purchased these fabrics on sale at Hobby Lobby and was able to give the mommy-to-be the left over fabric to use in the nursery for things like pillows or curtains.

I also made this burlap banner with side bows out of the burlap as well. Surprisingly, the burlap was easy to work with and we added the frayed edges to make it stand out more.

For the drinks, we stuck to the basics because this was a morning shower and served the coffee, mimosas, and water. However, we have a fun time coming up with some creative names and ended up making name cards for the following: Coffee with baby cream and sugar, Mom-o-sas, and H 2 PreggO. Everyone loved it!

For the food, we stuck to the basics again and served a delicious breakfast casserole, mini-quiches, fruit salad, powdered doughnuts, and monkey bread. The only created name we came up with here was “Lil’ Monkey Break.”

I found these cute vases at Goodwill for $1 each and we adorned with with burlap and b&w gingham ribbon to dress them up a bit. We used them as utensil holders and then the mommy-to-be was able to bring them home with her to use in the nursery.

After we ate, we played some games and the winners won Starbuck gift cards!

1. Game 1: Guess the Celebrity and the Celebrity baby (We handed out these sheets of paper to the guests and the first one done with the most correct answers won!)

**Side Note: We had our guests pre-address the blue envleopes to make it easier on the mommy-to-be when she writes her thank you notes. One less thing for her to do! We drew a door prize winner from the bowl as well.**

2. Game 2: Name that candy bar (We melting candy bars in diapers made to look like a dirty diaper. We passed the diapers around and the guests could open the diaper and smell it to determine the correct candy bar. The guest with the most correct answers won!) – Impt. Note: do not play before you eat!

3. Game 3: Baby Item Round Up (Tray of Baby Items. Guests had 30 seconds to scan the tray and then 3 minutes to write down as many items as they could remember).

4. Game 4: We asked guests to predict the birthday, weight, and length of baby Henry. The winner will be announced when Henry arrives!

After the games, we opened the gifts and took some pictures.

I made holly a special gift. I asked her mom and mother-in-law to send me Henry's grand parents and great grand parents names so I could make them into a family tree. Again, Holly is going with a very neutral themed room so do keep the family tree minimalistic I went with a black and white sketch. I loved the way it turned out!

It was such a great shower and I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as the hosts.

Congratulations, Holly! We love you and cannot wait to meet baby Henry in January!