baby shower part 3: making decorations
Our cutie friend Lyndsay had a baby this past year.
For the past few days we’ve been sharing about how we celebrated:
baby shower part 1: making plans
baby shower part 2: making invitations
Today’s post on decorations starts with Kristin, who is currently off WWOOF’ing it, waiting tables and creating through New Zealand as we speak. Miss you K!
Kristin: Taking on decorations was a task I reveled when it was assigned to me! After deciding on Heather’s super cute living/dining room as the space for hosting the shower, I knew a few things were important to me regarding the decorations for this party. As it turns out, these will continue to be decor “principles” I stick to regarding future party planning.
- Decor would not clash with the existing space but work cohesively with the already-existing elements to enhance it
- Decor would not interfere with the flow” of our 15+ invite list and people’s ability to access food and drink freely
- Decor should be minimal, impactful and thoughtfully placed
It didn’t take long to realize that we all have a sweet spot for the color aqua and our combined serving pieces would be more than enough for our dessert and app menu. Coupled with pops of army green and white, we landed on a color scheme that felt appropriately “boy” without a touch of the classic baby blue! Heather’s white table and my aqua pieces were easily a focal point of the room,
and we utilized her existing chalkboard for a sweet sentiment, landing on “Lynds and the Little Guy” to announce the arrival of Mr. Benjamin himself.
Add some colored tapers, and a hanging chandelier for lighting and the stage was set for a an ambient night gathering.
When thinking of décor ideas to create for this party, I was inspired by lots of garland ideas to add a touch of “celebration” to the space without distracting from the uber-cute vintage vibe that Heater already has going on. Take a look at some of my inspiration: the heart book page garland and the vintage storybook.
I had a set of blue and green felted balls on hand from a clearance run at Anthropologie, which easily worked by themselves when threaded onto a thick piece of twine.
Using a knitting needle, I threaded each ball onto the twine and spaced them out to make a simple garland.
Heather happened to have a set of vintage flashcards and a children’s book that served as the materials for the second bunting.
It was important to unite the two rooms where the shower would be hosted, and therefore, the bunting needed to be double-sided for guests who would be walking between these rooms. After selecting a few choice flashcards to use (boy, smile), I crafted the rest of the bunting from pages of the children’s book, combining both photos and text pages for variation.
I used a few pieces of yarn to form the final string to hang bunting #2.
Overall, the set of garlands was a mere cost of $5 and added a simple statement to the center of the space, welcoming guests and inviting them to join in celebrating the little boy who was soon to make us all smile!
Heather: Whenever I host a party I tend to have amnesia about all the extra work having people in your home can entail. There’s always more cleaning than you think, more cooking then you believe, and you actually have to get personally showered and ready as well. (I still underestimate the time to shower.) But what I want to do is have all that done so I can stand back, look at my space, move things around artistically and create anything that adds to the ambiance. That’s the part that always gets rushed and the part I always wish I’d made more time for. I may never host a part alone again because working with Jen and Kristin was actually magical. We all carried the load, and it made things like having Kristin come over the night before with all her serving pieces a complete blast and actually restful. We combined our colors and dishes, and she worked in her adorable decorations. We stood back and changed things up because we had the time. There was still rushing and craziness, but it wasn’t until the night of the shower, with all three of us sprawled out on my floor in pre-party panic wrapping and making things together, not alone.
Jen: There was a lot to love about these decorations. Not only were they fun to stare at and be inspired by before, during and after the party, but they also were things that you found yourself wanting in your house (so rare for a baby shower, isn’t it?). Things you could picture hanging in your kids’ room (or your room). Things that spurred on ideas of how you could take something cute and old, spend a few bucks on a little ribbon or twine, and make it into something to brighten up your space.
Next up would be the food. It was a collaborative effort, believe me – baby shower part 4: making food.
~H
Last Updated on June 16, 2022 by Heather Bursch
