{Black Damask Baby Shower} March 13, 2011

In March, I styled a couple's baby shower for Justine and Zach.  The hostess was Katrina, the mom-to-be's sister. (as well as a good friend of mine.)  I was so excited to create an elegant, classy shower that would be as fun for the men as the women. 

Justine had two requests: 1) to have a couple's shower in a downtown location (Grand Rapids, MI) and 2) Use yellow, as they are not finding out the baby's gender and wanted something gender-neutral.  

Having known Justine for a number of years, I was able to come up with something that I thought would suit her personality - vibrant and fun, but always classy.  I chose a sunshine yellow to contrast with the black and white damask.  Being mid-March in West Michigan, we really needed the sun!

Above is a sample invitation that I created that ended up being the theme throughout.  I created it using various digital elements from http://www.mygrafico.com/. 

We held the event in the upper level of J. Gardella's Tavern, a downtown tavern with exposed brick walls, hardwood floors and lots of windows.      

Guests were encouraged to mingle and use the photo booth that we set up in the corner with a damask print curtain (Source) and photo booth printables that I found for free online (Source).  I am putting together a memory book with the photo booth photos for Justine as a gift.  Photography for the photo booth and the event itself was done by West Michigan photographer Teri Genovese.  Find her online at http://www.terigenovese.com/.  

   

We also had chalkboard saying bubbles mounted to wooden sticks for guests to write messages to the parents-to-be (Source).  This was a lot of fun, and made for some great photo ops.

Guests dined on food catered by the facility, including Southwestern Chicken dip with tortilla chips, deli sandwiches, crudites and pita wedges with hummus and more.  For dessert, we set up a cupcake tower and served cream puffs with strawberries.

I designed the dessert table with this inspirational photo in mind.  I searched Goodwills and other shops high and low, hoping to find a candelabra to spray paint black, but kept coming up empty.  I finally found the *perfect* ones at a Burlington Coat Factory that I visited on a whim!  Instead of using fresh flowers, I created rosettes using crepe streamer paper from a local party store.  I found this tutorial online that gave me the idea to create it with floral rings to put at the base of the candelabra.  I think that it gives the same impression at a fraction of the cost. 

The shower had between 50-60 guests.  Because of the large size, games were more difficult to organize.  We decided to do a baby-themed version of Family Feud.  Guests were in teams based on the tables where they were sitting.  A PowerPoint version of the game was displayed on a television for all to see.  We even recreated the "Face Off" portion of the show by using buzzers from the game Taboo.  Team representatives came up to a small table and had to hit their buzzer first to win the choice to play or pass.  The guests really got into the spirit of it and were cheering each other on.  

 

 Credits:

{Photography} Teri Genovese Photography

{Cupcake Tower} Handmade by Princess Prettys and Parties

{Wire Baby Carriage} TMarco
{Cake} Erin Dean, Custom Cakes