Happy Hour Baby Shower // Bend, Oregon // June 2014
I’ll be honest, I am not a big fan of typical baby showers. The silly games that make the mom-to-be uncomfortable: {let’s guess how big around this mom-to-be is!} The silly games that make guests uncomfortable: {smell this diaper that I’ve melted a candy bar in and guess what kind it is! Then we’re going to eat really gross looking baby food!} No thank you. Then after these games, you sit in a circle and watch the mom-to-be open 500 gifts that yes are adorable, but after the 10th onesie, 90% of the guests have lost interest. I apologize if this is insulting or sounds too negative, but just because that is the “typical” doesn’t mean it needs to be the “standard.” I like to think outside the norm and make each party I do stand out from the rest. This is where “Happy Hour Baby Shower” was born.
My sister Cali feels the same way. Since she is the glowing mom-to-be in this case, it made the planning of this Southwestern themed happy hour shower so fun to plan! A couple months prior I had planned a super fun gender reveal party {see here!} where Cali & Auz found out that their growing little bean was a BOY! Planning the shower I knew turquoise was a must for the color scheme {Cali & Auz’s favorite color}. They also requested yellow, a fun pop! And gray. I added the kelly green for fun. Cali and I brainstormed shower ideas and things she did and didn’t want {mostly the above games and gift opening practices found at typical showers.} Cali had the brilliant idea of Happy Hour and from there the ideas morphed into the end result of the Southwestern theme.
The invites were designed and hand assembled by me. Seriously a labor of love to hand cut and glue and tie all of those! Included with the invites was a set of gift tags and a note requesting that gifts not be wrapped, but instead tagged with the included gift tag which was a themed banner tag with bakers twine and a safety pin. The idea was that guests would bring their gift unwrapped, display it on the provided table or hang it on the line for all guests to view while they mingled at “happy hour.”
The food and drinks kept with the theme. We served street tacos, taquitos and quesadillas. On each table we had texas caviar and baskets of chips and Cholula. Also on each table was the party favors, baby, I mean mini, bottles of hot sauce! For drinks we served a traditional margarita, kiwi/blueberry mojito, mango soda and lemon water. For dessert we made mini sombrero cookies and had jars of lemon heads, Trader Joe’s mint patties and mint M&Ms. For decor I had planted succulents in baby food jars and other little white flowers. I also arranged fresh cut yellow flowers in blue mason jars. The table cloths on the guest tables were painters drop cloths purchased from Home Depot. The table runners are wrapping paper. The food and gift table cloths were purchased from Target.
The only activity to do, besides socialize at Happy Hour, was to fill a page in Cali & Auz’s Buzzable book. Buzzable Baby Book is an adorable book designed to prompt guests to give the new mom and dad tips, advice, stories.. anything they think will be of value to the new parents. Each page in the book has a different topic to prompt the advice. This also was the guest book at the shower. This book was gifted to Cali & Auz by one of the founders who works with Auz. To find out more about this awesome book, go here!
Cali was showered with so many wonderful gifts for her and baby “C.” Happy Hour was a fun twist on the typical baby shower and also so much fun to plan all the special details to make the party so perfect for Cali. Only 4-6 weeks to go until we get to meet Baby “C”!
All of the items used in this event are available for rent from me. Please contact me if I can plan or help you style your special event.
