Feathering Her Nest

Finally! Pictures from the baby shower I co-hosted for my sister in law, Erin, a couple weekends ago. She and Matt's brother, TJ, are blessing us with a niece or nephew (they aren't finding out which!) in early April. We are so excited for this new bundle of joy to join our rowdy family. We live just three blocks from them and are looking forward to many fun times to be had as our kids grow up. 

Erin's sister, Carrie, and I planned a shower with a bird and nest theme. Since the sex of the baby is a surprise, we wanted to carry the bird theme throughout with bright colors and simple, classic elements, but nothing too gender specific. We aimed for a French Laundry/Anthropologie/Vintage Whimsy sort of feel. This is the inspiration board Carrie put together that we referred to along the planning process to keep all the design elements in line. (Invitation from Tiny Prints)

Don't you LOVE it!? 

Erin and TJ's home is fabulous. Big and open, full of beautiful natural light. So we didn't need to do much in terms of decorations. Carrie made some fabric poms (that I'm in love with) and I made two 15 foot Heather Bailey fabric buntings that we hung around the house. On one of them, we used clothespins to hang baby pictures of the Mommy and Daddy.

(buntings are FOR SALE in my shop! Can't live without them? CLICK HERE)

For the "guest book" we used a white tree encircled by a rustic wooden wreath and white feathers to look like a nest. Carrie found these fabulous bird tags that everyone signed with a wish for the baby and hung on the tree. The baby blocks are ones Erin's mom played with as a little girl and still owned!

We let classic pregnancy cravings, like pickles and ice cream, inspire our sweet and salty appetizers.

I wrote on these zinc easel frames with chalk pens and accented them with these glitter birdie magnets to let everyone know the choices. (The Black Pepper & Sea Salt potato chips in wire baby buggies were my favorite!)

We served ice cold lemonade in mason jars with a sprig of fresh mint, along side white wine and champagne.

For lunch we made Grizzy Creek's Cherry Chicken Salad (you can find the recipe HERE on Haute Plates) served with French baguettes followed by dessert of Coconut Cake from Susie Cakes and Chocolate Cake Balls I made a la Bakerella. 

We also had a Sweet buffet that guests visited to fill birdie stamped treat bags (held in a wire bird cage) to take home with them. We filled the glass jars with French Macarons (raspberry, lemon & coconut flavored) from Paulette in Beverly Hills, Ghiradelli brownies, and pastel sprinkled donut holes. We tied these zinc bird tags onto the lid of each jar to label what was inside.

Erin received so many special, beautiful gifts. But my favorite was the painted canvas TJ gifted her for their baby's nursery.

We played three games over the course of the party. In the beginning, everyone received a clothespin (that Carrie had embellished with burlap and fabric bows) and was instructed not to use the word "BABY" from there on out. If you caught someone saying "baby" you could steal their clothespin. The person at the end of the shower with the most clothespins won.

 

Then, we had everyone guess the number of chocolate eggs in a large mason jar and the person who came closest won. Finally, we passed out cards with the mom and dad's first and middle names on them. Erin Katelin and Timothy Joseph. Everyone had to come up with one girl name and one boy name using only the letters in the mom and dad's names. Erin picked her favorite boy and girl name (Eli and Linley) and those were the two winners! For prizes we wrapped up these birdie water bottles in yellow tulle and tied them with feather headbands I made. 

All in all - I was so pleased at how everything came together. I had a blast working with Carrie (I think I may have met my party planning match!) And I know we were both happy Erin enjoyed herself. We kept every last detail about the shower a secret from her until the day of. (Only fair considering she wont find out if we are getting a niece or nephew!) The only hint we gave her was this necklace my friend Denise made. Carrie and I gifted it to Erin her the morning of the shower (before her girlfriend Jen stole her away for breakfast and pedicures so we could set up!)

Visit Carrie's blog "A Girl in the Life" HERE

Visit Erin's blog "Today and Yesterday" HERE 

(once you do, you'll understand why we paid such close attention to detail...Erin's got a great eye for the FABULOUS!)

 

(me and the mom to be)

I'm so excited for this new site! Thanks for visiting and I hope you come back soon. Need some party inspiration? Let me know what kind of posts you'd like to see in the future!