Make Way for Baby - Boston Public Garden Baby Shower

In 2016, not only did we welcome our daughter, but we welcomed our second niece! We had so much fun planning her shower. My sister is always introducing me, friends and family to fun places and things to do in Boston. We wanted to incorporate some Boston details. We called it a "Make Way for Baby" theme and incorporated the classic children's story, "Make Way for Ducklings" and used the Boston Public Gardens as inspiration.

 

 

We also incorporated Boston and garden themed children's books, including:

Hello, Boston!

The Tiny Seed

Boston Baby

The Secret Garden

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

A Journey around Boston

Swat Boat Season in Boston

Alice in Wonderland

Chrysanthemum

Inch by Inch

On the Loose in Boston

Waiting for Wings

The books were used as decoration in the cocktail hour area. We had a cocktail hour to give the parents to be more time with their guests. We called it a "Cocktails and Cravings Hour"!

The menu included-

Mom-osa

Belly-ni

Make Way Lemonade (lemonade with muddled cucumber, mint and an edible flower garnishment)

 

Mini Ice Cream Sandwiches

Mini Chocolate Chip Cookies and Milk Shooters

Cheeseburger Sliders

Chicken Finger Skewers

Popcorn

We had so much fun designing the room! We wanted to bring the outdoors in, so we asked the florist to bring in some greenery and flowers for the backdrop to the gift opening area.

 Instead of flower centerpieces, we asked for centerpieces to look like trees.

The chefs at the Taj helped bring everything together with mini swan puffed pastries, cheesecakes with swan feathers and they incorporated edible flowers in the cocktails and salads. In addition to looking amazing, everything tasted delicious. The kids were probably most impressed by the passed cookies and milk though!

We also asked our favorite cookie maker, Aisling of Aisling's Cookies, to make swan cookies as favors for the guests.

 

We ahad custom lollipops from Melville Candy Company and found free downloadable coloring pages and got crayons for all of the kids.

 

 

The cake was made by Konditor Meister.

 

We had so much fun showering the mom and dad to be with love! The Taj was the perfect venue. Everyone we worked with was incredible and they really made the day special.

Venue & Catering: The Taj Hotel Boston
Cake: Konditor Meister
Florist: Cedar Grove
Cookie Favors: Aisling's Cookies
Lollipop Favors: Melville Candy
Table Numbers: Oakleaf Designs
Cocktail Napkins and Stirrers: Sip, Hip Hooray!

B is for Babies

It seems like a lot of people I know are starting to make announcements that cute little babies are on the way. I'm looking forward to meeting the little guys. Over the summer I went to a baby shower for one of my college friends and last weekend I went to the shower of one of my many cousins.

 

It's been a great excuse to use up some of my old scrapbooking supplies. Growing up I decided that I needed to document absolutely everything through scrapbooks, so I've built up a pretty healthy collection of craft papers and supplies that are just gathering dust with the exception of making cards every once in awhile. Once photo books came out through sites like my publisher, I kind of gave it up.

 

I used some of my old papers recently to make some bunting to use as ribbon for my college friend's baby shower gift and made a matching card. 





I also used my Silhouette machine (it's a machine that cuts paper into shapes and letters) for probably the first time ever for my cousin's baby shower gift wrapping. Jim bought it for me our first Christmas after we got married. He thought I'd like it because leading up to our wedding I spent a lot of time crafting - we had a heavy DIY wedding. It was super thoughtful, but after the wedding I didn't have any reason to use it. Until apparently now. Going forward I think all of our friends will get monogrammed baby gift wrapping. I don't think that's what Jim expected I'd use it for, but at least I'm using it now, right?

 

So thank you babies for giving me an excuse to craft again and giving me a reason to use the thoughtful gift from my husband (3 years later).

Baby showers are also a great chance to see the awesome crafting skills of my talented friends and family. At my cousin's (technically cousin-in-law) baby shower, her sister-in-laws, sisters and mom and mom in-law put threw the most adorable event. There were so many sweet details. There was a lot of thought and love put into it. How sweet is this little poem at each guest's seat?

 

I also loved the centerpieces. One of the hosts, my cousin M, wanted to have baby block centerpieces. When she couldn't find them pre-made, she decided to go the DIY route and created these beautiful centerpieces getting the supplies at A.C. Moore and ordering bulk hydrangeas through BJs. They came out awesome. There were so many other thoughtful details like homemade chocolate covered Oreo favors made by the mom-to-be's sister in law. 

It was a lot of fun to spend time celebrating the soon to be baby and spending time with friends and family in such a pretty setting.

I'm apparently on the watch list for the next in line to have a baby. I guess that happens when you're about to hit three years of marriage and inching closer to 30. For now, I'm just enjoying celebrating other people's babies.

Are you and your friends in the baby stage? Any tips on using up old scrapbook paper or cool ideas on things to make with a silhouette machine?