For Baby Smith Curated Gathering

This June, I held a baby shower to celebrate our very own mama-to-be, Kyle and her husband, Warren, two months before they welcomed home a sweet, healthy baby girl. I designed and hosted the event, and my mom and sisters helped book vendors and execution. I’ve got to say-we make a really good team! With Kyle being due at the beginning of August, we wanted to make sure there was enough time before then, but also before all of the summer vacations ramped up, so we settled on the beginning of June...and luckily that date worked for most everyone!  

The Johnson, Smith, and Bowen families, as well as Kyle and Warren’s closest friends, gathered in my home to shower Kyle and Warren with love, blessings, and laughs – and share their best parenting advice and childhood memories with the expecting parents.  

The Gathering 

The outdoor garden gathering was casual but elevated, held toward the end of a beautiful, sunny day at 6:30 p.m., the perfect time for dinner. We wanted the shower to be easy to execute given the number of guests and the heat of the summer, so we served a lighter, catered dinner. The atmosphere was relaxed but exciting, pleasant, and, of course, celebratory.  

We knew the guest list would be large and wanted to make it easy and fun on us, so we outsourced a lot to vendors from catering and furniture rentals to accommodate all guests and enjoy more time with our loved ones.  

We wanted to incorporate a fun game that again was too “baby shower” but would add some excitement for both the guys and girls. We went with a rendition of Squares, which is a game we typically play in our family on any given football weekend. Each guest was able to pay $1 for each square to guess the time baby Smith would arrive. We made sure to break the increments down into time slots where people would be able to make multiple guesses – winner takes all!  

The Theme 

We wanted to make this more of a party with the purpose of a baby shower instead of the theme being "baby shower.” We also wanted to celebrate both parents, so we made it more of a couple's shower. Kyle is all about color, so wanted to make sure there were pops of color throughout and that there was an “outdoor feel” with it being summertime.  

The Prep 

While there wasn’t a whole lot of prep involved, we did need to pick up drinks, florals, and tableware from our vendors. My mom and sister helped me wrap the flatware and napkin bundles and make the floral arrangements for the tables beforehand. Since this was the first party in my new home, we mostly spent time getting the yard ready and the space cleaned up – where the men were helpful. 

The Décor 

We invited guests using printed invitations with our shower’s colors. We intentionally matched the color scheme of the invitations to the color scheme of the shower and incorporated some additional signage throughout the party that matched, like gift tags, cupcake flavor signage, cocktail napkins and party game instruction cards. 

 We chose to have a Display Shower, where instead of opening gifts during the party, the guests are asked to bring the gifts unwrapped so they can be put on display for everyone to see. This was a great idea for a party this size and added colors, patterns and texture to the shower's overall look.

The Table 

With any tablescape, I always love incorporating all different textures and materials. You can see that concept in this tablescape as we incorporated terracotta, wood flowerpots, and terracotta and glass candle votives. We used our Signature White Cake Stand to display the cupcakes and our Palm trays for our dinner menu.

The Bar 

For drinks, we kept our menu somewhat simple so they could easily serve themselves. One thing I learned from this party is that you can never predict what everyone will drink, so you just have to make sure to have enough of each option. For this particular party, sweet and dry Notorious Pink Grenache Rosé was the number one hit – by a landslide – probably because it was a nod to the new baby girl. We also had Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.  

We also had two beers on hand: Michelob Ultra, our go-to for a very light beer, and Corona Light, which also matched the vibe. Since it was a baby shower, we made sure to offer non-alcoholic options for both beer and wine, so we had Heineken One, non-alcoholic Rosé and flat and sparkling water. We found turquoise colored bottled water bottles that went with the color scheme.  

The Menu 

We decided to bring in Real Paella, one of our favorite local chefs in Tallahassee, to cater the shower. They provided all of the main food, Spanish tapas, salad, and paella. For dessert, we used a local “cake genius” baker who made four different flavored bite-size cupcakes. We ordered enough for each guest to try a few different flavors.  

Appetizers: Spanish tapas, salad 

Main: Paella 

Dessert: Key lime cupcakes with cheesecake frosting, lemon blueberry cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, strawberry cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, and vanilla cupcakes with buttercream frosting.  

Drinks: Assortment of wine, beer, non-alcoholic wine, non-alcoholic beer, water 

 

The Final Look 

The baby shower couldn’t have been filled with more love and excitement, and it was a sweet and anticipatory experience for all. We hope you feel inspired to host a gathering with this done-for-you look, too!

Cheers!