i really dislike traditional baby showers with all the games, sheet cakes and sitting around waiting to be directed. i wanted this event to be super casual so we decided to host it at a restaurant instead of someone's home and go with a open house policy versus set arrival time. the Mandolin Cafe in Tacoma located just off Proctor was a perfect fit - they have a private room which fits up to 40 people and the feel we were looking for. it's one of my favorite spots to just chill which made it even more appropriate.
flowers bring color and joy to any situation so we made sure to include them in our decor. prior to the sprinkle, i gathered a few branches from the yard and cut them down to fit in the many random glass vases i found around the house. the vases were missing a bit of flare so i used hemp twine, hot glue and ribbon to add a bit of interest to them. that afternoon before arriving at the cafe, i stopped in at the Metropolitan Market and picked up a variety of flowers in shades of purple and fuchsia (p.s. the Met always has a great selection but is not the most cost effective option - if you have a farmers market open in the area - GO TO IT!). i then popped a bit of ribbon in the bottom of the vases for a splash of color and had them filled with water. kelly and i then arranged them to our liking - adding a few paper hanging flowers here and there. dang, i really feel like martha after describing that - bahahaa!
when thinking of a creative way to welcome guests and provide them with a unique gift we came up with the idea to do flower corsages. we thought of doing them in a few different fabrics at first but landed on organza which came in many fun colors that stuck with the theme of the party. one saturday my mom, becca, grandmother, sister and i (with a lil' help from reese) entered the flower corsage sweat shop and spent hours cutting out shapes, texturing the edges and sewing the bead work on that held it all together. i heard quite a few compliments and inquiries as to how they were constructed which means i'll be highlighting the process in a upcoming blog.
we later attached the name of each guest to a flower made especially for them. they were pinned to an old cork board i had in the garage that we displayed on my painting easel. it was the first thing guests saw and immediately got them into the celebration spirit with a splash of color.
i'm a huge fan of food so when the Mandolin Cafe said we had to do catering through them - it was absolutely not a problem. they have an amazing menu that includes many of my favorites like the blue cheese, strawberry and chicken salad - ohhhh baby! we also ordered many festive easy to handle bites like the cured meats, cheeses, olives, toasty breads and a variety of skewers like the peanut chicken, roasted vegetables and tomato & mozzarella.
another fun facet we added was the baby guessing sheets. since we don't know what we're having guests were asked to make a pick and sign their name to either the boy or girl sheet. my sisters took it one step further with writing a name suggestion for each letter of the alphabet on the backside including such gems as Didi, Ricky Bobby, Oprah, Hobit, Yoda and Redonkulous.
my sister hit it on the head when she said the space felt, 'just like we're in christy's home.' the colors, wood work and art covered walls were the perfect feel we were looking for - comfortable and fun. to add to the party feel becca hand crafted every one of the flags you see hanging from the ceiling (which FYI do not stay up with glue dots - haha) including this special one over the food which read 'Sweet Bebe Pelland.' we display the flags in our own home on special occasions such as reese's party a couple weeks back - which i still need to share here on the blog - i swear, it's coming.
every party needs a favor and we picked a to-go filled with sweet treats. tammi barber of TLB Events was gracious enough to give us about 100 of these great lil' boxes which we filled full of kettle corn, jelly beans and circus animal cookies. becca then made up labels which read 'She's about to POP' haha get it - popcorn. okay we're lame but it's a fun tie in! haha.
you're not going to believe this one but jordan just had her lil' girl kennedy a month ago! she looks amazing and lil' kennedy was such a doll - slept throughout the whole party completely content with hearing happy voices and merry music. hehe. jordan, nikki and jess (all pictured below) are some of my very favorite brides from over the years - i'm so blessed they found me and are now such great additions to my life.
gotta love it when you're kid picks her nose in a picture! yes! haha Melina is my oldest, dearest friend - that one that always knows where you're coming from no matter how long it's been since you last talked. she's amazing and that's equally due to her phenomenal mother, Cherine, who came from Idaho for the event. i love these two - they're truly part of my family.
we left the drinks and dessert options up to the guests because frankly, there's just too many to choose from at the Mandolin. their pastry chef had a tempting variety of delights ranging from cakes to these lil' buggers - cookie dough lollis. these delicious treats are a ball of cookie dough plopped on a stick then dipped in chocolate and rolled in mini chocolate chips. dying to try one yet?! that's what i thought - reese was a big fan.
my lovely prego lady friends - dannielle who is due in July and steph who is due soon after me. jess, pictured below in the teal shirt, just had her second child - a beautiful baby girl named Jane. all these ladies are part of my mom&baby group which formed when we all had our first children. we met through a community group for new mothers at Good Sam hospital and decided to form our own after our kids out grew the guidelines. our get togethers consist of great food, wine and even better conversation - nothing could be more relaxing and helpful as you embark on the journey that is motherhood.
here's the rockstar of this party - becca totally pulled off every aspect of this day as perfect as we planned. as if you'd expect anything less - you saw all the amazing details and unique touches to her wedding which i just featured. she's honestly the best and i couldn't be happier to call her my treasured friend - thank you so much bec!
every once in a while i just feel like being super crafty - this occurs much more often when i am pregnant. i guess it's the need to nest and be homey - haha who knows but i secretly love it! after having my idea of embellishing the paper flowers with beads for the well wish cards at the work party - i decided to do it on my own.
one of the best elements that we've incorporated into every party we've done in the past year or so is the well wish tree. this can be applied to any occasion - birthday, baby shower, wedding or anniversary. it's all about sending your love to the person or people of the hour. for this one we had guests fill out two cards - one for the baby and one for reese, shaun and i. it is such a sweet treat to read through them all afterward and even more interesting when you stumble upon ones like melina's which read, 'remember you can't choose your parents but you can choose your friends.' classic!
the tree is one of the most basic additions we created but has so much visual impact and interest. i simply went out into our woods at the house a few days earlier and cut out a few large branches from wild trees. we then based the large ceramic vase with drain rock which i gathered that morning from the side of our shop (very swank i know!). becca added battery operated mini lights to the second half of the tree to create a lil' extra twinkle and we threw in a few irish bells and paper flowers for color.
two of the ladies that helped pull it all off, amber and hayley.
to cap off the wonderful afternoon, a few of my favorite ladies headed downtown to a sweet speakeasy lounge named Maxwells which has happy hour all day - even on a saturday night! we had a quick appetizer and drink - yes i drank, they made me the virgin special! after lounging for a bit we headed down the street to the Over the Moon Cafe where we indulged in savory dishes including the sage chicken, flank steak, seared halibut and pasta. ohh and don't even get me started on the desserts - even though none of us had room we made it for the chocolate cake with chocolate ganache and strawberry pound cake.
thank you to all the ladies in my life for turning out to celebrate our newest addition. it's finally sinking in that in a few short weeks our family will expand from three (well, six if you're counting all our kids - tony, dozer and wilson - hehe) to four. i truly appreciate your love and support.
