A Black & White Baby Shower

Last Saturday, I helped host a Black & White Baby Shower for our friend, Anne Marie. Beth (who is also Anne Marie's sis-in-law), asked Jody and I to help out with decor. Using black and white was definitely less traditional, but everything turned out super cute! It was really great to be able to use a really nice space for the location too - the cafe at our church. As nice as it was, it was pretty tricky to fill such a large room and make the event a big "WOW!" It was fun to get creative with the centerpieces and mixing more poms/garland/yarn balls for a new look. To keep from the black & white theme from looking too sharp, we incorporated little bits of green and blue throughout. Thankfully, we decided to dedicate the evening before the shower to setting up, rather than allowing ourselves 'a couple hours' to pull everything together before the shower started. Whew!

I made this fun little Roscoe sign with black & white cardstock

Tissue poms always make a party. Jody & I made 25+ with 160 sheets of tissue.

Beth re-invented a fun black & white garland with pieces of blue and green tulle

The centerpieces have a little story behind them. Beth really wanted to incorporate a "Wishing Tree" in a new way, but we sort of ruled it out, since trees have been widely used in many recent showers. We originally planned to fill these mini vases with flowers, but everything shifted when Beth came up with the idea of making "mini wishing/advice trees" as each table's centerpiece. As we were brainstorming, we decided to split up - Beth and I went to track down some tree branches and Jody ran to get black spray-paint and a few other things. Beth and I drove a little while before catching a tiny little gravel hill/road 'pull-off' area. big enough for 1 car) surrounded by trees and the perfect branches we needed. I pulled over quickly and we jumped out, just as a utility van was trying to pull in the same gravel road. Are you kidding me? What are the chances on a Saturday morning - the same morning we are on a spontaneous hunt for 12 perfect-baby-shower-centerpiece-branches - an electrician/utility guy needed to pull in the same abandoned driveway?? He just sat there staring at me, causing a major traffic holdup. So I panicked, and motioned awkwardly, creating a confusing/extensive/pointing back-and-forth moment: "Oh, me? You? You need to pull in this spot? Oh I need to move? Oh! Ohh!! Sorry! Ohh!" I jumped back in my car and rushed outta there, before the confused utility guy caused a serious traffic jam. I drove back and forth up the main road, crazily looking for a place to pull off, since I left Beth behind in the dust. On my 3rd try, I pulled off to the side, close to the gravel, barely clearing the skinny, main, 2-lane road that cars love to speed on. I ran up the gravel hill/road to find Beth, but ran into Mr. Utility Man first, who was apparently doing his regular utility-ish stuff on a utility-looking unit. Embarassed, I apologized to the guy for taking his little parking space and for holding him up. He smiled and seemed fine, but of course I couldn't just leave it at that. I continued.. "Ohh, yeah.. my friend and I.. are uh.. just trying to find the perfect branches for, uh.. some baby shower centerpieces.. " (Augh, embarrassing!). The guy just laughed as I clumsily walked past him, starting my hunt for the 'perfect branches'. 20 minutes later, Beth succeeded with finding 11 branch/centerpieces, and I lost with finally contributing 1 good-looking branch. We stuffed them all in my trunk and headed back to Jody's to spray paint them black and continue our party-planning. Oh, what a morning! With that said, the branches turned out fabulous. We definitely put a twist on them, and they turned out really cute.

Miniature Wishing/Advice Tree Centerpieces

Beth painted a bunch of clothes pins black, and we hung pieces of paper from the branches for the ladies to offer some advice for Anne Marie. We attached the green mum buttons for a little bit of color.

The vases were obviously top-heavy, so we had to improvise by carefully using hot glue on the base of each one, to prevent them from tipping over. Jody worked really hard on each one. (Beth even painted all of the - originally silver - tealight-bases black. Detail love!)

We wrapped each of the vases with our themed-paper and added a little color with pieces of tulle. We wrapped each vase with string, after stringing on some cute buttons and beads. They turned out really cute!

Beth & Erin setting up food and drinks

Sweet little flowers

Jody's Chocolate-Banana Muffins with Cream Cheese Frosting

I made and added these fun, little toppers with extra paper we had leftover

Yummy Frozen Yogurt Tarts

My Almond-Bark Pretzels
(Thanks to my sister, Vanessa's inspiration)

Veggies, duh!

Jody's Black Bean Hummus & Pitas (I told everyone it was 'grape hummus'. Wow, I'm sure funny!)

Beth's Deviled Eggs (Pretty sure I ate 20 of them!)

Erin's Cider Punch
(Inspired by Kevin & Ann Reese's delish concoction)

Michelle's Bruschetta - To die for.

Gift Tables

Mommy-to-Be, Anne Marie & Me

Michelle, Me, Jody & Beth

Erin, Michelle & Me

The shower was really sweet and fun. One of the most memorable moments for me, was when I dared Jody to run from our table to the back of the room to get us all 2nds. I'm not sure if it was the way she ran, or the fact she was running full-speed, at 10am, at a lovely little Baby Shower, or both. I almost wet my pants laughing! Ha! Just thinking about it makes me laugh out loud.. I sure love my friends!

xo

{Photo Credits - Jody Peach's fabulouso camera, Canon EOS Rebel T2i}