I love a good party. And there is no better excuse to throw a party than a baby! One of my best friends, Addy, is due in May. After suffering a miscarriage, I thought she deserved to be spoiled as much as possible for this pregnancy. After months of planning, I threw her the ultimate pandemic baby shower (complete with a zoom portion, of course). I am extremely type A and organized at baseline, but here is how the party planning and execution went.
The Theme
The first item on the agenda was to pick a theme. I gave Addy a bunch of ideas, and she decided on a simple “blue” theme. This was great in my book – the sky was the limit as far as decorations and food, all I had to do was make sure everything was blue!
The Decorations
Obviously I needed this party to have a good aesthetic. I am also cheap as s**t, but I hate tacky homemade things. I settled on a few DIY projects for the baby shower, and I think they turned out alright! Definitely a learning process, and there were certainly things I would re-do if I had the chance, but overall I think it was a success.
For the entrance, I made this “welcome” sign. I bought a large acrylic sheet off of Amazon, and a print out sign from Etsy. I traced the “Welcome to Addison’s Baby Shower” through the clear sheet with a gold and black paint pen, let it dry, then flipped it over and painted the back of the sign with blue and white acrylic paint. The biggest takeaway I learned was to use an oil-based paint pen for the gold and black lettering.
I also made a few smaller acrylic signs the same way – one for the gift table, one at the entrance saying “take one” of the hand sanitizers, and one for the champagne party favors.
The balloon arch was supposed to be the focal point of the whole baby shower, but damn if it wasn’t an Amazon fail! I thought I was ordering a pack with multiple shades of blue, white, and silver. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case. I tried to create a balloon arch that transitioned from blue – to white – to silver in an aesthetic way. I wasn’t very successful, but oh well. Next time! The biggest takeaway I have is to splurge the extra $20 to buy the balloon pump. My husband was extremely grateful he didn’t have to blow up all the balloons this time.
I purchased some 36 inch balloons off of Amazon, and had them filled with helium at our local Publix. I placed one at the front door and two by the balloon arch. I used two tissue paper tassel banners that I bought from Target to tie to the large balloons to add some flair, rather than just having them held by a string. If you ever buy these huge balloons and fill them up, be warned – they can’t be held down with a normal balloon weight. These all ended up at the top of the 20 ft ceiling at one point.
Finally, I set up the “present-opening” station with a blue chair I already had, and a classic “oh baby” sign.
The Favors
You can’t have a pandemic-era baby without hand sanitizer at the shower. I placed these individual hand sanitizers by the entrance sign. I purchased the hand sanitizers from Bath and Body Works, and then found the sticker labels on Etsy.
I also purchased these “Pop it When She Pops” tags from Etsy, and tied them to individual champagne bottles. Obviously I used LaMarca because of their blue labels.
The Drinks
Sticking true to the blue theme, I used La Marca Prosecco for the alcoholic beverages. I stuck blue cotton candy in champagne glasses and poured the champagne over it to create a blue drink. The best part – you couldn’t taste the flavor of the cotton candy. You could also do edible blue glitter as another option here.
I wanted to make a special non-alcoholic drink as well, since the mom-to-be obviously wasn’t drinking. I opted for a virgin blueberry mojito. I muddled limes and fresh mint together, and let them sit overnight in a container of plain water. For the party, I placed that mixture in a dispenser with blueberries and plain seltzer. In order to make the drink blue, I added a few drops of food coloring. In hindsight, I should have used a deeper color blue food coloring, or I think it also would have been fine without any color at all. I also stuck blueberries and mint on toothpicks as garnish for the mocktail.
And finally, I purchased seltzers and plain waters with blue labels and placed them in an ice bin. I had to stick true to the theme!
The Food
And last, you can’t have a good party without a plethora of food. My motto – when in doubt, make more.
I started with a bunch of blue colored candies. I also purchased some baby shower themed cookies from Etsy – they arrived the day before the shower and tasted great! For the last dessert, I made cake pops. In hindsight I should have just made a normal cake, but these turned out pretty decent (if you don’t count the rejects that didn’t make the final cut).
To create the cake pops, I first baked a plain chocolate cake and whipped up some chocolate icing. Once the cake was cool, I mixed the cake and icing together with the Kitchenaid Mixer until the mixture resembled a dough. I rolled the “dough” into balls, and then froze them for 30-60 minutes. Once the balls were firm, I stuck cake pop sticks into them, and returned them to the freezer. Once those were frozen, I dipped them into a mixture of melted white chocolate + blue chocolate melts. I placed the melted chocolate into a mason jar to create a deeper, skinnier vessel which made covering the entire cake pop with chocolate much easier. The key here was to make sure the cake pops were frozen onto the stick before dipping them into the hot chocolate, or else the ball would fall off of the stick. After letting the chocolate covered cake pops sit for a minute, I dipped them in blue sprinkles.
Although the shower was in the afternoon, I wanted to make sure no one went hungry. First, I made a few tea sandwiches using Pepperidge Farm’s thin sliced white bread (which was a key factor in making the sandwiches so dainty). I filled half with pre-made pimento cheese, and the other half with homemade benedictine spread + cucumbers. I also made turkey + cheese croissant sandwiches that I wrapped in wax paper and tied with a blue string – I thought they added an extra decadent flare despite being a super easy food item.
Since we are still in a Pandemic, I figured we shouldn’t have any dips or cheese boards. Instead, I bought these plastic cups from Amazon and filled half with veggies + hummus and the other half with veggies + benedictine spread. I also created some cheeseboard sticks, and layered different meats and cheeses onto toothpicks for easy access.
The Shower
Despite the world being used to zoom meetings and parties, that still doesn’t make them any more interesting or fun. Honestly, no one wants to sit on the computer and watch someone open up a bunch of gifts, even if it is your friend. In order to make it fun, I purchased some “baby bingo” games from Amazon. I sent everyone a bingo card in the mail, and we all brought them out to use while Addy opened presents. It was a fun way to keep everyone engaged, while also having the potential for winning a Starbucks gift card!
For the people who were present at the shower, we played a “water breaking” game. We froze these plastic babies in ice cubes, and placed one in everyone’s drink. The first baby to pop completely out of the ice cube – aka to have their water break – won! It was a fun way to play a game without being too involved, and allowed for us to focus on the mom to be.
At the end of the day, I had an absolute blast. Although it was a lot of work, I think the pictures speak for themselves. We ended up with an aesthetically pleasing setting with yummy food and drinks, and I got to focus on showering one of my best friends as she prepares to become a mom!
Creatively Catie 