The one thing I am rapidly realizing is that at the end of the day, life is all about family. Celebrating family and cherishing family is going to be my number 1 priority from here on out, and my fiance Ivan and I are so extremely excited to start a family of our very own. Whether family to you is your immediate relatives, or close friends, whoever in your life you consider family – let them know how much you appreciate and love them regularly!
Why am I on a soapbox proclaiming my love for family? Because ever since I became pregnant, my entire family and my close girlfriends who I consider family came together and showed nothing but excitement and loving thoughts for our soon to be here baby boy.
Two of my aunts and two of my cousins generously offered to throw a family baby shower, and my mother, mother-in-law to be and close family friend who I consider an aunt offered to plan an additional shower for my group of close girlfriends.
These two celebrations were so beyond special to me and I wish each day lasted forever. All I know is that our bubby boy is going to come into the world with SO many people ready to love and spoil him up, he doesn’t even know what’s comin’!
Being in the moment during each shower to take in everyone who joined to celebrate our little boy made me feel beyond lucky and honored to have these people in my life. I’m so thrilled to be sharing the details of each day on Balanced Babe as I’m sure there are other mama’s to be out there that are looking for inspiration or ideas – so here goes!
The Invites
I chose for each shower to do email invites to save paper and time. I know a lot of gals like to go all out with their invites with pretty textures and mailers, but for me, the types of invites I sent out were not a priority. I used Paperless Post for one shower and E-vite for the other.
The Venues
My Aunt so graciously offered to host my family shower at her house. The set up was beautiful and her back yard is like a secret garden so it was the perfect setting for pictures. For my city shower we found a cute event space in Lincoln Park that has a full kitchen and tables/chairs (a huge plus if you’re going to be renting a space and wanting to bring in your own food).
What I Wore
For my family shower I wore a long red summer dress that I’ve had hidden in my closet waiting for a special occasion to bring it out. I’ve had it for quite some time and you’ll never believe it, but it’s from H&M! For the city shower I found a cute dress at Akira (not maternity, I just bought a size L since it was stretchy fabric) and also scooped up matching earrings from Akira as well. How I wore heels, I have NO idea. I was pretty much waddling for the second half of the shower. If you’re going to be wearing heels to your shower, make sure you also bring flats or be prepared to sit a lot!
The Decor + Theme
My family shower had the cutest elephant theme, and the best part is that my family who was hosting didn’t even know that I was already stocking up on elephant and giraffe items for our nursery. My cousin’s daughter also made the cutest center pieces for the dining table and she is quite the artist (she also painted a stunningly beautiful elephant painting for our nursery as well, and she’s only 13! Talent, I tell ya!).
There was also a little sock garland hanging on the front window that we were able to take home with us. I was actually about to take the socks off to put them away for lil bub to wear but Ivan protested that we keep it for decoration so that it can always remind us of our shower (he is just so sentimental sometimes).
The hosts also created a structure for guests to share advice on cute elephant printed cards- which I thought was also an adorable touch. The party favors were cute containers of various flavored popcorn, chocolate bars and blue loufas (and you best believe I took extra popcorn and chocolate for myself!!)
For the city shower, my mom went with a blue, gold and botanical theme. She added bouquets of greenery and flowers everywhere and added balloons to the party favor table which displayed elephant sugar cookies, and small champagne bottles titled “Lil Bub’ly”.
My mom and her best friend Linda also put together a diaper cradle display, botanical table runners, and gold balloons on the wall saying “Lil Buby Boy”. They really went all out with streamers and everything!
The Food
Since both showers were held during lunch time, my family shower served a delicious chicken salad, a variety of fruits and delicious pastries. Before the lunch there were appetizers spread out (cheese and crackers -which I devoured), and they also passed around blue cupcakes and macaroons.
Everything was delectable! My soon to be mother in law loves food so she brought in the goods for the city shower.
Since my city shower was just after lunch time she went with fruit and veggie trays, and a ton of finger foods like sandwich roll ups, ham appetizers, cheese and tomato trays and all sorts of trinkets.
She also loves to bake so she made a delicious Bulgarian cake and special cookies, and also ordered canolli cakes and other goodies. Linda also made Oreo cookies, blue white chocolate dipped pretzels and nutter butter bites – there was A LOT of sweets let me tell ya!
Both showers were beyond special and I am so grateful for my family to put all their time and effort into each day. I know planning events and gatherings can be extremely time consuming, and for each day to have so many details made me appreciate what my family has done to celebrate our baby boy even more!
