Newest Newon! (Photo HEAVY)

About a week ago I had the privilege of throwing a baby shower for my best friend Danica. It's no secret that I love planning events. After my wedding was over, while I did have a sigh of relief, I also was sad thinking that I would no longer have an event to plan or a reason to spend time in my craft cave. Well, shortly after our wedding, Danica told me that she was expecting and the baby shower planning began!

Her and her husband chose not to find out the sex of their baby and while that has been driving me crazy, it gave me an excuse to throw a shower simply celebrating the mommy to be. Instead of a pink or blue theme, or a baby everything theme, I decided to go with a grown up, girly theme with touches of dogs (more specifically Danica's dogs George and Sophie). You'll see what I mean later...

For the color scheme, I decided to go with navy, hues of peach and (of course) gold. 

From there my friend Erin created these UH-MAZING invites:

She kills it every time. (If you missed it she also created my fabulous wedding invites.)

The enclosure and printing was done by Cards & Pockets.

Because gold was also a primary color used in my wedding, I already had TONS of wonderful gold items to use for the shower AND since I am a lover of all things gold, I didn't mind picking up a few extra things along the way. 

Lets just get to the photos shall we??

As always my Cricut Explore was my best friend for most of my projects, like this "Oh Baby" sign that I hung from the gate that guests entered through.

I re-used some gold photo frames from my wedding and also spray painted some little dog figurines (gold of course). 

I created a custom "Guest Book" using silhouettes of Danica's dogs and some pre cut balloon shapes for each guest to sign to latter be added. 

Here is what the final product ended up looking like.

And here are the models themselves :)

The "Mom"osa Bar was complete with champagne, juice, and lemonade and water as well. 

I had guests choose what they thought the baby was by choosing a drink stir that was also made out of silhouette of Danicas dogs, George for a boy and Sophie for a girl. 

My Cricut of course helped me to create these custom juice labels (carafes from Ikea). 

That gold polka dot drink dispenser was a Marshall's find that I just couldn't pass up. (Similar)

I don't think I got a good photo of them but I also made custom water bottle wraps that you can kind of see in this photo. 

The final set up. 

My wedding florist LeeLina went above and BEYOND what I expected with florals. I mean come on... how gorgeous, right?

The shower favor was a succulent (with, of course, another doggy silhouette) in a gold pot no less. (Sorry the photo is kind of blurry)

The flowers tho... I meeeeean...

Quite possibly my favorite detail of the whole shower was this chair. I added a "Baby Mama" banner (one of Danica and I's favorite movies) and LeeLina added the extra little flower and ribbon detail and it just looked amazing. 

And if you know me, you know a photo backdrop is a necessity and this event of course was no exception. 

Baby alphabet book station. 

Another favorite part of the shower... the flower crown station. Not sure where I got the idea but from the beginning of the shower planning process a flower crown station was a MUST. 

Before I made my crown. Danicas was made by LeeLina and was absolutely gorgeous (as expected).

Party host Me ;)

Aren't the flower crowns just such an awesome touch??

Details

Isn't the chair just amazing?

Some girls enjoying the Baby Alphabet Book station. 

We, obviously, had our own photoshoot...

The somewhat inappropriate gift I gave to Danica. 

Cutting into the delicious cake (with, of course, a custom cake topper made by me and my Cricut). 

Sadly I didn't get a great photo of most of the desserts... but here are a couple...

Strawberry Shortcake shooters (whip cream was added later). 

Hitting the timer button and running back and trying to crouch for the photo clearly didn't do much for my posing but, you get the idea. 

My favorite Baby Mama <3

I'd say the shower was a success (aside from the fact it felt like we were on the sun for most of it, but seeing as how it rained the weekend before, I'd rather have the heat)! We all had so much fun and it was exactly what Danica wanted, a relaxed environment, a small group, no pressure, no games, just hanging out and having fun and celebrating the mama to be! 

Now... all thats left is the arrival of the Newest Newon!

Vendor Love: Invitations // Florist // Rentals // Design + Planning // Cake

Merry ChrismAugust!!

I have party planning in my blood. I swear. I get it from my grandma. She always loved hosting parties and loved getting everything just right, down to the very last detail. That couldn't be more me. I'll use any excuse to throw a party, so much so that last weekend I INVENTED a reason to! Haha. 

It's always so hard to throw a successful holiday party, regardless of what holiday it may be, simply because there are generally so many other parties being had. Like take Christmas, Fourth of July, or Halloween for example. There are only so many weekends in every month and so the possible party dates fill up fast. So, that's where my idea of "ChristmAugust" was born. "Christmas in July" parties have become increasingly more popular, however, I had a very busy July and thus "ChristmAugust" came to fruition (Plus, I even like the name better).

The first thing that I knew was that I HAD to have a photo backdrop. It's just what I do as you can see here...

Danica's 21st Birthday Party

And here:

Danica's Bachelorette Party

Lucky for me the red and white striped tablecloth that I used for Danica'a "Boats N Hoes" themed Bachelorette party was perfect for a Christmas themed party also! I made a "Merry ChristmAugust" banner, got the ole artificial tree out of the garage and viola! The perfect ChristmAugust photo backdrop!

Several months back I downloaded "Pocketbooth", a photobooth app on my iPad but never really got the chance to use it. This party was the perfect setting! It's great because it takes the photostrip (3 or 4 photos, whichever you decide) and once you're done it give you the option to post it to your facebook, your twitter, or to e-mail it. I don't think there is a person alive that doesn't like photobooths and if there is, I feel really sad for that person. It takes the photos with the front facing camera so that you get the chance to see yourself, however, I think the front facing camera (like the one on the iPhone as well) isn't the greatest quality and makes the photos look a little grainy. Nonetheless, the photobooth was a hit as you can see. 

(most of the photobooth props bought at Alin Party Supply) 

I had two "signature cocktails" for the event. I wanted a red drink and a green drink, obviously to keep with the Christmas theme. The two drinks were:

"Rudolph’s Shiny Red Cocktail" 

(which I found (and adapted from) here)

·     2 oz Vodka

·     1/2 cup Cranberry Juice

·     1/2 cup Sparkling White Grape Juice

·     “Cranberries” for garnish.

and my own invention, the

 "Pine Tree Punch"

·     1 oz Vodka

·     1 oz Midori melon liqueur

·     Fill with chilled Sprite

·     “Cranberries” for garnish. 

Obviously cranberries aren't in season so I made due with champagne grapes which are a smaller version of grapes and actually look kiiiiiind of like cranberries. Close enough.

Of course, I forgot to take some good "before photos" so I snapped a few the day after the party to get the gist of the decor.
I adore making my front table festive because it's the first thing people see when they walk in. 

Stockings are from a tutorial I posted here

Pretty much everything in my house is from one of four places: Target, Home Goods, Marshalls or Ikea in case you were wondering.

We had a fun white elephant gift exchange and I gave out an award for the person who dressed the most festive. I think that everyone had a great time and I can't wait until the 2nd annual ChristmAugust party!