Finally posting about my baby shower planning! Being a frugal?or cost effective person that enjoys entertaining guests such as myself, I've been researching and planning this baby shower for months. I've decided to post my own experience since I collected ideas from numerous sites and blogs. Just in case someone comes across it and gets inspired. Over the course of a month, I was looking at locations for the shower and realized location is one of the most expensive expenses. After emailing surrounding hotels, banquet rooms, restaurants for quotes. It made me realize I should spend that amount of money on food and gifts instead. I didn't want to spend 2 to 3 grands on a small location with mediocre food and have to resort to handing out teabags for party favors (no offense, teabags are a great idea but I just wanted to offer more). FYI, our family is of Korean heritage meaning it is possible we have to throw a 1 year party and to us, it made sense to save money on the shower in case we have to throw a 1 year party. Hence.. we have come to the decision of using our patio as the shower event location! Which was great in my opinion because there is no location fee or food & beverage minimums!!! My husband was worried about the amount of people coming because even if we only counted close friends and family it was still well over 40. Therefore... we decided to throw the shower two days, Saturday and Sunday. We split the group based on who knows each other and who's more available on the dates.
Surf Baby Theme
Searching baby shower theme ideas, I noticed everything is pink, blue, green or animals. I wanted this to be personal and I have this weird thing about gender equality. When I searched for unique baby shower ideas (the internet is a fascinating thing), there were so many wonderful, unique, fun baby showers. I came across a surf baby shower theme and i fell in love instantly! When I first met my husband, he told me he enjoys surfing on his free time and went down to El Porto quite frequently. So we went ahead and decided for a surf themed baby shower with the colors coral and teal.
Ideas
Like I said, I collected ideas from various sites. I looked for surf, beach and ocean themed ideas.
The first site i saw was from 'There's a Baby on Board' shower. I knew my shower was going to have a lot of guests so I couldn't make is as intimate but I saw a lot of things I could do. Such as hanging beach toys and swimsuits and handing out sunblock as favors. I got most of my decoration and food ideas from this blog, 'Surf's Up Baby Shower'. I just picked up a lot of ideas from these sites and changed little things, such as the colors.
The first site i saw was from 'There's a Baby on Board' shower. I knew my shower was going to have a lot of guests so I couldn't make is as intimate but I saw a lot of things I could do. Such as hanging beach toys and swimsuits and handing out sunblock as favors. I got most of my decoration and food ideas from this blog, 'Surf's Up Baby Shower'. I just picked up a lot of ideas from these sites and changed little things, such as the colors.
DIY & Bargain Decorations
A lot of the blogs said they got plywood from the hardware store to make the surfboards and I just didn't feel like going through all that. I didn't know if they would cut out the shape for me, I didn't know the cost, I didn't feel like driving down to home depot when I was 7 months pregnant and I don't have any saw tools at home.. So... I got poster board! I knew I'll just stand them up on top of the food table so I used two boards and made two surfboards from each board. I also used poster board for other signs and decorations. I got inspired for Flora's Surf Shack sign by the shark sign on this 'Dual Surf Shack Party' page. I got some cardboard to make the hanging flags. I bought some seashells and fishnets for coastal looks. The rest of the decor is what we already had at home, such as the surf picture frame.
Little accents were the seashells, coral flowers, coral & teal napkins/plates, sandals & goggles with swimming suit hanging with the onesies. I put a separate detailed DIY and cost post here.
Little accents were the seashells, coral flowers, coral & teal napkins/plates, sandals & goggles with swimming suit hanging with the onesies. I put a separate detailed DIY and cost post here.
Food & Drinks
Since our shower was held at 2pm (in order to have guests arrive when our patio becomes shaded) we though a light snack and appetizer would be nice. This was a good plan but FYI, half our guests are Brazilian Koreans and they can EAT. My husband started emptying out our fridge and bringing out the rest of the food saved for Sunday. It's also in him where he can't let guests be underfed and he loves to entertain. In all, we had a great time.
Appetizers- caprese sticks, salsa
Main- Picana skewers
Dessert- Strawberries, Macaroons, Cupcakes
Drinks- Prosecco, Beer, Lemonade
Activities
We played 3 games: 'Pin the Sperm', 'Belly Ribbon' and 'Bottle Drinking Game'
Personal props to my friend Cassidy for hosting the first day and making the ovary board!
I also had onsies for the children to decorate.
I also had onsies for the children to decorate.
I want to thank everyone that came!! It was such a wonderful experience. I really wanted this to be about us becoming parents and friends celebrating with us. It was exactly what we wanted. Having a party like a party.
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