I want to start out the photo display with a few pieces of advice. I will be the first to admit I broke the BIGGEST NUMBER ONE RULE OF EVENT PLANNING! Always Always Always have a solid plan B if you're hosting an event outside! June 18, 2011 came and went. A day to put in the record books, not a cloud in the sky, perfectly sunny (not too hot and especially not too humid!) I thought to myself I was in the clear for my party to be held outside on June 19th! I had arranged to borrow 4 of my neighbors' patio tables and chairs to set up on the lawn for my perfect garden party themed baby shower! I had almost everything set up outside and by noon (party is starting in 2 hrs-curlers still in my hair) I was racing to get everything moved inside before the skies opened up into a huge thunder storm.
Not a huge deal, do not panic! I moved the drink table into the kitchen, the desserts in the breakfast nook, and the food on the dining table and the guests gathered round the coffee table, on the sofa, dining chairs and a few mixed matched chairs from bedrooms and the study.
After all that description here are my 3 pieced of advice
1. Keep the party to a certain number of rooms/contained amount of space. This is actually very easy to do when you live in a cap cod style of home! I closed of all the doors and kept the guests to the living room, dining room and kitchen. By no means did I feel like I needed to keep an eye on everyone but the certain space allowed people to mix and mingle with each other resulting in many new friendships!
My second piece of advice is
2. Don't be freaked out to move furniture around! This doesn't sound like a big deal but for those with type A personalities like myself, putting a chair from the guest bedroom that only matches the colors in the guest bedroom was extremely horrifying. I had a panic attack when i moved the sofa back 3 feet and I saw that it wasn't centered on the fireplace and there was no 2 inch seam of rug visible anymore! I wanted Greer to be the center of attention and the only way for her to be surrounded by everyone was to play the "where am I moving to game" with the furniture!
3. My last piece of advice are for those hosting parties that involve a buffet. I originally had a place set at each table for my guests but once everything had to be moved inside-buffet style became the only option! Group utensils and napkins together. I love this idea for many reasons but the best reason is this: every buffet line gets backed up while people are reaching for a napkin then a fork and then a knife. Here's what I did: I took yellow utensils and wrapped them in a green napkin then tied it with yellow ribbon and vice verse color scheme. Not only did this make it 10 times faster at the end of the buffet but it added some extra decorations to the table!
Greer is a very dear friend of mine and this is her first child so I wanted to make this as special as she deserved. She and Hugh have decided not to tell people the sex of the baby so first thing for the party I had to stick with neutral colors! Yellow and Green with hints of pink and blue. I picked these invitations out to set the tone of the party.
I stuck with a simple menu of homemade chicken salad sandwiches, ham biscuits, pesto pasta salad, arugula salad with beans and potatoes, watermelon salad with feta and mint, cheese and cracker display and an assortment of fresh fruit.
The beverage station with a champagne punch (in Nannan's milk glass punch bowl), Peach iced tea, and lemonade.
Dessert was an assortment of homemade red velvet cupcakes (ina's recipe), and a lemon pound cake. I love stacking cake plates on top of each other to make improve tiered stands!
The favors were terra-cota pots with raffia and sun flower seeds tied with yellow and green polka dot ribbon. Total cost for this project: 18 terra-cota pots $0.89 each + 2 spools of ribbon $1.49 each + 18 seed packets $0.20 each + 2 bags of raffia $1.00 each. =$24.60 translating to $1.37 per person!
Finally, here's my creative touch! Everyone says that people remember a party by the food that was served. To a certain extent I agree with this statement, which is why I spent a lot of time on the menu and ingredients. I follow a tip that my mother told me several years ago "elegant portion control is a budget cook's best friend". However, that's not my creative touch to the party. When I host a party I naturally tend to spend more on the things that I know the guests are going to keep for her scrapbook or toss in a memory box. I started with the invitations. The picture above however is my version of a DIY/Budget friendly guest book. I found these cut outs of bibs and bottles and outfits at a party store intended to be a garland. Each guest signed a message and let me take a picture of her with Greer. My gift to Greer is a scrapbook with each note and picture of her friend/family member at the beginning and all the pictures taken at the party followed.
