Grandmillennial Baby Shower
A couple years ago, right before the pandemic hit, I had the privilege of hosting a baby shower for one of my friends. As the little lady turns two today, I thought it would be perfectly fitting to use her baby shower as the feature for today’s blog post. I didn’t know at the time that that this would the last party I hosted in my super tiny, one bedroom, fourth floor walk up, apartment in Hoboken.
The Concept
As an event planner, my vision came together very quickly for how I could host an intimate and elevated baby shower in my small apartment, and use my existing furniture to enhance the theme. I opted for a traditional & feminine shower that was inspired by crossing Caitlin Wilson’s iconic design & color palate with a French Flower Market theme that translated to be the essence of a Grandmillennial soiree. It was going to have lots of periwinkle, pink, & pastries galore. I also wanted my small space to feel as if you were immersed into a French flower market, while finding subtle blue details of chinoiserie sprinkled throughout. I wanted the entire thing to feel serene, and whimsical, while keeping everything elevated and sophisticated.
The Invitations
We all know that the invitation sets the tone for the entire party. Invitation design is something that I’ve always enjoyed doing as a hobby, so I went ahead and created simplistic invitations that featured a custom designed “A” at the top, along with a classic trim boarder and plaid backing.
One detail that was very important to the new mom was that there be a charitable contribution at the shower, in lieu of gifts. We noted on the invitations that there would be a diaper raffle benefiting The Bridge to Life. The winning raffle prize was a French Blue Picture Frame from Caitlin Wilson.
I also used coordinating text to print the envelopes, and completed them with vintage stamps that mimics the new mom’s personality perfectly. Like myself, she’s also an event planner who you can typically find sipping on a glass of tea, while admiring her collection of polished silver and perfect place settings. I was thrilled to utilize vintage stamps featuring a place setting by Emily Post (1998), International Peace Gardens (1982) featuring a stunning garden rose, and finally a polished silver coffee pot (2007).
The Menu
The geographical constraints of hosting this party in my one bedroom apartment, meant that we would have to do lighter bites & pastries rather than a formal plated meal. Every good hostess knows that you can’t easily do every element of a party yourself, so I opted to order catering from Choc O Pain, which is a spectacular local French bakery, and then transition it all onto my own platters before the party.
The Sparkle Bar
With small space living, I had to get creative, and utilized a large tray on top of my stove to do a wonderful beverage display. I lined the tray with my iridescent glassware, the drinks, and even kept the champagne cold with some floral ice cubes. For the beverages I chose to do a Sparkle Bar. I offered a variety of sparkling beverages from Pellegrino (the mom’s favorite), to sparkling French lemonade, to mom-mosas which is just a cleverly named mimosa for the day.
The Flowers
You can’t have a flower market inspired party without gorgeous blooms! Vanessa from Verde Flowers knocked it out of the park with this one. We had three separate floral moments for the event. The first was a stunning arrangement for the faux fireplace, the second was a tall centerpiece that arched over the entire dessert table, and the third was the interactive Bloom Bar. I gave her very little direction on the florals & I was completely blown away with the stunning arrangements that she designed. She incorporated the most pleasant set of colors by utilizing the blues and purples in the hydrangeas & sea holly, she balanced it all with stunning pink & white roses, and even some ranunculus that effortlessly flowed out of the mantle arrangement. All of the flowers had such a commanding presence in the space, and truly transformed it into the French flower market of my dreams.
The Bloom Bar
If it’s good enough for Megan Markle’s shower, then it’s good enough for me! As it’s traditional to offer a game or activity at a baby shower, I went with the activity route. I did a Bloom Bar where guests would pick a vase, snip some flowers, and then take the arrangements home as their party favor. Each of the little chinoiserie bud vases were outfitted with a printed tag that read “Thank you for attending Anna’s Baby Shower”. The white enamel french market style buckets offered great height and function for this activity, which, if you can believe it, was all on top of my husband’s work desk. I had a few empty buckets for any extra snippings, and it was a huge hit!
The Desserts
I did decide to make all of the desserts myself which included an ombre cake, sugar cookies, and mini french macarons that all coordinated to the invitations. The desserts were a true labor of love. I crafted the ombre cake with cake topper all from scratch, and used fondant for the cake topper. I also decorated the sugar cookies perfectly poppable macarons with the same motif as the invitations. Because I went macaroon crazy, I had so many extras that I made those into to-go favors as well, and finished them off with printed custom stickers that coordinated with the rest of the signage featured at the party.
