Happy Monday! This past weekend brought us a Baby Shower! It was a lot of fun for us since the Mom to Be is not just a repeat client of ours but a long time friend as well. She and her husband are welcoming their second child and, as with the first (an adorable daughter), they have chosen not to find out if the new baby is a girl or a boy until the birth. This limits your color palette, when it comes to baby stuff, to colors like yellow, green, brown, or cream. And most of the decorations you find are truly just awful. So you really have to think outside of the box and, for us, we just knew it was a perfect fit when we discovered a Rubber Ducky theme!

The invitations were the first step and the initial reason we decided that the Rubber Ducky theme was going to work perfectly for us! These from Zazzle.com were an easy choice. They are just so cute! We added the little insert card ourselves. The "diaper game" has picked up in popularity over the past few years. Bring a pack of diapers and you are automatically entered for the "Door Prize". As guests arrive you simply write down the names of those who brought diapers and then, at about halfway through the party, you put those names down on pieces of paper and have the Mom to Be draw out a name or two for prizes!

We found this cute duck at Party City. It's a different take on the usual "sign in" sheet or "Guest Book". Guests were able to sign a little message to the expectant parents and it became Nursery decor after the party!

To show you the table decor I'm breaking it up into pieces. These plates are from Chinet and all we did was add inserts to the bottom of the plate with some clear scrapbooking tape. This personalized the plates and helped to add a bit more decoration to our tables at the same time.

Our centerpieces were also Rubber Ducky themed! We just used little crystal bowls filled with colored water and a mini Rubber Duck and then nestled that into a pile of Easter Grass. We used two different colors of green to add a bit more texture.

Michaels Craft Stores carry several different lines of favor "kits". This little round tin came with the labels but I have to warn you. The labels didn't work with our printer well. We ended up getting different labels and cutting them out with a circle punch and then placing them on the lid of these Lemonheads filled tins.

Of course we did Personalized Water Bottle Favors! This cute ducky design that we found online was just too perfect for our theme! The wonderful thing about water bottles is that they are both one of the refreshments as well as being a favor. We always make extra for those who want to drink their water at the event but also would like to take one home with them as a favor!

We covered the tables with a yellow tablecloth first and then added a green "runner" down the center of each. The bright yellow cups with green and yellow napkins and orange flatware completed our place settings beautifully!

Overhead, in several areas of the room, were bunches of green and yellow balloons tied with coorinating curly ribbon. Whenever possible we try to decorate from the floor up to the ceiling. This gives a more rounded image for your guests to enjoy when they first see the room and all throughout the event. We just gathered a dozen regular balloons, no helium needed, up into bunches and then taped the bunches with the hanging ribbon to a center beam in the room. This room was not a large one so we only needed 5 of these bunches spaced out to get the full effect we were looking to achieve.

You can see how it all works together with the food tables, banners and gift tables. And speaking of the food table! We had the most amazing caterer work with us who came up with some really great ideas for the food! Everything was wonderful and they worked really hard to set it all up so it was a great part of the room and decor.

The food table was packed with so much really wonderful food. From appetizers such as nuts, deviled eggs, edemame, and veggie trays to the main finger foods of pasta salad, quiche, baked artichoke squares to a healthy dessert of strawberries, apples and pineapple. But our favorite pieces on the food table were...

the snails! These adorable roll ups were made into garden snails by adding mini pickles for bodies (one tray with dill, one tray with sweet) and cilantro for feelers. The roll up on the back of the snail was so good! Grilled tortillas filled with meat, cheeses, spreads and tomatoes then all rolled up and attached with the toothpick into the pickles made for a treat everyone was talking about the entire party! But we also loved the...

two types of Ducky Sandwiches! Egg Salad and Chicken Salad were placed onto white bread and then cut out with duck cookie cutters to make these adorable additions to the food table. Notice the perfect Menu Cards that the caterer came up to coordinate with the theme! Perfect!

Each guest ended up with a wonderful plate full of food that was so good I think most of them went back for a second plate full! LOL! You can't ask for more than that from your caterer or your food table at an event! But speaking of wanting special food...there's always cake right???

Well, with us there is always cake! This little laundry basket was an 8x6 inch hand carved oval yellow chiffon cake filled with vanilla buttercream and then decorated with more buttercream and fondant baby "blankets. We finally topped it with a light up Rubber Ducky and decorated the base with buttercream "grass" and another duck to complete our theme. The only non-edible pieces  were the ducks and the handles for the basket. Notice the yellow ceramic bowl holding the orange cake forks in the background. It was set to the back of the cake with the green and yellow cake plates to add a pop of color that matched the bills on the ducks!

But the cake wasn't the only special touch on the Cake Table. This adorable "Duck Punch" is made with Blue Hawaiian Punch, Gingerale and Sherbet icecream (which makes the "bubbles" that the rubber ducks swim upon!) and is SOOOO good you will want to make sure to make back ups for when your first decanter gets drained! LOL! Along with a couple of pop ups and extra cups and napkins our Cake Table was complete!

We did play a game called Baby Baggie Bonanza. Each colored bag was carrying a simple baby item that began with the coordinating letter on the front of the bag. For instance, B is for bottle, A is for aspirator, etc.

all the way through the letters that spelled out Baby Shower. Each guest was given a print out that had spaces next to each letter and a few minutes to write their guesses of what is in the bags down before the bags are opened and the contents revealed. Then the baby items were put into a basket with other gifts for the Mom to Be!

We saved one of the best pieces for last! Diaper Cakes are pretty much a staple at Baby Showers these days and I am always looking for a new twist on this version. Well, the caterer is also the Mom to Be's Sister in Law and she came up with this wonderful Princess/Prince's Castle Diaper Cake for this Shower. Simply amazing in it's size (about 2ft x 3ft) this "cake" had all kinds of baby products for the expecting family...including, of course, a Rubber Ducky! Such a wonderful gift for the family as well as an amazing coordinating touch for the event!


Hope you enjoyed this little look into what was a really fun baby shower for a very special friend and that you got some good ideas for your next Baby Shower!


Next week we take a look at some Winery Wedding ideas!

Cat