Tea Party Baby Shower

My sister is expecting! It has been Facebook official for a few weeks now so I think I'm allowed to tell here. 😊 We are all very excited. She is due in a few weeks and we threw her a baby shower mainly for family and a few friends.

I haven't ever been in charge of throwing a shower for someone else so this was a new and a bit overwhelming experience at first. The easiest part as coming up with the theme... Baby's First Tea Party!

Of course the first place we hit was Pinterest to get ideas. We set our goals high and then came crashing back down later. Truly I wonder how some of these people put together these elaborate showers without killing each other and spending so much time and money on something that lasts an hour.

While there were so many ideas I thought back to when we were kids and what we would do...Barbies, Pretty Pretty Princess, and tea parties. That was it, we could do a Tea Party and give baby her first tea set. Our inspiration began to flow once we found the perfect book to use as a guest book. "A Little Sweet Tea" by Christina Bynum Breaux.

Next was figuring out where, this really helped us determine what the end result could be. First thought was my parents house but then it comes down to wanting to be able to make it a little more special and having room for potentially 40 people. After a lot of looking around and changing dates we were able to secure a location. It was perfect because my grandma only had to walk down the hall and it was a pretty blank slate for us to work with.

To order invitations or make them...that was a difficult decision. I found so many I liked but after looking at the price decided to attempt it on my own. It was pretty easy in the end. May not have been able to use the lace to wrap around it...I am not crafty but we still were able to use the color theme and pearls.

Since the 3 of us hosting the shower live at the very least 2 hours apart we couldn't get together to plan except at Thanksgiving. Which is also when we had planned to hand out most of the invitations.

Who would have known that the next 6 weeks would become some of the craziest for all of us but in the end it all came together. (I started this post in January and just now posting it in March so things didn't slow down really)

Most of what we used was either from Hobby Lobby or borrowed. I don't know what I would have done if it wasn't for some dear friends letting me borrow tea pots and my mom's collection of several china sets.

The week before the shower was a bunch of running around doing last minute errands. Buying silk flowers realizing how expensive and how I would probably never reuse them so changing to real. Making chicken salad sandwiches, cupcakes, and doing a run through at my moms.

Unfortunately the other hostesses were also feeling the stress when their children became sick and one couldn't make it. Sad she couldn't come but to drive 5 hours and be away from a very sick child (my niece)...we all knew she needed to be at home. I am thankful that the other lived much closer so they were able to pop in to come to the shower and still get back to their sick one quickly.

I picked up a plastic pink tablecloth and then put one of my mom's lace table cloths over it and hung the fans (not sure what they really are called) from some pearl string I had picked up to use on the invitations (was suppose to tie the lace envelope that never made it).

The cupcakes were placed on stacked china plates and tea cups. I went simple with the icing on the cupcakes just adding a few edible pearls. The cookies were the hit of the party made by my sister-in-laws mother which luckily only lives an hour away from me. She always does a great job.

We ordered the gold patterned plates through Amazon and the pink were from Walmart.

I did figure out what to do with the lace I bought for the invitations...It brought the drink table together perfectly. Oh and instead of doing a true tea party we did lemonade and ice tea because we decided simpler is better.

Last minute add was the quote I framed. "Today I'd like to sit and sip, Forget about the world a bit. Ignore the things I have to do, And enjoy a cup or two." Author Unknown

I found this sign at Party City and thought it would be perfect for baby's room and a little more gold.

Here are a few more random pictures from a memorable day. We were all going to dress up in "tea" attire but it was a bit to cold to request it still.

Thank you for those who were able to come, my niece was blessed greatly.