I think the most important thing I have learned as a hostess over the years is that when you are throwing a party to celebrate something or someone, you have to first put yourself aside. The first thing you need to ask yourself is what would they want? What do they enjoy? What are their favorite colors, favorite foods, favorite activities? What things illustrate their personas? And most importantly, what do they NOT like?
Those things seem like givens, but its not always easy to put your preferences aside when you are the one throwing the party. Maybe you would love an over-the-top, all-girls, silly games baby shower. But also, you might be the friend who hates being the center of attention and feels uncomfortable.
So when I was planning Katie's shower, I immediately started picturing an environment where Katie seemed the most like herself: a casual setting, outside, sun shining, shoes kicked off, chatting with Clay and Aaron, watching the dogs play. That's Katie. I wanted her shower to be all of those things, to feel just like that for everyone who came.
That's how I decided we would have a couples shower, in the backyard, with lights, and picnic tables, and dogs and kids, and casual food. But Katie is also one of the most casually classy people I know - so this was not going to be a backyard BBQ with someone flipping burgers either.
Finally, she doesn't like being the center of attention - I remember her asking me if she hadto open gifts in front of everyone. While, unfortunately, I told her yes (you can't deprive future grandparents and aunts and uncles the fun of a little oohing and aahing) but that we didn't have to play any games if she didn't want to. She could just be herself and enjoy visiting with all the people who love her and Clay and wanted to come celebrate them and their new baby.
It all came together just as I had pictured. We all had the most fantastic time and it was so fun to see Clay and Aaron with all their high school friends and their children and families. What a way to celebrate a new member of such a wonderful extended family.
The invitations
I wanted to invite to convey all of the things that I felt Katie is - casual, classy, modern. I also wanted to make it clear that it wasn't going to be a typical baby shower: we were going to throw it at night (6 PM) and with a more adult color scheme and vibe. A lot of people we were inviting were coming in from out of town so I wanted to make sure they could come and maximize their time with Clay and Katie, so a two hour event mid-day didn't seem to fit the bill. In fact, the last guest left out house at nearly 1 AM.
When I saw these they screamed Katie. They are all the things I had pictured: modern and classy, but fun. I loved that the colors (black and gold) seemed adult and cocktail party-like. I love the shimmer of the gold foil pressing. So it was a no-brainer to pair these minted.com invites with some fancy gold envelopes from Paper Source.
The liner is my favorite part. I loved that it brought just a little touch of fun colors to the classic black and gold. Teal is Katie's favorite color, it evokes the thoughts of a baby boy (instead of powder blue) and the purple is regal, festive and feminine (we are celebrating Katie too!).
Decor & Activities
As I said earlier, we decided to forgo baby shower games for this party. Lots of people were coming in from Houston and even further so I wanted to make sure they could all maximize catching up and socializing. So I decided to go with easy things for people to do besides eat: there was cornhole, a fire pit, picnic tables, and the football game got put on inside (it is football season in Texas after all).
Aaron strung lights around the whole yard, we put out Adirondack chairs and the hammock. I used our huge, rustic wooden dining room table out on the porch for a classy, but casual feel. I folded a big piece of black and white gingham into a table runner. All the accent decor (cups, plates, banner, tissue poofs, etc) were all strictly gold, white and black. Finally, we set up the guests of honor in some Adirondack chairs out on the lawn to open their gifts.
The Menu
Now this is where your guests preferences really have to come before yours, especially with a baby shower. There is nothing like the way a pregnant woman feels about food - even if she isn't having insane cravings for things, she is probably having some severe aversions to things. Always make sure you know!
For this menu I made variations of the couples favorite casual foods. Katie had been craving chicken salad, butter-anything, hamburgers, pimento cheese, banana pudding, and ice cream. Clay loves BBQ, pulled pork tacos, lemon bars, and key lime pie. Doing all of those things would have been quite an undertaking so I made combinations and alterations as I could to try to hit all the marks.
We ended up with Smoked Pulled Pork Sliders with Sweet and Spicy Sauce on King's Hawaiian Rolls with a tangy Coleslaw, Chicken Salad Sandwiches on Butter Croissants, NY Deli-Style Macaroni Salad, Chips and Dip (a ranch dip and whipped Pimento Cheese). For dessert I made Lemon-Blueberry Shortbread Bars, Key Lime Bars and Banana Pudding Ice Cream Sandwiches.
