Life Happens Here: Elephant Themed Baby Shower

Thanks for joining me for Baby Shower Week!
The second shower I am going to show you was for my very best friend, Kristen! Wow, this one looks totally different from the first one I did!

I went with the colors of her nursery and did a navy blue and teal color scheme with some elephants thrown in. Who doesn't love a cute elephant?! This one was at my home, and we did a brunch menu.

These photos were taken by my lovely friend Becca at Sebrie Images Photography!

Sam, Kristen's husband was kind enough to design the invites for us!

Here we have the drink station. A banner in coordinating colors goes a long way. Mason jars with some fun straws and a ribbon to tie it together! You can also see my trusty beverage containers!

Here we have the food spread. I always try to layer the heights of the items- this helps add space, as well as looks nice. You can add height by using different cake stands as well as wooden boxes. The white boxes came from home goods.

For the menu, I did spinach dip with veggies, pancake bites (anything made miniature is usually adorable). Croissants, French toast cut cups. Fruit pizza cookies ( sugar cookies with a variety of fruit cut up along with icing, this is assembled by the person). I also did some of the frozen pinwheel roll ups as well as the mini quiches. We also ordered some doughnut holes to add to the sweet side!

As i stated with my first shower, plates and napkins add color and help tie everything in. It is also so easy to add in some fun patterns as well!

This was the first thing the guest saw, it held our games, and advice station.

This table held clothes pins I spray painted orange to play the ever so popular word game. If anyone said the word "baby" they had their pin removed. The guest with the most pins at the end won a prize.

I had everyone write a little bit of advice for the mommy to be. I used my silhouette machine to cut out little white onesies.

A mantel is a great place to throw up some decor I always like to incorporate the name when possible. These white blocks were from Joanne's. Using fruit is always fun as well. Circle garland is another one of my go-to. I use a circle punch with coordinating scrapbook paper, and sew them together. Super easy! The lower one is baby tissue paper poms I threaded onto some string. I actually used some orange napkins I had lying around!

This area was used for the cake/ dessert table, as well as an area to decorate onesies for baby Becket.

This was one of my favorite areas. Who doesn't love a good candy bar?! I used milkshake glasses from target for the smaller candy. I grabbed these larger apothecary jars from HomeGoods and filled with gum balls purchased from party city. I will explain about the cake at the end, and also about the Oreo balls. Pulling this area together was very cost effective and was really a focal point to the event.

I used this space in my kitchen to display the prizes. You will also see lots of fresh flowers. Flowers are always one of the easiest ways to take your shower to the next level!

-What I learned from this shower-

This shower I was able to do in the comfort of my own home. This meant I had all the time in the world to set things up as I wanted them! This took a big stress factor out since I could layout one area at a time, at my own pace.

Think outside the box: I really wanted a nice cake. ya know, the amazing ones you see on Pinterest! However, it was just not even remotely in my cheap budget to pull that off. So, I improvised The cake you see on the candy bar is actually a Styrofoam cylinder, covered in icing. I then ordered a plain cake from one of my favorite local bakeries, and sliced it in the back to serve.

I kinda did the same thing with the Oreo balls. You saw them last time without sticks. I wanted to have something look a little more put together, so I just added the lollipop sticks to make them look like cake pops, but without the work of a cake pop.

It is the little details that go such a long way. I cut out little elephant shapes to go on the candy bar bags. The tiny flag bunting on my fake cake, spray painting the clothes pins orange so they tied in. That reminds me... when you do land on your colors, head straight to Walmart and purchase spray paint in those colors. You will be amazed at how many things can be spray painted! Notice those wooden crates in the center of the food table, those were purchased from Joanne's, then spray painted! I have used those same bins over and over, just spray painted to match the theme!

Use what you have! get creative! That teal "picture" on the mantel is actually a piece of board left over from a chalkboard project that I taped fabric too, along with the same elephant shape cut out with my silhouette machine. I usually go "shopping" in all the rooms of my house and grab anything that is the same colors, or could work!

When you start to plan, don't forget about the outside of your space. I take a visual "walk through" basically from my mailbox to the back room of my house. I placed balloons on the mailbox so guest would know which home to come to. I had shepherds hooks with mason jars and baby's breath lining the walk way. My front porch got a mini makeover with some tissue paper poms in the wreath and my giant chalkboard welcoming guest!

*Note- you will see this same grape vine wreath on my door all year long, I just change out the decor to go with the season!