Hosting a Baby Shower

Planning your first baby shower? Well, you’re in good company. We’ve been planning the baby shower I’m hosting for my sister, Ashley pretty much since we found out she was pregnant back in April. While many showers are held closer to the due date (little Cecileia Jane will be arriving in late November) we decided to host the shower during my sisters birthday month when the weather was warmer and fingers crossed, the days a bit sunnier than they tend to be during the fall.

Since Cecileia’s nursery will be woodland themed (so cute for a little girl, right?) we decided to keep the theme going with the baby shower. As it turns out a woodland theme is quite popular when it comes to baby showers, so there were quite a few options out there for invites, and we already had one of two local bakeries in mind for the treats we would be giving as thank you’s to guests.

— The invites —

While evites are easy, there’s something to be said about sending invites through the mail. We found the cutest woodland theme invites that we could personalize over on Zazzle.com. We also opted for the little ‘bring a book’ reminder cards and personalized stickers for a little extra touch of cuteness. For custom letterpress invitations I suggest Elisabeth Rose Stationery (located in Davidson, NC).

One of the things that my sister decided on before the shower, was asking the guests to bring a book instead of a card. As an avid reader since childhood, she wanted to build up Cecileia’s library from the very beginning. We brought along several of the books from our childhood to pass along to Cecileia along with two books from authors that we’d recently discovered.

— The location —

While we’d always planned on hosting the baby shower at the Ballantyne Hotel (our favorite spot for Saturday brunch and afternoon tea) we’d originally planned to have the event in the beautifully renovated area off of the lobby. However, that area has now been designated for afternoon tea, so we went with our backup plan, The Gallery Restaurant (also located at the Ballantyne.) So, it always pays to have a backup plan in place just in case your original plan falls through.

— The flowers —

When it comes to flowers, planning ahead is key, as is having an idea of what flowers you want for your arrangements. For our previous arrangements that I’ve shared about here on the blog, we visited our local flower market 2 weeks in advance, giving us the opportunity to pick out the flowers that we wanted and giving the flower market enough time to order flowers that didn’t currently have in stock.

We ended up finding most of our flowers at our local Traders Joes which had an AMAZING selection in the varying shades of pink.

Lisianthus, Gerber Daisies, Spray Roses — 3 colors, Hydrangeas, Linear Focal,Hypericum Coco Casino, Leather Leaf, Green Dianthus, Pods 

— The treats —

When it came to treats for my sisters baby shower, we knew from the very beginning that we wanted to keep things local. Our woodland theme and monogram cookies came from the Suarez Bakery over on Park Rd. (which also has a location coming to Optimist Hall on N. Brevard Street)

As a special thank you gift to the shower guests we had handpainted eclairs from Maria Siragusa of Eclairesse.

For those of you who are Charlotte locals you can also enjoy her delicious pastries at Birch Fine Teas located at Camp North End, or DM her on Instagram if you want something specific for your next event!

Outfit Details | Ruth Dress (GMG Collection), Leah Sweater — Not Pictured (GMG Collection), Earrings (LOFT, sold out in pink, available in yellow), Wedges (J. Crew Outlet, sold out, similar here.)