Hellobee

On Sunday, my mom and close friends gave me the most beautiful baby shower. I love planning parties, so I helped a little, but it wouldn’t have come together without their hard work.

Since I knew we’d have a wall of books in the nursery, I wanted to have a book themed shower where guests brought their favorite children’s book with an inscription for the baby inside. Here are the invitations I chose, from tinyprints:

Aren’t they adorable? I took inspiration gathered from all over, some of which you can see in this post, and here’s how it turned out!

The shower was held at the restaurant my mom manages. We had the whole patio to ourselves, which was really nice because it was so private.

For the tables, we bought burlap drop cloths from the hardware store and used white linen napkins from the restaurant. For the flowers, white tulips in mason jars with blue ribbon added to the rustic, elegant look. I got the garland kits at Party City on clearance, and spent hours fluffing out each individual pom pom. They were a lot of work, but turned out so beautiful!

The food was amazing – my stepfather is the executive chef of the restaurant and helped the cooks put together a delicious spread of sandwiches, salads, and sides. My friend Michelle made the little chalkboard labels so everyone knew what they were piling on their plates. I covered books in different shades of blue wrapping paper to create varying heights among the platters.

Baby TTT and I felt so loved that day with so many wonderful women surrounding us. It was so nice to have some little ladies in attendance, as well. I think children are what make parties the most fun (we had tables full at our wedding), so I’m glad that these special girls were part of the celebration.

It’s a well-known fact that I’m not a fan of traditional shower games (both baby and bridal). However, I’ve noticed that showers without games can sometimes be a little boring, so I wanted to come up with some that were fun without being cheesy. We played Baby Name Meanings (a pen and paper game where guests match the names of their own babies to the meanings — furbabies included), Complete the Children’s Book Line (where guests fill in missing parts of famous lines from various books), and Pictures of the Parents-To-Be (where guests had to guess how old Mr. TTT and I were in various childhood pictures). The last game we played was during gift opening: my BFF Angie, who did the invitations and prizes, set a timer on her phone to go off at some point while I was opening gifts. The giver of the gift I was opening when the timer went off also got a prize!

For dessert, Michelle put together this adorable (and very yummy) milk and cookie bar! I thought this would be a cute idea for desserts since milk and cookies have been a big craving for me throughout my pregnancy. Plus, what goes better with a book than some milk and cookies?

They also doubled as favors! Michelle had labels designed based on the invitations and stuck them on paper lunch bags for guests to take cookies home.

Everyone was so generous and we got so many great things to prepare us for baby TTT’s arrival. Amazingly, even with my hometown shower the previous weekend, we didn’t get duplicates of any books (thanks to Angie who made sure to get titles with the guests’ RSVPs)! We are going to have one well-read little guy!

I’m so happy with how everything came together and so grateful to everyone who made it possible. Even Mr. TTT came with me early that morning to help set up! And special thanks to my mom, Peggy, and my good friends, Angie and Michelle, who put so much work into the details of the day! I love them!

Food/location: Maria’s Italian Kitchen
Photography: Michelle York
My dress: Asos Maternity