Planning the theme:
I got my inspiration for this shower from a book I received as a gift. A rather large Anne Geddes book of photographs of babies. What was I going to do with this book? It was neat but really big. I knew eventually I would come up with a use for it and when one of my girlfriends discovered she was pregnant with a girl the opportunity presented itself. I was going to plan a very girly baby shower for her. She already had a son and now she was going to experience the whole new world of having a daughter. The shower needed to represent this and I wanted there to be a clear contrast from any shower that she would have had for her son. I kept the theme a surprise from my expectant friend. Although I have done many events for people that have a hand in the planning, there is nothing like seeing the surprise on the faces of those who do not know what to expect when they see their special day for the first time.
Games and Activity:
Games are such a big part of a baby shower. I really try to think of games that will be overall crowd pleasers. I like to do a combination of traditional and unique games. I pick games and activities that go well with the overall theme. The ice breaker game or activity is the most important to me. This is the game/activity that is going to set the expectations for the rest of the shower. I usually pick something really fun with a hint of surprise so that guests can expect the rest of the shower is going to be really fun. Because showers SHOULD be fun! For the Anne Geddes shower, the ice breaker game was the Bloomers Game. This fit in with the overall theme because I used alot of flowers in the decor. Everyone seemed to really enjoy this one! For the activity I had mini terra cotta pots that everyone could paint themselves. This was really nice and allowed people to socialize while they explored their creative sides.
Decorations:
Decorations are also important to set the mood. It helps let people visually see the theme of the event. The Anne Geddes Shower was decorated with alot of flowers, girly colors of lavender and pink, and a few baby shower banners. With this shower I chose the "less is more" route because I didn't want to take away from the delicate girly nature of the shower.
Cake:
The cake was the centerpiece of the shower. This was what was going to bring everything in the theme together. I had all the flower decorations, activity, and party favors but without this cake it would have just been a flower themed party. The cake was decorated to look like a flower pot with a baby coming out of the top in truly Anne Geddes style. It came out even better than I had envisioned in my head. It was a conversation piece for sure and I was very pleased with it.
Party Favors:
For the party favors I had a basket filled with a variety of flower seeds so the guests could choose which ones they wanted to take home with their painted terra cotta flower pots. I chose these as the party favor because they fit with the theme well and I wanted to give the guests a piece of the shower to take home with them and hopefully when they grew their flowers in their flower pots they would look at them and remember this very special shower for my very special friend.