Baby Shower Favors and Free Printables

Happy Friday, Islanders!

Yesterday, I shared photos and details from the Loved so DEERly baby shower for my new nephew.  These details included the signs I designed and the favors.  Both of these details helped to bring the theme to life.  Do you recall the invitation I designed?

The invitation incorporated a lot of the theme elements - wood, bright white, gray, and the deer silhouette.  The table signs and favor tags followed the same design which maintained decor continuity thus, ensuring the overall event had a cohesive feel.

This was very important to me because the event was set in a restaurant... they can be loud and busy; they can seem impersonal and awkward.  The area our decor would cover was small; every piece needed to count.  For the record, I like rustic events but I'm not a 'go hang in the woods' kind of girl.  Like, hiking?  Nah.  I'll pass.   Bugs?  Animals?  Furry things?  No thankyouverymuch.  I do, however, love the woodsy nursery trend...  It may not be my thing but this shower?  It was beautiful.  I love love LOVE how it turned out.  If you like it enough, I've shared free printables at the bottom of this post.  Enjoy!

Now, moving on to the favors!

The tags are double-sided.  The succulents are super cute.  Everything came together fabulously.

The mini clay pots and white rocks are from Dollar Tree.  The succulents were ordered online and her sister assembled them and cared for them for weeks leading up to the shower.  She's awesome like that.  For the tags, I purchased craft sticks from Michael's, designed two tags, printed 6 per 4x6 photo print, and assembled.

The life hack of printing onto photo prints for instant pickup at my local drugstore?  Genius.  I got all of my tags for less than $2.00!  Guess what?  I've created some generic ones for you to print and enjoy below.  I know and you're welcome!

Here are the signs:

Here are the favor tags!

To print, save the image then send to your local drugstore photo printer for 4x6 prints.  Super easy and perfect for your littler DEER's baby shower!  I hope you've enjoyed this event as much as I enjoyed conceptualizing and sharing!

Rustic Shower: DEERly Loved

I shared the inspiration and I even shared a sneak peek yesterday.  Today, I'm sharing how it all came together.  To start, the restaurant gave us one long table.  I decided to start with a centerpiece and use symmetry to create a rustic and green table runner.  When we arrived, Ryan's mom and I got to work!

Her mom set up the cake and sweets table.

Remember the above photo from the sneak peek?  Well, it's the custom piece I had Melina make using two wooden pieces I picked up on one of my clearance runs to Michael's for other supplies.

We used wood glue to adhere the pieces together and Melina free handed the paint technique and deer silhouette.  It helped to set the tone for the event and carried the theme to the sweets table.

The cake was on trend with the "naked" design.  It's made to mimic the look of cake before a fondant or decorative icing covers it.  It was delicious and, without all the fancy stuff on top, you could just focus on the yummy goodness!

Her mom made naked cupcakes in each of the flavors too.  

Both flavors were delicious.  

Don't ask me how I know.

While Ryan's mom made the sweets table pretty, I created the main dining tablescape.  

You may recognize the above photo from yesterday's sneak peek.  I designed the graphics, sent them to print for $.28/each, and placed them in frames I inherited from the local retail store.  The first 'layer' for the table runner was the frames.  

I determined spacing (3 on either side of the centerpiece area) then, I added fresh greenery.  Two of my artificial picks with pine cones were placed on either end of the table and fresh greenery was placed between the frames.  Next up?  

Pine cone garlands and woodsy statues and figures.

I had to maintain the symmetry of the table for a uniformed statement at both ends.  

As I was finishing with setup, Amalia arrived with the diaper cake.  It became our lovely centerpiece.

It was rustic and woodsy and whimsy and everything we needed; truthfully, aside from a few signs, it was the only baby shower element we had.  Baby number two, remember?  We don't need all those baby shower frills for baby number two.

The final touch was the favors.  I asked Jasmine, Ryan's sister, to help with the favors.  She got the succulents and I designed the tags.  They were adorable and all of the guests loved them... Oh, and the favor tags were double-sided, as in win-win!

I will share more tomorrow (including free printables).  For now, check out the final [cell phone] photo I snagged before guests arrived:

It looked awesome!  

The guest of honor loved everything.

The guests enjoyed themselves.

Oh, and this auntie was done with her shower tasks three days before the event... Not to mention I got roughly $500 in decor for a fraction of the cost!  THIS was a great day celebrating my new nephew's arrival.  We enjoyed good food, good laughs, good games and lots of fun!

The rustic DEERly loved non-shower had all the right elements to make it a beautiful day!  There's more to come.  Stay tuned!

WW: Rustic Shower Sneak Peek

Wordless Wednesday

Baby Shower: A Rustic Inspiration

Howdy, Islanders!

You may recall that I shared the news of my newest nephew who is expected to arrive in the upcoming weeks.  I'm super-duper excited and I love that I will soon have another baby to love and another opportunity to be a great auntie.  

I was thinking of hosting a small lunch at my place to celebrate his arrival.  In my mind, we knew she was pregnant before Mason turned one year.  Do you remember how big the shower was for Mason?

Lots of family.  Lots of friends.  Plenty of food.  Awesome decor.  It was a lot.  It was awesome but it was a lot.  Typically, when the second child is the same sex as the first and they are born so close together, another big bash isn't necessary... neither is it appropriate.

The event planner in me said it wasn't appropriate. 

Don't plan an event, I said.  You have so much going on, I said.  They don't need anything, I convinced myself...but the bump grew and with it, my excitement did also.  I started to consider doing something for my new nephew... I mean, I don't want him to be the baby of hand-me-down, do I?  I do want him to have SOMETHING special, right?  Right. Don't worry, I told myself.  It'll be small, I assured myself.  It'll be manageable.

I'll host a luncheon from my home - a few girls, light lunch, cute decor... simple. chic.  nice.

Rewind!  For Christmas, Ryan mistakenly sent dad their Amazon list for Mason's gift(s) and it also happened to have other items on it, including the bedding set for BabyDos.  My parents went crazy and purchased all the items on the list.  Like, all of them.  Including the bedding and nursery decor.

When I saw Ryan unwrap it, I immediately thought of what I wanted to do for the luncheon.  It hit me.  All of her immediate family was present on Christmas; it made for the perfect opportunity to share the luncheon idea with others.  We agreed on a luncheon and we told the mom-to-be.  I instantly went home and pulled together an inspiration board using the bedding as my starting point: