Baby Shower for Eli

Last weekend was a bit of a whirlwind. Seven of Courtney's closest friends and I co-hosted a shower for my sister's first child, Eli, at my house. The next day Joe hosted a shower for one of his best friends who is getting married in a few weeks. Our house was rearranged, cleaned, styled, and rearranged all over again but it was worth it. 

 I am now sitting with my family in a beautiful home in Seaside, FL watching the rain beat down and flood the streets but knowing that I have help keeping the baby entertained and all I have to do is sit here and take the time to just relax.  What better time to catch up on my blog!?

Planning this shower was so fun. I asked Courtney for color and style inspiration and I got with the girls about food and themes and we chose to go with mint, light blue, gold and silver. The invitation I chose explicitly said this would be a brunch so we could budget off less expensive breakfast foods and have a little champagne without any guilt! 

I wanted to make sure the decorations would look good in a boy's room but also wanted the shower to be visually pleasing for all of the ladies in attendance! 

After the shower was done, I wished I could have gone back in time and save myself a lot of trouble with redundant trips to Hobby Lobby, Michaels, bakeries and 3 grocery stores but all the work and errand-running was worth it to see all of the different projects come together so cohesively. 

Some of my favorite crafty things that also had a big 'bang for your buck' was painting paper letters , mason jars and plastic animals gold. I used Martha Stewart's gold metallic paint (only at Michaels or maybe Home Depot but NOT Hobby Lobby). I used gold glitter paper from Paper Source ($4 for a huge sheet!) and flowers from Whole Foods. I had Joe drill holes in the animals to make little signs for the food but that may have been a little overzealous since everyone pretty much knew what they were getting. 

This shower was also the first time I've ever had every.single.person RSVP. Regrets and confirmation poured in almost every day and I had an exact count of guests which basically never happens, even in the south where etiquette and manners are essential parts of lady training! 

This was about the best picture we could muster with Emmy refusing to stand or let me hold in her a more appropriate way. At this point I really didn't care much. Everyone had such a great time and Courtney got so much of what she needed for Eli so the shower was a definitive success. 
There were also 2 Etsy finds that I didn't manage to get pictures but I received loads of compliments on so I've uploaded small thumbnails of their products to hopefully encourage other people to use these sellers as well.  Guests placed gold thumbprints as little "fireflies" with the names underneath.  Print found here. 

For the front door, I chose this monogrammed wooden cross. There is a sweet inscription around the edges with Eli's initials and it came in much larger than I had expected for the price so I was very pleasantly surprised! You may want to scoop one up if you're in the market, $35 is such a great deal! Cross found here.