This sweet family, Charlotte, Caroline, + Eric, will soon be welcoming a little boy into their family. So, of course we had to celebrate with a baby shower!
I'm just loving these nautical theme baby showers and jumped at the chance to host one. Here's the invite I created in Print Shop (love that program! Details edited out).
I e-mailed a few of those out but we mostly relied on the
evite. I wasn't aware this amazing site existed until Caroline suggested I use it for invites. Love it! Simple, time + money saving, and saves that many more trees!
Caroline's Mom + Dad recently retired and moved to a gorgeous condo complex with a lovely gulf view. We were able to host the shower in the condo's complex. Ideal.
Since the clubhouse was already dedicated very nautical I kept the decor to a minimum. Of course I drew inspiration from my
pinterest board. And Target had *perfect* nautical decorations in their little dollar section in early June (the colorful signs + little tags + square boxes + pens + note cards). Print Shop + my scrapbook box supplies the signs, paper banners + paper boats. The burlap + twine wrapped candles were inspired by nautical decorations seen at World Market. *Loved* this decor but wanted to save money + keep it simple. And love the feeling of a DIY!
And of course burlap is all over the internet these days. Love it. Cheap + simple. Just wished I hadn't run out of time to take an iron to it...
I didn't get a great picture of the paper banner. You can catch better glimpses in the background of other pictures. We had a fabulous prep team of sweet ladies. Thanks to everyone who pitched in last minute and helped make the party a success.
Caroline's Mother-in-law, Rita + younger sister, Meridith in the forefront. In the background you can see her sister, Shea + Aunt Rhonda.
I made the burlap banner (Used a stencil and outlined the letters with a black permanent marker then filled it in with black fabric paint using a paint brush. Then used a zig zag stitch to sew the squares onto a piece of twine. Also zig zagged around each square to prevent excessive fraying since I play ot re-use it often.) neutral so I can use it for all kinds of celebrations. The ribbons are just tied on so it can be color customized for each occasion. Melissa graciously shared her gorgeous shells pictured in the glass vases + I found the tall blue glass pillar candles for $1 each at Wal Mart. I just used a hot glue gun to wrap twine around each vase.
We asked each guest to write self-address an envelope to make thank you notes easier for the mommy. Then, we did a door prize drawing with the envelopes.
Flowers + door prizes. Bath + Body work had some amazing sales a couple weeks before the shower so their hand soaps made perfect door prizes.
Each guest was asked to write a prayer for baby on a note card so Caroline could put them in baby's scrapbook and read them to him at a later date.
I failed to get a picture when all the gifts arrived--the table was overflowing.
The beautiful Smith girls. Caroline with her sweet mother, Jackie.
Caroline + some girls in her family.
The shower was in the morning so we had breakfast foods which was super fun.
I tried a
new recipe found on pinterest for the shower and it was a huge hit. So delicious.
We had juice, water, coffe + creamers, as well as Shea's delicious frappe.
They received some great gifts for baby!
Big sister, Charlotte, enjoyed helping open some gifts.
Caroline, Eric + Charlotte with Eric's mom, Rita + stepdad, Rex.
Caroline + Charlotte with longtime friend Megan.
The sweet ladies who came.
Love this sweet family! Oh, and I almost forgot to mention. They made the big name announcement at the shower: Jude Anthony. Love it. JAG. Best intials ever.
Caroline + I met my first day of college orientation. She came bounding into my room the next morning asking if I wanted to go to Waffle House. We bonded over waffles and have been fast friends ever since. She's been an amazing prayer partner, source of spiritual conviction + encouragement, and most of all a very loyal, patient friend over these last nine years of friendship. I'm excited to see her and Eric parent another child.
And just in case anyone else foresees a nautical baby shower in their future here are some downloadable PDF files from the shower. Feel free to use/share them as much as you want. Just please don't sell them.
UPDATE: For those unable to download these in the past I have updated the links. Sorry about any inconvenience!
Ahoy It's A Boy Sign
Coffee cup wrapper
Blank Invitation
Graphics
Signs
Prayer Notecards
little cows -- check out our tails!
Little cows loving the play place. Love that moment between Ivory + Micah while Addie runs to climb in and join the fun. So sweet. We also enjoyed a spontaneous outing to Under the Oaks by the Bay after dinner. The kids enjoyed a very spontaneous romp in the salt marsh (yuk!) where they had an absolutely completely messy blast. 
