Category

Real Parties

Category
On a previous {Working on it Wednesday} post I shared an inspiration board for a Fall dinner party with a color scheme of whites, tans, browns and blues.
Guests were in charge of bringing desserts or appetizers while I was in charge of making a main course dish and two sides for 20 people. I challenged myself to keep the whole party within a budget of $125. The decor could only cost $25 and the food, favors and two bottles of wine had to ring in under $100.

The Budget Breakdown
Decor:
$3 on plastic zoo animals
$4 on spray paint
$13 rugged burlap
$9 on flowers
Total: $29
 The rest of the decor were items I already owned
and items I made from things I already owned.
Food, Favors, and Wine: 
Wine— Two Bottles Free
Had leftover from Halloween party
Favors— Takeout boxes for guests to fill with desserts
$6.75
(Boxes were $13.50, but I split the costs with a friend
who needed the other half of the box order for Thanksgiving)
Food— $82.00
The biggest part of this cost was the meat for 15 people.
I also added a vegetarian main course dish and a birthday cake to this shopping trip.
Total: $88.75
Total Party Cost: $117.75

Check back this week for recipes and DIY decorations.

This week is the week of baby showers here at the blog…
Monday we saw a {Real Party} of a rustic, yet soft baby shower for a girl
Tuesday we saw a {Real Party} of a modern robot-themed shower for a boy
Wednesday was {Working on it Wednesday} with inspiration for a woodland-themed shower
~*~
Today I have photos from another {Real Party}!
My friends and family were super sweet and threw me a Sip & See for our visit back to Oklahoma.
It was a great opportunity for us to celebrate the little guy while seeing all our friends and family in one place. And, since a lot of our friends in Oklahoma recently had kiddos of their own it was an opportunity for us to meet their little ones as well.

My mom, sister and friend Jill really went all out in decorating for this party. My mom created all the paper goods using scrapbook paper and stickers. She even did the little cupcake toppers out of scrapbooks supplies. They used pumpkins, hay bails,fall foliage and even potpourri on the tables to bring out the feeling of fall.

Jill created name tags for all of the guests since our guests were from all different parts of our lives—h.s. friends, college friends, after-college friends and a ton of family. She also created little tissue paper pumpkins (via Martha) filled with candies for the favors.

The food was AMAZING. My step-mom, Teresa, and my mom made all of the food. They decided to do a dessert buffet with coffee, coffee-punch and water to drink. The menu included: pumpkin cupcakes, orange dip and fruit, mocha scones, acorn bites, s’mores pops, chocolate chippies and so much more! It was really, really delicious.

A lot of our friends and family have little ones of various ages so a kids table was a must. Each bag had toys, carrots, apples, juice, fruit by the foot and crayons. Coloring books were spread out on the table so the kids would not be bored while all the adults were chatting.
Of course the carrots were barely touched.

The ladies also put together a little gift table with photos of our little guy and an activity for guests to work on. Each guest got to fill out an advice form that we will keep and save for our little guy as he gets older. Then they would hang the advice from the clothes line above the table. Some guests even put money on the line for us… it was all so sweet.

Our little family felt so very blessed. 

Thank you to my mom, step-mom, sis and to Jill (and her family!) for throwing us this amazing party. I kept getting questions from everyone asking when I had the time to throw the party or what part of the party I did and it was very fun saying,
“Not a thing! They did it all.”

I couldn’t have done it better myself.

Thank you for checking out our party!
I think a lot of these details would transfer nicely to a very pretty Thanksgiving table!

I’m just going to call this week the week of baby showers.
Yesterday we got to see a lovely, rustic shower for baby Fern.
Today…the robot baby shower thrown for me and my little man by my lovely friends.
~*~
My friends put together this amazing invitation to really give guests an idea of what to expect at the party. I love the colors, because they are some of what we ended up doing in our little guys nursery. I also love the wording:
“Greetings, Humans!”
“Your mission, should you choose to accept it:”
“Affirmative(!)”
The geek in me rejoiced.
Guests arrived to see robot signs pointing the way to the welcome table where the hosts had purchased a book for everyone to sign. The book, “Go the F*** to Sleep” is hilarious
(but, will be for us to read until my lil guy is no longer little.)
They also purchased adorable robot suckers from an Etsy shop for favors.
(unfortunately I cannot find the Etsy shop…if you know please send me an e-mail so I can properly link!)
The decor was so adorable! The hosts used the color scheme of blue, orange, green, yellow and grey throughout the party in the paper goods, balloons, ribbons and even the food.
I loved the welcome banner so much that I also hung it in the hospital room after baby was born.
The small details really set a well-crafted party aside from just a normal party. The little pictures of Xander Harris (a character from Buffy the Vampire Slayer…one of my favorite shows growing up) really made me laugh. It was such a fun detail.
The drink and food tags cracked me up. I could just imagine my friends coming up with these things:
Drinks= Lubricants
Blueberry Lemonade= Ascorbic Acid & Blue Fruit Elixir
Veggie Platter= Fiber Matter Platter
Food=Filler Matter
Fruit Platter= Fructose Matter Platter
Cupcakes= Micro Cake Cups
Too Funny!
And, as I’ve said before… I’m not a fan of traditional baby shower games. So I was super excited to see that my friends had a fun activity planned instead of the games.
Everyone created our little guy a robot onesie by taking different robot parts and ironing them to the onesies. Added bonus: my friends realized that the little guy wouldn’t stay in one size for long so they bought different sized onesies! He will have robot outfits until he is 1!
Thanks for checking out my baby shower and a big thanks to my lovely friends who put this shin-dig together. 
You know who you are!