Parents-to-Bee: A Bee Themed Baby Shower
When a baby is on the way, family is sure to be abuzz with excitement! When we found out my sister-in-law and brother-in-law were expecting their first baby, my hubby and I were thrilled to know we would become an aunt and uncle for the first time.
Certainly, the first-time grandparents are over the moon, too! Recently, we had a chance to celebrate the parents-to-“bee” with a family shower and it was so much fun!
Bee parties have been all the rage this year, but the theme was extra perfect for the couple because they are passionate about our environment and my sister-in-law is involved with bee hives on the corporate campus at her company. Every year she brings us some delicious honey that came from the bee hives on site.
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Place Setting
The inspiration for the party started with some party plates and napkins that my mother-in-law ordered from Amazon. When the Pinterest scroll becomes overwhelming, I recommend buying an item you like and use that as inspiration for the rest of your event. This helps you with colors and patterns and you can start mixing in other things that fit instead of imagining every possible way you could go about a theme.
With shades of yellow and black in mind, I also wanted to add in some natural elements. My friend Susan from SugarPartiesLA just did an adorable bee themed gender reveal party and I loved how she mixed in wooded elements.
I started with some natural linen tablecloths that I picked up from my local Home Goods. Home Goods is a great place to search for premium linens at a discount. Whenever I buy new linens, though, I try to purchase ones that I can see using in the future, too. Heading into fall, the natural linen will be great for Thanksgiving, too.
Next, I used a set of Hearth & Hand rattan chargers that I picked up on clearance at Target earlier this year. I was that crazy clearance lady going to multiple Target stores to get a set and I am glad I did! I love them. But, if you don’t have these at home, any kind of natural charger or placemat will create a similar look and feel. Think wood, bamboo, or wicker!
Layer on an everyday white dinner plate. White plates are so versatile friends! My plates are from Crate & Barrel, but you can find great sets of white plates everywhere from Dollar Tree to Walmart to Target! Mixing dinnerware with paper products automatically gives it a fancier look and feel without breaking the bank or creating tons of dishes to do.
Style paper napkins as if you would linen ones under the charger and you may even fool a few guests like I did!
For this party, I did use my set of gold silverware from Amazon, but there are great options for fancy looking disposable silverware, too. Some of my favorites are available from Sprinkles & Confetti or I’ve linked to some other options below, too.
Easy Party Favor
Party favors are always a nice touch for baby and bridal showers. I especially like budget-friendly party favors that can be dressed up with a cute printable or that just need a little ribbon and cute styling. This one has both! I ordered a 12-pack of wooden honey dippers from Amazon and tied on a cute tag from Elva M Design Studio with some black ribbon. You can download the printable for free on her website!
Put them at each place setting or style them in a basket near the door so that guests don’t forget to take them home.
DIY Honeycomb Table Runner & Wall Hanging
This summer, I co-hosted a fun craft challenge on Instagram. If you aren’t following along with me there, you should, because we’ve got another fabulous DIY challenge for fall going on right now with amazing prizes! (@legallycraftyblog) One of the winners this summer created an adorable honeycomb table runner with popsicle sticks and I knew I had to give it a try for the shower.
I used thicker popsicle sticks and hot glued them into a honeycomb pattern. To create the look, be sure to create rows with different numbers of hexagons. I did a pattern of 1, 2, 1,2, 1. These took about 30 minutes to make and I was admittedly distracted watching TV while I made them, too.
You can paint them as well, but I liked the natural wood. I used one as a table runner and the other I hung on the wall an added paper fans and a bee cutout. Use some of Elva M Design’s circle cutouts to add some themed personalization to paper fans. Glue dots or tape work great to add them! You might remember I did something similar for my 1980s themed birthday party. Painter’s tape works well to attach the fans to the wall.
DIY Floral Centerpieces
For anything bee themed, how can you not do a little fresh floral? Flowers are a favorite hangout of our pollinating friends. I used to be a bit scared of floral if I am being honest, but after a little encouragement, I’ve gotten better at creating my own arrangements.
For this event, I headed to my local Trader Joe’s and grabbed one bunch of sunflowers, one bunch of white daisy-type, one bunch of chamomile, a bunch of smaller yellow flowers (I am terrible with flower names), and a bunch of greens. This made eight vases of varying sizes of floral for under $20.
The main bouquet was in a black frosted honeycomb vase I picked up for $3 in Bullseye’s Playground at Target. I added a little yellow ribbon to tie everything together. The rest of the vases were thrifted milk glass vases of varying sizes that I found at Goodwill and thrift stores for bargain prices. Really, any collection of vases will do for this!
Mix up large flowers with bunches of the smaller flowers and add in some greens. The biggest mistake I used to make was not filling the vases enough. Trim down stems to add varying height and make sure the arrangements look nice and full!
Wishes for Baby
The couple requested that we skip the baby shower games, which is completely fine! Events should be what the guest or guests of honor feel comfortable with and there are so many other ideas out there to create interactivity for guests other than traditional baby shower games.
Here, I used a printable template for guests to write in wishes for the baby. The couple picked out a few to read after gift opening and took the rest home to enjoy.
Menu
The grandmothers-to-be handled the food for this event bring some of the couple’s favorite egg rolls and wings for an appetizer and putting together a DIY kabob bar for the main course! The food was delicious and went fast, so I only grabbed a few photos of the kabob bar. The complete how-to for this one can be replicated using this recipe from Food Network. Prepare the food in advance, serve in bowls, label, and grill each guests creation!
The ice cream cake from Dairy Queen was a hit and was dressed up with a “Mommy to Bee” cake topper from Amazon!
Everyone had a wonderful time celebrating and we are all excited to meet baby!
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