I always knew if I got to have another baby I wouldn't have a baby shower. It's the Miss Manners in me, I don't think they are appropriate for second, third, etc children because it's actually a celebration of the woman becoming a mother. I'm already a mother. On the other hand, I do think all babies should be celebrated.
That's where the Sip & See comes in. Except when I hear Sip & See, I think I need to bring some kind of baby gift. We did not want any gifts but I get tired of explicitly stating that on invites, plus it seems a little tacky to assume everyone is hankering to buy you something, so we called it a House Party. We wanted our family and friends to come over, have some food and drinks, hold our new baby, and hang out with us for a little while.
Either the term 'House Party' did not have the intended effect, or we have very generous friends and family. We were so grateful to spend some time with everyone who came over.
This was also in the month before the painting project was completed. Remember, I needed two fun big projects to pull me out of my pospartum depression. I absolutely loved the theme of this party- so much so that I'm having a hard time figuring out a theme for her first birthday because I want to just do this theme again. haha!
The theme was bohemian / feathers / lace / purple. For some reason those things remind me of Francie Rose and go with her name. I found a wonderful invite on Etsy that pulled all of those ideas together. Just as guests entered, we had a table with flowers and a string of lace with newborn photos and feathers attached with mini clothespins.
We decorated the mantle with more lace and feathers, balloons with feathers attached to the bottom, and more rustic wildflowers and a bundle of wheat.
My favorite part were the dream catchers we hung over the food table. We threw in some pink to go with the purple. Abby and I made rock candy from scratch and used it to top the mini cupcakes we also made. We didn't realize that the rock candy would be so sticky it could potentially pull off a crown, or that topping them and keeping them in the fridge overnight would make them stickier! Live and learn. Next time I would use pop rocks instead. I wanted the cupcakes to look like they were rocks in the desert.
I found a free printable alphabet on Pinterest and used it to print this banner. It was such an easy decor item. Of course we debated on keeping the extra 'N' in her name (Francine instead of Francie) but ultimately decided we love Francie the most.
I strung lace in the opening between the kitchen and dining room and had little cards for guests to write a note for Francie and use a clothes pin to hang it up. Other guests could read the notes and we saved them to put in her baby book.
At the beginning of the party, I was on top of getting photos of Francie with everyone, and taking lots of action shots of guests talking, but as the party continued, Francie wanted me to carry her while she slept so I mainly walked around and chatted with our guests.
Mr. Ken was one of my employees at my old career and he went through my pregnancy with Abigail from day 1. He lives in the area and we have evolved our relationship into a monthly lunch date. He feels like a combo of friend and dad.
We had music on that made us think of Francie, including songs we played during her birth and songs that have the name 'Francine' in them.
Some of Abby's friends came too!
Abby was very excited about Aunt Judy and learned what smoking a cigarette is for the first time. Not by trying it, but from seeing Aunt Judy going outside and wondering why she couldn't go out there with her! ha!
Things we learned from this party: we don't like the come and go style party. Once we thought things were winding down around 5, we had a whole new wave of people show up. It's hard to keep food and drinks looking fresh that long. Also 3 hours is too long for a party. If people stay late, great! But planning it to last that long is just too much.
For some reason 'Regrets Only' still means nothing. We expected at least 50 people based on our replies to that, but had about 35-40 show up. A couple of friends texted that day before the party started saying they planned to attend but something came up, but some who we thought would be there didn't show up or call, and we had one couple text us at like 9pm saying they forgot to come. That was a little hurtful. I would rather be told that people can't make it than to be left wondering.
One great thing we did was order the food from Central Market. It was expensive but so worth it because we just brought it home and set it out, and it looked and tasted amazing. I made a special punch and had beer and wine for adults, and juice boxes and crackers for the kids. I left the decor up for a couple of weeks afterward because I loved it so much.
We feel so grateful for the amazing friends and family in our lives and glad to share the birth of our baby girl with them!
1 comments:
Allison, you are a woman of many talents. Unfortunately, manners seemed to overlooked by many of every generation. The people who did not attend your House Party and meet Francie and your famiy/friends are the ones who lost out on the special day.
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