The first party I threw as a married adult was a baby shower for my friend Ginny. She was one of the first in our group of friends from Sunday school to have a baby and I was so excited to help them celebrate the arrival of their baby girl! They decided on the name Caroline which was mommy’s middle name. When brainstorming a theme for the shower I kept coming back to the song “Sweet Caroline” by Neil Diamond which they played at all the Home Carolina Football games…so with the song playing in my head I started to plan.
Working on my table layout!
I wanted to go along with the same color scheme Ginny was using in the nursery so she could reuse the decor if she wanted. She chose a coral pink, aqua, and a pretty bright green. I started scoping out all of my favorite party supply spots. Target, Party City, and TJ Maxx for the napkins, plates, utensils, and cake stands. To jazz the cake stands up a bit I grabbed some coordinating ribbon from Michael’s…because you can never have enough bows when a little girl is involved!
My first set of baby onesies…I was so proud of these!
“Where it began
I can’t begin to knowin’
But then I know it’s growing strong
Was in the spring
And spring became the summer
Who’d have believed you’d come along”
The beginning of something sweet…SugarStripes was just around the corner!
For the floral arrangement I dropped off my white pitcher I found at TJ Maxx with the florist and she put together a fun grouping of painted sticks, hydrangeas, and beautiful pink peonies. When I got home I added in some greenery from our front yard to make the hydrangeas pop a little more.
Had to order flowers from the sweet florist who did the flowers for my wedding! Love me some Peonies!
I loved how my fun find turned into something unexpected! These basic drink cups got an upgrade courtesy of our friend Todd who was tasked with rimming the glasses while we were busy finishing the final party preparations. I think he may have been a bar tender in another life or picked up a few skills as a waiter in college. I found the tube of coral colored sugar at TJ Maxx in the gourmet food section. I originally bought it to use on the cupcakes but at the last minute changed my mind and I’m so glad I did!
Pink sanding sugar to dress up our plastic cups.
We may have gone overboard with the sweets but I had to stay true to the theme! There was some fruit and a few salty things to munch on but the star of the show was the dessert buffet. I made my grandmothers go to special occasion Lemon Icebox Pie and my new favorite pound cake I learned to bake when Keith and I got married. There were chocolate cupcakes, this ridiculous chocolate, caramel deliciousness (is what it should be called) and rice Krispie squares.
Love this cream cheese poundcake…I received the recipe at my kitchen shower from a dear family friend!
The sweets were enjoyed by all as mom and dad to be opened gifts and shared laughs together. The extras were snatched up at the end by the hubbies to eat as a snack later on.
My grandmothers lemon icebox pie topped with cherries and other assorted desserts our friends contributed.
Just in case our guests didn't have enough sugar already I sent them all home with cookie favors wrapped up as pieces of candy. Not long after the shower I heard from the grandmother to be that she had saved a few and they made an excellent companion to her morning cup of coffee!
Cookie Favors make a sweet Thank You!
I was very pleased with how everything turned out and ready to start planning for the next gathering…before I knew it her 1st Birthday rolled around and “Sweet Caroline” made an encore performance that was even sweeter!