I’m still in shock that my baby shower has come and gone, and that I’m now just weeks away from getting to meet our baby girl, face to face!! I feel like I just found out I was pregnant! It was the most beautiful day, filled with love and smiles from some of my closest friends and family. A group of fifty strong, accomplished, smart, funny, and admirable women gathered together for the shower to support our new little family, and I couldn’t be prouder or more honored to be able to call all of these amazing humans “my people.”

So, I didn’t have much involvement in the planning. I mean, I tried to send over color schemes in the beginning but got shot down, so I had to relinquish control and ultimately just show up on the day of the shower looking cute.  It’s tough work but somebody has to do it!  Ha!

Betsy and Heather, my mother-in-law and sister-in-law, hosted the shower and did share a few details with me. I was privy to the invitations, but only because they were kind enough to send me an invite to my own baby shower. Here’s what the invites looked like. I LOVE them. Feminine, funny, and simple, with hints of terrazzo. Like I said: LOVE.

Invitations by Paperless Post

My one request for the shower was that the only gift people bring was their favorite children’s book, which led to the children’s book theme Betsy and Heather landed on.

The Location

The first thing we saw when walking onto the patio at Cucina Enoteca in Newport Beach, CA, was lots of lush greenery hanging from the ceiling, and a big, round, antique oak table filled with stacks of beautiful children’s literature. How amazing is that? The books piled up, and my heart was full. But that was only the beginning!

To the left was a mimosa bar (or a “momosa” bar, if you will!) which was a lot of, “Hold the champagne,” for me, of course!

Once we got a drink, we were invited to select a page to illustrate for a Baby’s First Alphabet Book. At the end of the baby shower, Betsy took the pages to be laminated and bound, creating a one-of-a-kind keepsake for our daughter. It was such a fun activity. I love coloring anyways, but then to get to see what other people came up with; to see their creativity and personalities come through on the pages; to picture myself sitting and flipping through said pages with our new baby…I get emotional now just thinking about it all. How cool! Plus, it all tied back into the children’s book theme so perfectly. I could’t have planned it better myself! (I’m mostly kidding, but also, I really couldn’t have.)

Betsy hand-decoupaged all the centerpiece vases with pages from different children’s books, then arranged the flowers herself. (If you wonder who one of my role models and inspirations in this life is, then there you have it!)

The Food

One of the best parts of my baby shower? Was that the food was DELICIOUS, so much so that I had them box up everything that wasn’t consumed so that Brett and I could continue to eat it all over the remainder of the weekend. Here’s what the menu looked like, along with some mandatory food pics (because you all know how much I love a good food pic!):

During lunch, we all played this hilarious game where you had to look at a series of Emojis and guess what Children’s Book was trying to be spelled out. Again, how perfect? Emojis (because my family gives me a hard time for, at one point, a long time ago, claiming that my phone was my life), and children’s books (there’s that clever theme tie-in again!).

Once the shower was over, once the speeches had been made, the mimosa bar shut down, the food boxed up, and the many thanks and hugs and well wishes shared, everyone left with a lovely favor of this beautiful book-cover cookie, tied with a bookmark printed with a quote from a variety of well-loved children’s books.

Cookies by Etsy vendor, Merry Go Sweets, Bookmarks by Etsy vendor, Free Spirit Crafting

I’m still filled with overwhelming feelings of love and support from this day. Baby Girl Roth is one lucky lady to be entering into a circle of such positive, warm, and welcoming humans. Thank you to everyone who was involved and came to my beautiful baby shower!

Now, all there is left to do is to live…Happily Ever After.  (Oh and have a baby!)

The End.

Photo Credits: Riley Star Photo