Decor Details - Congrats!

We held the baby shower at a restaurant so the decor we used was minimal due to the natural restrictions of decorating an event at a venue that was serving dinner that night. So we decorated with pink and brown balloons and created some faux floral centerpieces for the tables. My Mother-in-law found some adorable pink polka-dot containers that we lined with brown tissue paper and arranged pink flowers inside.



Also for the tables, I created placecards so everyone knew where they were sitting for lunch. I bought pre-folded placecards from Paper Source in the same pink as the other paper details (invitations, favor labels, etc.). I embossed each place card with the same chick in chocolate brown that I used on the invitation registry card . Instead of printing each person's name on the card, I stenciled their name in dark brown. I ended up using colored pencils because they came out the cleanest and didn't bleed like markers. I ended up having to trim the placecards as well because they are quite large out of the package.

The final decor detail was a "Congrats" banner that we hung over the space where the Mom-to-be opened her gifts. I found a template for a circle banner from Martha Stewart during my wedding research (Martha Stewart Weddings printable banner) and had wanted to use it ever since. I thought it worked perfectly with our circle/polka-dot theme, so I printed the templates onto pink cardstock. After cutting each letter I needed to spell the message, I punched two small holes at the top of each circle. I then threaded ribbon in our theme through the holes, spacing the circles as I saw fit. I made two strands so I could hang one word above the other.

From afar...

Up close...

Photos by Kyle @ 918 Photo

Next: Shower Games

Table Centerpieces

Once I decided to have Meg @ Princess Lasertron create our bouquets and boutonnieres, I also decided that we would not use fresh flowers at all in our decor. So when it came time to decide on the table centerpieces, I wanted to keep it simple, fun and handmade. I found two different techniques for creating flowers out of alternative materials. One technique uses yarn to create pom pom flowers and the other uses tissue paper to create carnations. The pom pom flower tutorial came from a 2008 post at Domestifluff and the tissue paper carnations came from Martha Stewart. I modified this tutorial on a Pom Pom Car Decoration and used wire for a stem instead of twine for a garland.

I created pom pom and carnation flowers out of various shades of aqua and moss/chartreuse green. I decided to do multiple bud vases in varying heights using both clear and milk glass at each table.
One vase had pom pom flowers...

And the others had tissue paper carnations. I made some solid colored carnations and some with two colors of tissue paper.

I added any extra buttons I had to the bottom of the clear bud vases to continue incorporating the button theme.




In addition to the vases of flowers, the center of each table included a table number. I purchased white double-sided Tolsby frames from IKEA for 99 cents each. I printed each table number twice onto pool cardstock cut to the size of the frame. I used a dot-themed border punch to punch a design around the outside of the pool cardstock. Then I cut spring green cardstock to the size of the frame and placed it in between the two table number cards. This way you could see the table number from both sides of the frame and the green cardstock came through where the dot-themed punch was used.

To finish out the table decor we added a few tealight candles to each centerpiece. Every table was slightly different yet they all coincided with our theme. These took some time to put together, but in the end they saved us money and looked fabulous.

Photos by Kyle @ 918 Photo
Next: Tent Decor