he first told me she was pregnant in the middle of the mall, by the Verizon kiosk between Panera and Forever 21, because she couldn’t hold it in any longer. I had a premonition that she was, but that didn’t stop us making a scene right there! Then came the ever-long keeping-a-secret phase. I’m bad at keeping secrets, but I kept my mouth zipped until I was given the go-ahead.

We checked dates for a baby shower and decided for November since I would be heading out of wedding season and she would be slowing down a bit at work. I had so much fun planning this shower! I’ve never thrown a baby shower before so I did some research and worked my brain in InDesign to create the theme. I knew she didn’t want something too “boy” themed so when I found this stunning watercolor and acrylic piece by Katie Daisy, I based the entire party around that color palette.

From that point, I just went a little nuts in my excitement. It’s lucky to be in the wedding business because I was able to borrow some items from a local wedding planner (Brenda Strief) and have all my paper goods (with the exception of the invitation) printed at Zephyr Weddings.

My menu plan was as follows: fresh vegetables & hummus, pineapple salsa bites, assorted cupcakes (from Scratch Cupcakery), pumpkin pie dip with grahams, crab-filled crescent rolls, chocolate hazelnut pirouettes, caprese salad, sweet sunrise mocktails, and hot tea & coffee.

The shower was supposed to be on Sunday, but Sara has been in the hospital on bed rest since Thursday (she’s doing great and so is her baby!) so we did a quick reshuffling of plans. I knew she was so disappointed about the shower so I set it up anyway with some of the food items and took photos for her.

The “M” is made from a wooden letter from Hobby Lobby wrapped in some blue yarn I had.

The party favors were shower gels from Bath & Body Works with these cards.

I couldn’t take nearly everything to the hospital, but I took in food and we had a small, relaxed shower with her mom, sister-in-law, and me in her hospital room. She hugged me and said it was perfect, which was really all I had wanted for her anyway.