Real Shower: I Heart NY! A Pink Baby Shower for Brooklyn

When it comes to throwing parties, Kendra of My Insanity Blog likes to throw parties that are unique to the guest of honor, in this case, her sister-in-law. “Before this child was conceived, it had been determined that her name would be Brooklyn—a city name, to
go along with her brother, Jackson (another city). I actually thought of the NY theme first, and got so excited about it, I decided to throw the shower! I just really appreciate when things are personal and memorable. Any party where I feel like I am doing something new and innovative that hasn’t been done a million times before—those are the ones that excite me!”

It didn’t take long for Kendra to design the invitation, but to print it for the 20 guests was a different story. “Be aware, that colors on your screen are not always as they appear at the printer!” Kendra warns. But when she picks a theme, she takes the idea and runs wild with it. “I really like to transform typical party things into objects directly from the theme, like the invitation being the Welcome to Brooklyn sign, or food being stacked up to resemble a skyline. I Googled the Welcome to Brooklyn signs and saw that they actually had cute sayings on them like “How Sweet it is!” It made a really easy transition, to “How Sweet She is.”

Thought she knew she wanted to go girly with this party, initially she was thinking a pink, black, and white color scheme. “The black and white for the city feel and the pink to celebrate this baby girl. Her mom had a boy first, so she was ready for some pink. I was looking at black and white ideas and inspiration for the backdrop when I found the Brooklyn line of dishes at Fishs Eddy. I loved the way the brown softened the whole palette and still gave that urban feel I was going for.”

The concept for the backdrop being a cityscape was one of the first details picked. Based on Baby’s name, she knew she had to feature the Brooklyn bridge. “It just seemed to be absolutely necessary to make the theme work. I wanted the Brooklyn bridge, for sure. I looked at lots of different ways to achieve that, but the line drawing was definitely the most affordable and artistic. It’s not as difficult as you might think either. Using the line drawing style allows you to be a little messy. You can claim artistic license with this style. I just used a projector to project a photo on to the white sheet and went for it with a brown sharpie. It probably took a couple of hours to complete.”

“My sister-in-law wasn’t too keen on shower games, and most of the guests were close friend that hadn’t been together for a while, so they were happy just to visit. I did like the idea of the “Brooklyn Fashion District” where guests could add embellishments to onesies. Not everyone participated, but it was fun for the crafty-types to have something to do. One of our party guests decorated this onesie with beautiful fabric rosettes she made.”

Running with the theme, Kendra started thinking of all things New York. How she would slip in these clichés became fun. Kendra made “street signs” out of lollipop sticks to serve to identify the food and keep the city feel. When planning, most forget that the possibility of tying food itself into a theme, but Kendra gave a shout out to New York’s finest and famous dishes, like Waldorf Salad. “It’s been ages since I’ve been to New York, but I loved the pizza there, and know that there is a lot of cuisine that New Yorkers are proud of. My Donut Trump Hole-tel, was supposed to be a bunch of donut holes attached to a block of foam to look like a building. We didn’t find donut holes at the store (last minute), so had to just stack up donuts. I had to have cheesecake (another New York thing!), and just cut it into individual servings. Bagel Bits pizzas, as bagels are another NY food. I used cute cupcake liners to serve the minature hot dogs and pizzas.”

“Aside from the Welcome Sign and backdrop, I really like food picks that look like a crossing sign for pregnant mommas. It was a happy day when I found that cartridge in my Mother-in-law’s Cricut stash. It really allowed me to add those details to help make the food table feel like a city street, and inspired the street-sign food labels.” Oh, and our apologies to any real New Yorkers if there are inaccuracies or stereotypes here.  Sadly, Kendra hasn’t been to New York since 1993, “and I’m not sure I ever made it across the Brooklyn Bridge.” Thanks Kendra for sharing your New York inspiration with us!

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