Baby Shower Recap Part 1

Finally! My Baby Shower Recap: Part 1! As I've said before, words can't express how happy I am with my Baby Shower. Everything went so well and so many people have told me what a great time they had on Saturday. It was such a fantastic day! I owe it all to our parents and my sister who did a lot of work to plan for the day.

I arrived to Tavern 18 shortly after 11:00am on Saturday. I wanted to be there early to settle in before everyone arrived. Our moms and my sister were already busy bees setting up for the party!

Each place setting had its own packet of games to play: from a baby-word scramble, to a match the celebrity with their baby name, to a guess the nursery rhyme game. Whoever finished these individual games first, won a prize. Also: Each guest was given a safety pin when they arrived. If they said the word "Baby" throughout the shower, any guest could steal their safety pin. The goal being: to collect as many safety pins as possible!!

Decor included this lovely banner:

And a clothesline of homemade-burp-cloths, onesies and baby clothes!

Chris, our dads, and some of their friends hung out at the restaurant bar in the other room during the event. I was glad that he was there to pop in from time to time for pictures and cake! I also got to wear my very own "Mom to be" pin!

People were punctual and started arriving in droves 15 minutes early!!

Here are all my lovely friends who were able to make it out for the day! Many close-by in New York, some from New Jersey, Pennsylvania and even Washington D.C. (That's you Cassie!) (And Dana! How did I not get a picture with you?!)

Top left to Bottom right:
Corinne, Cassie, Maria, Kerry, Anna, Julie, Molly, Mallory, Benjamin, and Mandy

With my lovely newly-engaged sister!

For lunch we had a choice between an omelette, eggs benedict, chicken caesar salad, pan seared salmon and penne chicken.

The Wait staff at Tavern 18 was incredible and very on top of things. I know I'm married blah blah blah...but I maaaayyyy have had a crush on our waiter, Jason. (Just for the day though) I mean, he made SURE that my glass of sparkling cider was always full throughout the whole day, and brought me TWO decaf cappuccinos when we had cake!! I kid...I kid...

I still love you Chris!

One thing we did very differently for this shower was I didn't open any gifts. We asked guests not to wrap their gifts in order to keep this a "Display Only" shower. Every gift was labeled with who bought it, and guests could go and look at all the gifts at any point throughout the shower. This saved time by not opening gifts, saved on all the trash we'd accumulate from the wrappings, and saved me from having to bend over or put anything big on my lap that really wouldn't fit that well. All in all, I loved it, and it was so much fun to look through everything again once we got home.

In leiu of cards, guests were asked to bring a children's book, and to write their message inside of it. I now have a fabulous start to my children's book collection!

Instead of a traditional guest book, my mom put out different autumnal colored squares of fabric for guests to sign. These will then be sewn together and quilted for the baby by my mom! We still have a lot of empty squares which I will have people who couldn't be at the shower sign when they come visit the baby.

And that elephant quilt hanging above it? My mom also made that for the baby! (Can we all agree that my mom should open an ETSY store?! Back me up here people!)

There was a LOT more that happened and went on throughout the day. 

Stay tuned for part 2 tomorrow!