Vintage Circus Baby Shower

Baby shower picture time!  I'm not even going to bother with the pleasantries.  Let's just get right on down to the nitty-gritty...

The Invitation

The invitations were made by Terry from Pictoon Cards.  She did a fantastic job and at a fantastic price!  She made 70 gorgeous pop-up invites in two weeks.  I really can't say enough about her.  I would recommend her to anyone.  Plus, she made several other custom items for us throughout the 2 month process, so I'll have plenty more chances to talk her up.

The Venue

We held the shower at the Rotunda at Lauxmont Farms that, as you can see, has gorgeous views.  When we first rented the room, we were going to go with a bird theme.  However, and I'm sure I don't have to point out why, the room just spoke of a vintage circus theme.  The venue designer did a magnificent job executing our ideas, including hanging the circus tent fabric over the windows.

The Circus Posters

Terry from Pictoon Cards made the fabulous striped posters shown in the bottom three photos.

The Circus Performers

I had this vision of having the silhouettes of various circus performers hanging overhead. David from Darbynwoods created the trapeze artists and the ribbon guy (I'm not sure of his official title, but if any circus folks could enlighten me I'd appreciate it...).  My dad, being the awesome wood worker that he is (seriously, be on the look-out for another awesome creation by him really soon...), re-made her.

Once again Terry from Pictoon Cards joins us.  She created signs of various circus performers to hang in the windows.  She created the four in the pictures, as well as "The Tightrope Walker" and "The Tigers."

The Feathers

To mimic the headdresses often seen on circus elephants we made centerpieces with plumes.

The Food

The food was catered by JDK Catering.  They did a phenomenal job producing the gourmet circus food menu my mom and I had our hearts set on.  We had four different flatbread pizzas, including a Hawaiian Paradise Flatbread Pizza, fried mac & cheese balls, gourmet hot dogs with various toppings, including chili, coleslaw, and cheese, and hand-cut french fries and sweet potato fries with marshmallow dipping sauce.  We provided take home boxes and it's the first time I've ever been to an event where folks packed up more than just leftover desserts to take home.

Don't you just love the mini-milk bottles and the paper straws?!

And the yummy patisserie!  The mini desserts, including mini-eclairs and mini-cheesecakes were made by JDK Catering.  The absolutely gorgeous and equally delicious cupcakes were created by Wendi at SweeTreats.  There were chocolate cupcakes filled with raspberry and topped with vanilla raspberry whipped topping and garnished with a raspberry or white chocolate tents, strawberries and cream cupcakes with a whipped topping and garnished with pink and yellow fondant elephants, and the tent cupcake was a lemon cake with a blueberry bottom topped with a blueberry buttercream.  We also had a mini candy buffet for guests with malted milk balls, strawberry banana taffy and pink circus peanuts.

The Photo booth

Guests were able to hop in the photo booth and create a magical moment preserved forever for the mommy and daddy-to-be and little Vivi.  Some people might regret the forever part...

The Games

To keep the guests entertained and bring out their competitiveness we played a trivia game about the mommy and daddy-to-be, a game we called "Sideshow" in which guests had to guess the parents of a "baby" celebrity we created on Morph Thing, Bingo while Megan opened her gifts, and a game in which guests passed a prize around the table based on a poem we read aloud (pass the box to the guest with the biggest boobs or the blondest hair, etc).  We had some fabulous prizes for the winners, including a very cute apron and lovely hat.

The Favors

As a thank you for joining us for this very special celebration guests were asked to take home a carrier filled with cotton candy and the most delicious melt-in-your-mouth caramels by The Caramel Jar, along with a cone filled with caramel popcorn.  Terry from Pictoon Cards once again wowed us with her skills by creating the favor stickers and the popcorn cones and "Please Take One" signs.

The Elephant

And of course, the star of every circus, and my favorite part of the shower, the elephants.  The beautiful mommy-to-be had her very own pink elephant to perch upon while opening all of her fabulous gifts!

I hope you all enjoyed the photos!  And, as always, if you have any questions about anything we did for the shower please email me and I'll be happy to share our inspirations!