Hostess with the Mostess®

I’m so excited to share this party with you! This is a masquerade/carnival-inspired baby shower – dubbed “Festival Du Bebe” – that I created for my close friend Jen earlier this year to celebrate the pending arrival of her new baby boy (who has since arrived… healthy & adorable!).

When everything was spread out around our house in the last few days before the party I pretty much felt like a kid in a candy store… feathers, rhinestones, giant butterflies, flowers, champagne, monkey statues, loads of candy…oh yes, it was definitely a happy place!

Since there are LOTS of pictures to share – thanks to gracious & talented photographer Jillian Bisinger – I’m going to break this feature into 2 parts. We’ll cover the tables & party decor here in Part 1, and the food & drinks, party favors, and activities in Part 2.

Scroll down to check out more images, party details, and shopping resources…

The baby shower was held at Jen’s mom’s house. Her formal dining room is pictured directly above and in the 2nd pic from the top. This room had a big chandelier hanging over the table that was the perfect spot for a “swarm” of colorful fabric butterflies (ranging in size from 7″ – 24″) – and those fabulous striped chairs were actually part of her regular dining set!

All of the tables were covered with black linens, and place settings featured crepe placemats (in blue, yellow, and red), matching napkins in the same 3 colors, and zebra paper plates.

I also designed some paper napkin rings that featured mom-to-be’s first initial on one side and read “bébé boy” on the other side (which is pictured in the 3rd image from the top). You can purchase the napkin rings here.

This was one of my very favorite details… mini baby bottles were embellished with purple, green, aqua, and red craft rhinestones, filled with mardi gras beads, and accented with butterflies!

By happy accident, I discovered that the mini baby bottles fit perfectly into the tea light holder portion of some monkey-shaped candle holders that I already owned (purchased at Target last summer). It’s kind of hard to see the rhinestones in the picture, but they circled the entire bottle cap and looked really cool from the top!

Table #2 featured a blue ostrich feather tree centerpiece. (DIY tutorial here) The Eiffel Tower vase was embellished with butterflies (adhered with 3D glue dots), and acrylic disc strands from a red beaded curtain hung from the feathered top. A small elephant figurine (purchased at HomeGoods for $7 and spray painted blue) – stood next to the vase.

“Jungle Collection” Baby Art Cards by Wee Gallery were displayed throughout the party and added the relevant “baby” element in a stylish way that would still appeal to adults! The art cards were inserted into either clear acrylic or colorful wooden frames to stand them up.

Garden trellis support stands from IKEA ($3 each) were decorated with colorful feathers, butterflies, and extra napkin rings & favor tags. These made for festive, free-standing “towers” of party decor that could be placed anywhere!

FLOWERS
I made all of the arrangements myself the night before the party and they were actually very easy!

Since feather centerpieces can add up quickly and we already had some of those, my goal for the flowers was to keep them festive AND affordable – so the designs included just a minimal amount of flowers (between 4 – 9 stems each) and were embellished with fun details for extra “flair”.

Yellow China mums, white spider mums, purple iris, and bright red & dark red gerbera daisies were used in the arrangements.

Wet floral foam inside the vases enabled good control over the placement of each flower stem. The foam was covered up with a tight “bed” of flowers in some of the arrangements and a layer of turquoise or red acrylic sea glass in others.

All of the flowers were accented with artificial butterflies, and vases were embellished with striped ribbon, marabou feather boa, and extra Festival Du Bebe favor tags.

Additional party decor included: colorful ceramic vases, accent feathers in red/aqua/purple/gold, red & blue “mirror balls” (ornaments) from shopwildthing.com, white monkey statues from Z Gallerie, more elephant figurines from HomeGoods, and butterflies, butterflies EVERYWHERE. (Seriously – I even stuck them on the house plants and wall sconces!)

White candlestick holders were topped with melamine zebra plates to create “pedestals“ for the framed art cards, elephants, and a few other things. Floral gum was used to temporarily secure the plates to the candlestick holders for the party.

For more affordable feather centerpieces to compliment the 2 “giant feather trees”, black and white Eiffel Tower vases were filled with just 4 ostrich feathers total, coming out the top of the vase. I made a few more detailed versions of these that I don’t have pictures of unfortunately, but in those versions I also wrapped the vases diagonally with colorful ribbon and mardi gras beads (cut costume necklaces) for a “striped candy” type of effect – which looked really fun too!

Here’s one of the welcome posters (displayed on a $20 standing easel from HomeGoods that we spray painted black) and some a some additional coordinating prints that I couldn’t resist throwing in…

Stay tuned for a recap of the food/drinks, party favors, and activities in Part 2!

BTW: all of the personalized paper party supplies used here – invitations, napkin rings, favor tags, etc. – are now available for purchase right here, along with coordinating thank you cards, address labels, and more!

And there’s also a Festival Du LOVE version in case you want to tailor this theme to a bridal shower or engagment party. =)

{Photo Credit: Jillian Bisinger Modern Photography}