It's A Girl! Tea Party Baby Shower

My cousin Eloise is expecting a little girl - Elise and what better way to help her celebrate and stock her nursery than a tea party.  We held it this past weekend and it was so fun.  Here are the pics - enjoy!

Let's start with the entry way.  I think it is funny you can see Eloise and I in the reflection in the glass!

I nestled the It's A Girl!  heart in a purple and green wreath.  Her nursery colors are lilac and white.

If she wants, she can take this to the hospital and hang on her door there.

I tied lilac and white polka dot ribbon on my planters and then carried the ribbon to the fireplace.

I displayed the invitation and flowers in a sweet teapot to go along with the theme...goodness knows I love a theme!

We set the sweet treats in the living room on the coffee table and placed the savory foods on the kitchen table.

I moved my entry table in here to put the plates, napkins and utensils on.  Made the flow a lot more seamless.  My mother in law loaned me some beautiful tablecloths that were just perfect for a ladies tea.

The morning of the shower I went to the farmer's market and picked up $30 worth of fresh purple and white flowers.  I was able to put together 8 arrangements around my house for $30...you can't beat that!

Bringing out real utensils, glassware and plates tells your guests that this is something special.  It also saves money and all that trash from plastic and paper.  I did get purple napkins instead of cloth to bring in more lilac and admittedly I am not so good at keeping my cloth napkins fresh.

I love using my silver whenever I can.  It just makes things special you know?  Another sweet teapot flower arrangement.  I really only spent the $30 on the flowers as far as decor.  I was able to borrow lots of teapots and the linens which really helped to save $$$ and make it feel unique rather than everything so "matchy matchy".

We served some lovely sandwiches - cucumber, pimiento cheese and chicken salad as well as wonderful cranberry pecan cheese wafers.  FYI the cheese wafers were AWESOME!  We also served fruit salad, cheese and crackers, mocha brownies, scones, black and white cookies all store bought.  We did have a lot of food left over but better to have too much than too little!

I set all of the drinks in the kitchen.  We served tea, lemonade, hot chocolate and hot spiced tea.

We had an awesome response to this party - Eloise invited 27 and 24 could come!  Yay but space was at a premium so I set my basement up as the present opening "area".  We brought in extra chairs and everyone sat in one big circle to watch her open all of the gifts.

 It was a great shower and lots of fun.  I can't wait to meet little Elise!