This baby shower was a styled photo shoot I designed for my entry in Celebrations At Home’s Vendor Challenge a few months ago. I totally realized I didn’t post it up on my blog with all the behind the scenes drama and tips that went with pulling this one off! So, here it goes…..
When asked to take part in this Vendor Challenge, I knew right away that I wanted to showcase a baby shower, since at the time, I was 6 months pregnant! The Challenge theme was “Citrus”, so all of us designers had to create a styled shoot with that theme…but we could interpret “Citrus” any way we wanted. One of my favorite cravings was Mexican food and I am in love with the color lime (citrus)! So, I set out to design a baby shower that would fuse my design style (modern simplicity with whimsical twists) and my love of lime green with Mexican modern influences. Hence, the concept “Modern Bebé” Mexican-Influenced Baby Shower was born!
I’ve always wanted to see a modern take on a Mexican theme and knew right away that I wanted to use a crisp all white and lime green color palette with touches of black, bling & silver! Not exactly the colors you think of when looking for Mexican party decor! I infused this design with subtle Mexican-influenced touches from the all-white paper flowers, maracas, centerpiece vase, margaritas and of course the many lime and margarita infused flavors used in most of the sweets.
The inspiration for the entire design was a dark brown tin vase I found in Burlington Coat Factory! It had the height and textured detailing I wanted, but the color was WAY OFF! No problem!!! Off to Michaels to get some high-gloss white spray paint. Did I mention that spray paint is my BEST DESIGN FRIEND! It really takes away ALL boundaries! So, I spray painted it, added my bling touches and voila! A gorgeous wow factor to the main seated table…paired with those gorgeous wooden lime green flower stems from Z Gallerie and it was just what I imagined!
My splurge item on this shoot were the green glass flower chargers. They aren’t even chargers at all! They are actually potpourri holders I found at Pier One for $10 each! WOAH! For those of you that know me, you know that once I fall in love with an item, I will OBSESS about that item until I either buy it or its just not available anymore and even then…DEPRESSION! LOL! Anyway, I saved myself ALL that drama and bought them right away! Had to have them! Okay, okay, so there were actually 2 splurge items. The second one was the GORGEOUS white rosetta taffeta and green pinchwheel linen. Had to have that too! The texture? OMG! So worked 🙂
It’s all in the details!!!! One of our signature elements is all custom signage and paper designs. This shower showcases our “Modern Baby Girl” collection that is fully customizable and comes assembled and ready to go out of the box! It includes our signature Lolli-tag™ bouquets, table signage, cupcake Lolli-tags™, napkin rings, favor labels and more! We believe these signature details really add to the intimate, boutique feel of any event.
The sweets bar included the super-yummy gourmet cupcakes from LicketySplit. They created a Margarita Cupcake with just the perfect mix of sweet & salty and a yummy Key Lime Cupcake adorned with of course candied limes! The fabulous KupcakeSpot also creates and ships custom gumpaste cupcake decorations in any theme or color scheme that I use in many ways including on cookie lollipops and other pastries. Looking for a way to dress up your cupcakes in style….this is it! Sidenote: I must admit that after the shoot I totally ate EVERY one of those cupcakes…they are to die for 🙂
One of my favorite elements to the sweets bar was the vintage gumball machines I SCORED on CraigsList! These were actually gold when I got them and once again…spray paint to my rescue! How cool are these?
Also making their appearance again were my three signature design elements: “bling bears”, silver manzanita tree and bling pacifiers that, this time I used to totally bling out the manzanita tree. LOVE IT!
Okay, so for the drama! First of all, the photo shoot was scheduled on the WINDIEST day in California! OMG…everything was blowing like CRAZY…but randomly! So, we literally were holding everything in place, getting the camera ready and then letting go just in time to snap each shot. It took FOREVER! I can’t tell you how many times we shot one setup. Word to the wise…always check not only the weather (rain or shine) but the wind gusts too! GEEZ…that was one of those..YOU KNOW BETTER moments. When setting up my client’s events, we always do this so we are prepared with weights, clips, glue, etc. This time, it was in my own backyard and I didn’t even give it a thought! As if somehow my backyard wasn’t subject to wind gusts! LOL!
Tip: When trying to pull off a theme that doesn’t exactly lend itself to your color scheme like a Mexican theme does…(It was nearly impossible to find all white Mexican-influenced items)…SPRAYPAINT is your absolute best friend! Once you unlock yourself from finding your exact color, you can now just look for shapes and patterns and items that are Mexican-influenced regardless of color. Flea markets, yard sales and swap meets are treasure troves for this! Bring them home, and for under $10 transform them with your color paint, add a few blings..and voila!
Tip: When creating a sweets bar, ALWAYS color-coordinate your sweets. It may cost more to do so, but the visual impact is totally worth it to create that W0W-FACTOR to your event. You can be creative with inexpensive food coloring by tinting frosting to match or using candy melts to cover sweets that don’t exactly match your color scheme. OH…and don’t forget to try everything! There’s nothing worse than a gorgeous sweet that tastes like cardboard! Your guests will definately tell you!
Vendor Credits:
Event Styling & Modern Baby Girl paper design collection:
Soiree-Event Design
Cupcakes:
LicketySplit (Grover Beach, CA)
https://www.facebook.com/pages/LicketySplit-Cupcakes/178245928856973
Gumpaste Cupcake Topper Decorations:
KupcakeSpot (Tustin, CA)
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kupcakespot/340405473853
Photography:
Valerie Morse & Tonya Coleman
Donna says
Love it
ALSTR says
LOVE IT
Diana says
I want the bears