In 2019 I wasn’t able to organise a lot of events as the set up at work had changed and the option for regular fun days there was no longer given. This baby shower took place at the end of March, by which time I had visited 3 wedding fairs as well as London Design Week in just the previous 2 months and they provided me with a lot of inspiration. For this, a former colleague and I planned a surprise babyshower for a current colleague which was inspired by photos from her wedding in South Africa. The mother-to-be being Swedish and her relaxed boho style were also a consideration. The hostess found a free design online for the invitation with greenery and pastel peach blossoms and I based the decorations on these baselines.
The decorations included handmade white and black paper flowers inspired by Anemones – I can’t explain why but I love Anemones – votive sized LED candles with flicker effect, faux greenery, roly poly votive glasses, milk glass bottles, LED string lights, faux succulents, peach coloured napkins, small terraccota pots, a small wreath with a lace bow and fabric flowers and another colleague’s lightbox. She is getting quite a bit of use out of it since she bought it for her wedding – this is the third event in less than a year that we have used it for. For the mother-to-be I organised a headband with faux flowers and greenery.
I created a Baby Bingo, a Baby Wordsearch and Parent Advice Cards as well as a Guestbook, for which I painted a picture frame in pastel peach and cut out feathers in 4 styles and 3 pastel colours for guests to sign. After they had done so, I glued the feathers on to the image of a dream catcher. The hostess had bought a few other classic babyshower games, among them “guess the bump” and “stick the dummy on”, and prepared little favours for each guest to take home.
We had the babyshower at The Victoria Pub in Surbiton, where we reserved the Simpson Study, which is a small, semi-private room. They allowed us to decorate the room and kept our gluten free coconut and lemon cake – the mother-to-be is gluten intolerant – in the fridge until after lunch. They have a few other nice spaces that can be reserved for events, including wooden huts out in the beer garden and their decor is eclectic and visually appealing with some vintage pieces of furniture. I especially liked their fireplace mantelpiece and overmantel between the study and the bar and would enjoy organising another event there.
The surprise was a success and the mother-to-be seemed to have a lovely time.
Jess Creates Events 