Part of why I love entertaining at home is the decor. And of course the food! And the proximity to my bed once I’ve eaten all the food! In all seriousness though, I love creating memories with my friends and family at home to celebrate life’s special moments. It feels very personal and intimate, and it’s another happy memory that makes me smile when I walk into our living room or dining room. So, I’m doing a series of posts on some of my favorite moments with tips on entertaining at home!
First up is our baby shower way from what seems like another lifetime ago! When celebrating the upcoming arrival of our baby, we wanted to celebrate her heritage and some of the things that reflect our interests as a family. I grew up in the Middle East, with Indian and Filipino parents, and my husband grew up in Kentucky with Taiwanese parents. Ever since we met in college, we’ve loved travelling and eating together and laughing through what life has thrown at us. So we knew we wanted to reflect our global influences in the food – from a dessert bar with desserts from Philippines, India, Middle East, Taiwan, and Kentucky to a Spanish paella bar and the most amazing charcuterie table runner. We hope that our little one will be as inspired and influenced by the world as we are! Below are some tips for throwing a global or travel themed baby shower.
TIPS FOR A GLOBAL THEMED BABY SHOWER
1. Incorporate your theme/colors into the decorations and food. I wanted to reflect our global influences in the decorations and food, as well as shades of pink (you know I always love pink!) The key is to weave the theme/ color through the decorations/food subtly and in different ways yet still somewhat consistently. So in addition to our travel themed dessert bar, we had cute ‘Welcome to the World’ water bottles and napkins. Our mini champagne party favors had a hot air balloon themed tag and our cake had an abstract rose gold map of the continents. We used pink in the florals and table decor.
2. Make it easy for people to grab food or drinks by creating different zones for food/drink. We didn’t want to be running around refilling drinks the whole party so we had a self serve mimosa bar and had some bourbon pairings next to the bourbon filled chocolates on the dessert bar. We didn’t want people to crowd one part of our living/dining room, so we had the dessert bar in one area, the mimosa bar in another area, and a charcuterie table runner on our dining table. We also had the paella bar on our kitchen counter.
3. To make things easier on yourself, see what foods you can order out or cater. I bought all the desserts from different bakeries, etc. while catering out the paella bar and charcuterie runner. I want to spend as much time with my guests as possible when entertaining and don’t want to be fussing getting food ready so I usually only cook one or two items when entertaining. I’ve gotten take out from favorite restaurants or used prepared items from the grocery deli in the past as well.
4. Have some fun! People are there to celebrate so find games or activities that appeal to your crowd. It could be typical baby shower games or it could be karaoke or board games. Whatever suits you and your guests. However, don’t feel pressured to have any games if they aren’t your thing! I don’t love most baby shower games, so we only had one or two of them. My favorite was this light hearted ‘Baby bump or Beer Belly’ game that appealed to both the males and females at the party. The rest of the time was filled with mingling and eating. We also injected our sense of humor into the celebration with the perfect cake topper I found on Etsy that read ‘Shit just got real’.
5. Send your guests home with some parting edible/ drinkable favors. Who doesn’t love a little something cute to take home and eat or drink? We sent our guests home with the prettiest mini pink champagne bottles to POP open and celebrate when our little one arrived. Though of course they could drink them before as well.
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