If you hadn't already figured it out with this week's "Handpicked" or all of my Twitter talk about babies, babies and more babies - Ilario's brother, Paolo, and his wife, Kristen, are having a baby and BOY (ha ha ha, it's a boy - I'm such a nerd, sorry) are we excited!! He's due October 10th, but can truly show up any time now.
Since it's their first baby my mother-in-law, Carmela, sister-in-law, Cathy, and I threw Kristen a baby shower with a surprise location on Sunday, September 13th. Since Kristen is vegan, we held the shower at Chrissie Hynde's vegan restaurant, Vegiterranean, here in downtown Akron. Can I just tell you they have quite possibly the MOST DELICIOUS food on the planet!!! I mean, seriously, I'm a meat-eating girl, but if I could eat like that every single day I wouldn't think twice about the juicy medium-rare filet mignon from Ruth's Chris (well maybe that's going a little far, but you see where I'm going here). The theme of the shower was "Jungle Chic" and coincidentally enough, Kristen and Paolo decided to decorate the nursery with a jungle theme as well when they had no idea what we were doing! You must check out the crib bedding they chose from Babies'R'Us - it will make you go "Aawwww", I promise!
Baci designed and printed all of the stationery for the big day - the peach zebra print and sage spotted giraffe were continued throughout all details. The giraffe even made a guest appearance on the back of the invitation envelope beside the return address.
Surprisingly enough, we were actually able to keep the location a secret! Kristen thought she knew, but since Vegiterranean is usually closed on Sundays, she was pretty confused :)
Matching Thank You Cards designed by baci.
The front of the invitation envelope mimicked the shape and design of the actual invitation. There's the little giraffe again beside the return address on the thank you envelope.
The gorgeous Daddy and Mommy-to-be, Paolo and Kristen. Isn't she just to-die-for with her little belly in that BCBG Snake-print Dress?!?! Hands down the cutest pregnant lady ever! Another coincidence: the building to the left of Paolo's head is the hospital where he was born. Crazy, huh? The photo on the right is the front of Vegiterranean - utterly modern and classy.
A shot of the guest table all set up before people start arriving.
A close-up of the place settings at each seat. Each guest was asked to fill out their address on the provided envelope to ease Kristen's thank you writing process. Also at each seat, an advice card for Paolo and Kristen, Baby Bingo and a candle favor.
The simple blue carnation centerpieces added a touch of "boy" to the shower.
Our favors were quite the collaboration effort, Cathy and our aunt, Teresa, decided that we should use baby food jars as candles then I ran with it creating the paper wrap and "baby boy" tag to match the theme. Cathy, my mother-in-law and I assembled each favor one afternoon - we had a blast until it came to putting on those darn beads! Let's just say they didn't want to cooperate :) It was truly worth the effort though - they turned out fabulous!
On the left, a close-up of the advice cards. I was inspired to create these "Mad-Lib" advice cards by a bridal shower note I found on 100 Layer Cake. It was so much fun to read what people wrote to fill in the blanks! On the right, the Baby Bingo winners went home with these gifts I put together from Bath & Body Works.
The absolutely adorable centerpiece for the head table - such a fun way to bring more "boy" into the shower! The mums Cathy bought were the perfect color, too.
A shot of the lovely ladies - everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Usually people dart out of showers as soon as they can, but everyone stuck around well past the end - it was fabulous!
And now for my labor of love - the vegan cupcakes!! I searched for the perfect recipe and, amazingly enough, found it on the first try. I wrote on each cupcake so they resembled little hostess cupcakes - they not only looked great, but were absolutely delicious to boot! A big thanks to the staff at Vegiterranean for the lovely presentation and to the lovely Lexy for taking the pics :)
A great final shot of all of us - Cathy, Kristen's Mom, Ann, Kristen, my mother-in-law, Carmela, and me!
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