Baby in Bloom Philadelphia Baby Shower

My Outfit: Maternity Dress: ASOS, Pumps: Jimmy Choo (Similar), Headband: Amazon
Veer’s Outfit: Shirt: Burberry, Jeans: Macys, Shoes: Ralph Lauren
Husband: Blazer: Nautica, Dress Pants: Express, Shoes: Cole Haan

Today I’m so excited to share with you some photos from my baby shower at The Bellevue Hotel in Philadelphia, PA. It was truly a special day and I feel so grateful to be able to celebrate our baby girl with our closest family and friends.

Since this is our second baby, I did not want to throw a traditional baby shower. My husband and I just wanted to spend time with our family & friends by coming to enjoy, eat, drink and celebrate our Baby Girl. We held our baby shower during the day around brunch time with an open bar, full spread of food, desserts, etc.

Thank you to all our vendors who all did an amazing job:

Venue & Food: The Bellevue Hotel
Backdrop & Balloons: Marsi Events
Cake & Desserts: Kay Kay’s
Photography: Snappr Shoots
Makeup: Debra Alethia
Hair: Rachel Elizabeth Hair

For the theme I opted for “Baby In Bloom” which was perfect for the occassion. The background decor was came out wonderful with two arches and balloons entertwined with flowers with our theme colors pink, cream and white.

For the table centerpieces, we had white and pink florals with pops of greens. I DIY’ed the arrangements by buying florals from Trader Joe’s (hydrangeas, roses and spray roses) and vases from Michael’s. They came out so pretty!

For the cake, our beautiful cake was made by my favorite South Philly bakery, Kay Kay’s. The outside was three different colors in a rosette pattern and the inside was funfetti - not traditional by any means at all but SO good. The cake topper I got made from Etsy.

We opted to not do baby shower games, since I wanted this to feel more of a reception. I had a table set up with Decorate a Block for the Baby and a really cute Guest Book Frame that our guests wrote messages on a heart and put it into the frame. It was such a fun idea and it will look perfect in baby girl’s nursery.

For my outfit I found this beautiful dress from ASOS Maternity. I loved the floral and metallics. I paired the dress with a silver headband from Amazon and Jimmy Choo pumps (mines are old, similar here). I really wanted to feel like a princess!

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How to Host a Virtual Baby Shower

As social distancing has become part of our norm, many mommas to be have gotten creative when it comes to planning a baby shower. I’ve come to accept the reality that nothing is “normal” with this pregnancy and it’s been quite interesting since this is our first! It can be disappointing when you can’t celebrate these milestones with loved ones especially when things are out of your control, but I’m sure we’ve all accepted this new reality of life and new way of living.

We opted to throw a virtual baby shower for our family and it couldn’t have been better. One thing that I did like is that there was family on the virtual baby shower that would maybe not have been able to make it (i.e. living in different states). We kept the event to about an hour which was the perfect length.

Gown: Self Portrait / Heels: JustFab

How to Host a Virtual Baby Shower

1. Select a date, time and host for your virtual baby shower - I had my mom help me with coordinating the baby shower and had ours well in advance of our due date (2 months prior) which I would recommend to all since your baby could come early.

2. Create a baby registry - We created our baby registry with Amazon, Buy Buy Baby, and Pottery Barn. Alot of people also recommended Babylist which allows you to add any item from any store but what I didn’t like is that the purchaser of the gift has to make sure to remember to mark off the item as purchased which is why I kept all three registries separate.

3. Figure out which virtual platform you’ll be using - We used the ZOOM platform since we had about 30 people that RSVP’ed and I like the features that ZOOM offers!

4. Send virtual baby shower invitations - We used EVITE for our virtual invitations since it’s easy to keep track of responses but you could also Email, create a Facebook group, Paperless Post, Minted, etc.

5. Pick a theme and/or decorations - This isn’t necessary and doesn’t have to be over the top, but it gets you in the baby shower spirit. We didn’t have a theme but I throw up a “Welcome” poster, “Baby” balloon and flowers as a backdrop - I went for that greenery/white look with gold. I also dressed up in a beautiful baby blue gown by Self Portrait and did my hair/makeup.

6. Establish an agenda - I created an agenda and also made a powerpoint presentation (my business background kicking in here!). Virtual gatherings can get a little crazy especially when you have alot of people on the baby shower (like I said we had about 30 guests).

7. Pick out 1-2 virtual shower games to play - We played the Price is Right and Mommy vs Daddy game. The Price is Right Game: Take turns guessing how much different types of baby gear costs. Mommy vs Daddy Game: Beforehand ask questions to both Daddy and Mommy and then have your guests guess who said what.

   We also sent out giftcards via mail to each of the game winners!

8. Open up gifts - This is optional and we didn’t choose to do this over Zoom for sake of time and gifts arriving at different times since they were all delivered via mail.

9. Thank you - Make sure to thank all your guests for attending and send a thank you to your guests.

   I linked a few other beautiful baby shower dresses below!

Our Neutral Themed Baby Shower

Today I’m so excited to share with you some photos from my baby shower a little over a week ago at the Moshulu in Philadelphia, PA! It was truly a special day and I feel so grateful to be able to celebrate our baby boy with our closest friends even in the middle of a pandemic! My heart goes out to all the mommas out there who weren’t able to do baby shower - bringing a baby into this world should be a time to celebrate and it’s really unfortunate.

We did do a virtual baby shower for my family the day before our baby shower since my family is in Connecticut and with the pandemic we didn’t think it would be a good idea to have everyone travel to Philadelphia. I will be doing a separate blog post on how to throw a virtual shower next week so keep a lookout for that!

So onto our baby shower. We wanted to switch things up from the traditional baby shower (which can honestly be soo boring)! We just wanted our friends to come, enjoy, eat, drink and celebrate Baby C! We did our baby shower on a Sunday during the day time and it was a brunch event filled with brunch food (I’m still thinking about the french toast and waffles… YUM) and open bar brunch drinks. With the pandemic and the regulations we were lucky to able to find the perfect venue which was at the deck at the Moshulu so everyone was able to socially distance themselves since we had the entire top deck. The weather was luckily on our side and was beautiful even for a fall day in the middle of October!

For the baby shower I opted for a neutral palette so I chose to decorate with white, gold and green. I also wanted to do something different than the traditional blue for baby boy. The colors we picked perfectly complimented the space.

For the table decor we kept things simple with some DIY action! We went to Trader Joes the day before and bought all the white hydrangeas, roses, and eucalyptus we could find. Then in the evening my sister in law came over (and brother and their adorable dog Taco!) and helped put the arrangements together. We put the arrangements on top of gold runners and added a few candles.

This balloon garland was the perfect addition to the space. We used a local Philadelphia vendor Charming Garlands by Ali (Instagram page HERE) and she was more than accommodating and such a pleasure to work with! I sent her a photo of our welcome sign and she took that as the inspiration and created the most beautiful balloon garland structure for our baby shower! They’re also so much fun for photos so they double as a huge decoration and a photo backdrop for you and your guests. I was really happy with the way it turned out and highly recommend them.

The baker at the Moshulu made the cake for us and it came out so pretty! I wanted to keep things simple with a white cake with gold 3D flowers. The cake topper I bought from Etsy from a company called the Lancaster Laser Company.

My Outfit: Dress: ASOS Maternity / Heels: JustFab / Jewelry: Teardrop Earrings
Hubby’s Outfit: Blazer & Shirt: Custom from Indochino / Jeans: Diesel

Since we weren’t doing blue decor I did want to wear blue in honor of Baby Boy. I opted for this sparkly navy maternity dress from ASOS Maternity. The hubby wore a custom jacket paired with dark blue jeans and a pocket square. I love how our outfits complimented each other perfectly!

Here are the vendors we used I highly recommend all of them!

Venue: Moshulu
Food: Moshulu
Cake: Moshulu
Cake Topper: Lancaster Laser Co
Photography: Ryan Jones (Instagram page HERE)
Balloon Decor: Charming Garlands by Ali (Instagram page HERE)
Floral Arrangements: DIY (Flowers from Trader Joe’s)
Table Runners: Amazon
Welcome Sign: Adore Paper Company
My Outfit: ASOS Maternity

Below are some dresses that would be perfect for your baby shower!