I love planning parties! Especially ones that I have total control over, like my sister’s baby shower. This is the second baby shower I am throwing for my sister, but it is “twice” as special because she is having TWINS! My cutie pie niece will have a brother and a sister. Such a lucky girl.
If you’ve never planned a shower before, hopefully this will help you get started.
Step 1: The Timeline.
My sister is due at the beginning of January, but with the holidays, birthdays, and family vacations to work around, we decided on the end of November. You want to make sure your guest of honor will be comfortable enough to attend the shower.
Step 2: The Guest List.
Knowing that the guest list would not change much from the previous shower, I knew this would be an intimate gathering with family and a few close friends.
Step 3: Check out the Venue and Menu.
I’ve been to Tango Contemporary Cafe a couple of times, but never for brunch so we made a reservation to try out their menu and to get a visual of the restaurant. I wanted to see what our table layout would be like so I could brainstorm some ideas for centerpieces. I also inquired about bringing in an outside cake. Their desserts roughly average about $6.50 each, but only charge $1 per person (minimum $10) for the outside cake fee.
Step 4: Prepare the Invites.
My most favorite website to use for invitations is tinyprints.com or if it is for something very specific, I will run a search on etsy. I found the perfect twin hearts invitation on tinyprints.com. Note that Costco members save 20% off all order and receive free shipping for order over $59! Just order through the Costco website. Tiny Prints offers their own discounts so be sure to subscribe to their email list.
I usually order the invitations about 1-2 weeks before I need to mail them out, which in this case would be mid-October, about 6 weeks before the shower. I set the RSVP date about 4 weeks before the shower, giving guests two weeks to respond. Don’t forget to include the registry information.
Step 5: Pick Your Theme.
Once I picked the invite, I decided to use it as the theme which was perfect for twins: two hearts, one pink and one blue.
Step 6: Plan your Favors.
I have some really talented friends. Karin McCauley, owner of Kahala Cakery (https://www.facebook.com/Kahalacakery), makes the most amazing macarons in the most incredible shapes! From pandas to mermaids, she can do it all. I decided I wanted a pair of heart shaped macarons, one pink and one blue. Karin charges $1.25 for mini macarons, $2 for regular macarons and $3 for custom shapes. In addition to macarons, she can provide cake pops, cupcakes, custom cakes and sugar cookies for your special event.
Step 7: Plan your Centerpieces.
My sister and I both love flowers so I always go with floral centerpieces. Knowing that the tables would be long tables, I ordered 2 arrangements. Since there’s more than one centerpiece, I plan on giving them to my sister and my mother.
Although I love flowers, ordering them always seems like a daunting task to me and when I communicate with florists I get intimidated because I don’t really know what to ask for in an arrangement. Flowers by Carole is located in Aiea and open 7 days a week and what I found helpful was her gallery of preset arrangements on her website. After looking at all the arrangements, I asked her to customize an arrangement featuring green cymbidium orchids and spider chrysanthemums with hot pink roses. I realized too late that my arrangements didn’t include the orchids as originally planned, but I still thought they were very pretty.
Step 8: Order the Cake.
Since our guest list was only about a dozen, I decided against a custom cake and to keep it simple. I searched on Yelp and found Elvin’s, a small bakery in Kalihi. Their chocolate dream cake was amazing! It was light and airy and delicious! The best part was that an 8 inch round was reasonably priced at $30.
Step 9: Plan your Games and Prizes.
When my friend posted a picture of her eos collection of lip balms, with the two newest additions being pink and blue swirls, it ran perfect with my pink and blue twins theme and I knew I had to get some for prizes. I delegated the games to my sister’s best friend and she came up with two paper games. The first game had players unscrambling common baby words that in turn used letters that unscrambled into the twins’ names. Very clever! The second game had us matching popular baby items with their prices. Both games got the guests thinking and were very fun.
Step 10: Pick out a gift.
At this point, I was all tuckered out from all the planning so I took the easy way out and got her a Target gift card so she could pick up the remaining items left on her registry…and with a baby (especially twins), you can never have enough diapers.
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