I have always been anti-baby shower. Not in the ‘bah-humbug-grinch’ kind of way, more in the ‘it-seems-so-Americanised’ and ‘I-don’t-see-the-point-or-need-in-buying-both-a-baby-shower-gift-and-a-gift-when-the-baby-is-born’ kind of way. Ok, so maybe a bit bah humbug. But don’t get me started on stupid baby food tasting games or nappy changing time trials. This post from Joanna almost changed my mind though – the idea of a collective of womenfolk sharing advice, storytelling of war stories and triumphs, gathering together to celebrate their friend or sister or daughter entering into motherhood – that I could probably do. And not keeping it exclusive to women too, that appealed.
Matt asked me a few months ago if I thought I’d have a baby shower. I said no, well not unless someone really wanted to throw me one, but my closest friends and sisters were pretty much in the same school of thought about baby showers as me. Everyone except my Yankee friend Amy, of course. So she wanted to throw me a baby shower, I said yes hesitantly…and quickly stipulated that it wasn’t to be too-showery, no gifts, no silly games, it was to be just at our home and Matt, our male friends and brothers were to be included. We had been thinking we’d like to have our friends and family over to our new/old home for a collective catch-up since returning home, a housewarming of sorts (but Matt was still refusing to call it such as he thought it ridiculous to ‘warm’ a home we’d already lived in, touche). All this lead to an idea – the concept of celebrating not me in particular, not us becoming parents in particular, but rather celebrating our village. Our wonderful village of close friends and family who are exactly the reason we want to live here, bring our baby home here, raise our family here. Our wonderful village who we know will support us in this pretty momentous stage in our lives. Our wonderful village who have already supplied us with all that we need materially for our soon-to-be baby, and will supply us with all that we need emotionally as we pick our way through the early stages of parenting. Our wonderful village who will help raise our baby.
Yes, let’s celebrate them.
With the concept conceived, I set to work designing some simple invites – I wanted to work with kraft card (my staple papergoods go-to), and had in my mind a colour palette of glittery gold and mint for this soiree – throwing in some peach and navy to balance out the ‘if-it’s-a-girl’ / ‘if-it’s-a-boy’ scenario. I sourced a little ‘village’ illustration, chose my fonts (Antrokas and Brain Flower) and tried to word the invite to correctly convey the kind of gathering we were having. The words ‘Housewarming’ and ‘Baby Shower’ were pretty much vetoed by Matt, but I had to use them unless he could come up with another term (he in fact vetoed the whole idea of invites but I think he’s forgetting who he married!) I did put in ‘House(re)warming’ as I did tend to agree we couldn’t very well have a legitimate housewarming here!
Using some washi tape in gold, mint, peach and navy I wanted to create a bunting across the top of the invites. I punched two holes at the top and threaded through a piece of white embroidery string I had (I measured it to be about three times the width of the invite). After a bit of trial and error I discovered it was much less fiddly to put the tape on before attaching the string, position the string in the middle of a piece of tape (mine were about an inch long) then fold the tape over. Trim a little triangle out of the tape to create a pointed bunting, or you could make triangles, or keep square.
I experimented with both tying and sticking the tape at the back of the invite, deciding that tying was better because the string could still move and I didn’t have to be too pedantic about getting the tape in the dead centre of the string.
Along with the invitations I made little cards, printed on mint card, explaining that we would not like gifts for our home or our baby – ‘our generous village has supplied us with all that we need’. I did however like the idea of receiving books for our baby, you can never have enough books! The book can act as a card with people writing in them, I like the idea of reading the sweet children’s books to our baby one day and knowing who gave them this gift before they were even born and it will keep on giving for years of enjoyment. Books rule! The cards I embellished with some shiny gold dot stickers and more washi tape.
Voila! It takes a village indeed, a village which ought to be celebrated and thanked accordingly, which we plan to do with gusto (and a barbeque and Guinness cake).
Did you have a baby shower?
Got a generous and fabulous ‘village’ too?
Warmed a house twice by any chance?
Melissa says
I am planning on doing a blessing for my son, and I am looking for wording for the invites. What does these invites say? I cant read the font. Sorry.
I really do love the look of the invites.
Elena says
Sorry guys, i wanna know what font is used on the main invitation ! Can u tell me???? thank so much <3
Hawley says
Hi, I found your invites and web page through Pinterest! I would like to know if you could share your invite template. I am going to be a “MiMi” for the first time and I would love to make these for my daughters shower.
Thank You,
Hawley
Stephanie says
love these !!
I’m going to attempt these for my cousins baby shower
Do you know the name of the washi tapes ??
Thank you
Stephanie
Lydia says
Hi Emma,
These are amazing invitations!
Just wondering what program you used to make these? I love this font but I am unable to find a program with this font anywhere.
Thanks
Lydia
Emma says
Hi Lydia – I used Photoshop, as I do for all my design work. But the font I believe was ‘Frenchy’ downloaded from dafont.com. Hope that is helpful 🙂
Jane says
I adore these – thanks so much for sharing! So beautiful!
Can I ask where you got the wee bird images from? There’s loads of similar ones on etsy and istock but these are a bit more delicate and less cartoony than many of them – would love to use them in my invitations if you wouldn’t mind letting me know. Thanks again, Jane
Emma says
Hi Jane – from memory I got these off istock, sorry I don’t have the direct link 🙁
Melanie says
Hi Emma
LOVE LOVE LOVE your decorations ideas it has given me inspiration. Question where did you get your decorations from especially the flag decorations on your invites?
And also what was on your cards that you has set up? The ones i have been able to read are cute.
Hope you can help me out
Melanie
Christina says
Hi there! Love your work, it’s beautiful 🙂 I was wondering where you got the illustration. I would like to buy a PDF of it for my friend’s baby shower! If you would be so kind as to email me or comment with the artist, I would really appreciate it! Thank you!
Emma says
Hi – I bought the illustration from istock.com, hope that’s helpful 🙂
Christina says
That is helpful, and thanks for the quick response!! Your tutorial is very clear and easy to follow, thanks again for putting it up 🙂
Trish Mendoza says
I like the invitation even if it is simple the elegance is still there. Thank you for sharing this one it is a great inspiration.
nicky says
Wow doing 22 invites right now the invite is printed string is cut just putting 4 flags on hmm very hard to line up tape and is taking me 4 min per card very fiddly.
Emma says
Yes I found it fiddly to begin with, but got a bit of a method going and got heaps faster! Just in time to finish. Good luck!
gaby says
i wasn’t into the baby shower idea either, so i had a blessingway. it was wonderful. love your invites!
Rosie says
Yep, I had a lovely afternoon at my sisters place with all my favorite ladies and their little ones. This time, I’m hoping to go out for a grown up dinner towards the end of the pregnancy, just as chance to catch up. It so wasn’t/isn’t about the presents, I just wanted to see everyone and enjoy their company! I also want to have a special dinner with Dave before this little Ozzy arrives, as a chance to connect before we start round 2!
Lisa says
So freaking cute!! I made something similar a couple of weeks ago for my sis-in-law’s kitchen tea, I like yours better though, washi tape? Genius! xx
Jo @Countrylifeexperiment says
We had a baby shower/bbq when we were expecting our first. We invited all our friends, not just females, and had a great time…. since then most friends have done the same.
Elvira says
That’s a lovely idea and those invitations are the sweetest, pretty as a plate!
ayearinmygarden says
Gorgeous!
Justine says
You will be so glad you did this! I wanted a baby shower to be able to gather with the girls for just a little big of hey something incredible is about to happen celebration. I nearly didn’t have one because I was put off by the whole gift thing, I love going to showers & purchasing gifts for the new mum to be but I just wasn’t comfortable receiving gifts. I did the bring a book thing, it was perfect. You can never have too many books & I love how I know who gave each book & it’s so sweet to see our friends & families personality reflected in their book choices for our little man. And he loves all his books.
Invites are gorgeous, you will have such a lovely time x
Reen says
Great idea, Emma, I also think baby showers are not my thang, but live the idea of celebrating your village. THAT is definitely my thing. We moved back to where my hubby grew up so that we could have our village near us, although I miss my Mothers Group friends terribly, they are also my village and it’s incredible how important those other mothers are in the first few years of parenting. The struggles. The tears. The joy. Watching our babies grow (our babies are now 5 years old, some close to turning 6) and turn into remarkable young children. I hope you have a lovely celebration with your nearest and dearest.
kirsty says
Lovely invites! I had a sort of baby shower with one of my kids – a picnic in a park – no presents and definitely no games – but we asked everyone to bring a plate instead. Perfect weather and a very casual, afternoon catching up with folk! Your baby shower/house re-warming sounds great.
Bel says
Such a beautiful idea, and the invites turned out amazingly! I wish I had’ve thought of an idea like this, as I didn’t really want a baby shower with all the gifts, games and being the centre of attention! Can’t wait to see how your day turns out x
Kathy says
Beautiful invites and lovely idea of the village…..Regards Kathy A, Brisbane, Australia
Carlien says
love the invites!
yep, had a baby shower and felt super awkward about it. all these people i love buying me things! though it did end up being an evening spent with my close lady friends, drinking tea and eating cake. it was a lovely evening!
Catherine says
They are absolutely beautiful Emma, the colours and the design just perfect. I did have a baby shower of sorts that I put together…it was more a get together of the favourite women in my life. We also were gifted things like a cot, a bouncenette and other bits and pieces which were well received and used by both of my girls. It sounds like it will be a wonderful gathering and you have a lovely support network around you.
P.S. I adore having books with words written in them by the giver, it always makes me smile when I read books that my girls have received and I see this.
Alli @ Ducks on the Dam says
Stunning invites Emma! Love the idea. The whole thing. You are too clever
sharon says
what a lovely idea, the books. SO many gorgeous books that can be enjoyed for years to come.
LOVE the invites.