ViNtAGe CiRcUs BaBy ShOwEr

I cannot believe it has been over 2 years since I last blogged. Has it really been that long since I had a great party? Well, this past weekend I had the opportunity to host a baby shower for my best friend Amelia. When she announced at a Sunday dinner that she was pregnant I totally burst out crying. I was so incredibly happy and excited for her! It was one of the more embarrassing moments of my life, but I knew right then that I would have to throw her an awesome baby shower.  I then proceeded to beg her to let me host the shower. Once she gave the ok I started brainstorming ideas and came up with the adorable vintage circus theme. Can I just tell you, I love all things vintage and I try to incorporate  it whenever possible. 
As I started planning for this event I began to realize that I had so many ideas that I was going to have to cut corners somewhere. It ended up being in the invitations. Normally I would make them myself but I found some adorable ones on Etsy. Here I seriously love how they turned out!

 I then set about intensely searching Pinterest and the internet in order to get all the details right. I cannot lie, I feel that this shower turned out great. 
Here is an over all view of the space. My wonderful parents allowed me to host the baby shower in their amazing backyard. I am SUPER grateful for this.  Also, can I tell you how excited I was to be able to use two of the sets of chairs I have refinished? Super excited!

While searching for centerpiece ideas I came across pictures of antique circus posters. I LOVED THEM! So, I decided to print some and frame them. They were one of my favorite parts.  And of course who doesn't love fresh flowers?  

Each table had a cute baby animal matching game, which was actually kind of hard, and the thank you gifts. Thanks to the NICU, where I work, I was able to repurpose some adorable glass bottles. I glued some small plastic animals to the lids and spray painted them a glitter gold. I then filled them with some candy. I think they turned out pretty adorable. 

Ok so I was able to get these marquee letters at Michaels during a major sale. They stand up but I realized that I would have no place to stand them up, so I enlisted my husband.  He, by the way, was my muscle behind this project. Not only did he come up with a great sign idea for me to hang the letters on, but he lugged all the tables, chairs, and canopies out of trucks and up stairs and around the yard and you get the picture. HE IS AMAZING! Any way, I think the marquee letters really made it all come together. 

And I threw in an extra pic of the french macarons because they are gorgeous!

Now, I am not a huge baby shower game supporter, but I realize that people need something to do and games that don't require too much embarrassment are ok. So amongst the baby animal matching game we had a diaper raffle, because you really cannot have too many diapers, and a headband making station. I made a few example headbands ahead of time and I can tell you that they are SO much fun to make. I probably could have kept making them all night. It was a great interactive activity to have. The only down side is that I totally forgot to take pictures of the completed headbands hanging on the stand. 

Over all I think this was a fun and successful shower. 
Now, here are some horribly candid photos of the party goers. Thanks mom for remembering to take pictures of people!

Amelia, I just adore you and I am super excited for your baby girl! Thank you for letting me be your friend!