Santa Barbara Wedding Photography, Boudoir and Newborn Photography, Timeless, Classic, Melissa Musgrove » Santa Barbara Wedding photographer, Melissa Musgrove captures and creates , timeless photographs with a fresh and modern approach to classic wedding photography.

My niece Kelly is having her first baby, and I was delighted, with the help of my sister Sydney, to throw her a baby shower in my home. She and her husband chose not to find out the sex of the baby, so we didn’t do a pink or blue theme. Since her family and friends are helping to “feather her nest” I thought it would be cute have a bird themed baby shower.

A special thank you to my dear friend Nico for sending over his design team with bird cages, twigs, daffodils, birds nests, faux eggs, white vases and blue mercury glass. Up for an international design award, Nico was in Chicago, but insisted on sending his talented team over to help with the decor.

Kelly with her Grammy and and Mom, Sharon. (My big brother’s wife)

My sister Sydney, made most of the food. Tuna, and ham & cheese wraps, potato salad, deviled eggs (bird theme), chilled green bean vinaigrette . I didn’t have room at my dining room table for everyone, so we wanted mostly finger foods that would be easy to eat off a plate in your lap.

I bought some unpainted wooden bird houses at Michael’s craft store , painted them white, and hot glued them to this twisty branch. (Thank you Tenley for loaning me the branch) It’s been so long since I had a glue gun in my hands. It was fun to be crafty.

I printed the table tent menu cards on my printer and hot glued these cute little nests to each of them.

Kelly and me.

I had the cupcake tree. I bought it at Pottery Barn in Santa Barbara last year. It was perfect to display our dessert. I’ve learned well from my event planner friends to use dessert as one of the key elements in your design. Give it a table of it’s own in an area where it will stand out.

I made chocolate and vanilla cupcakes and frosted them with cream cheese frosting and toasted some coconut to look like a nest. I used Jordan almonds as the bird eggs. Again, Michaels comes through with the grass printed cupcake liners.

Kelly didn’t want to do any shower games. But while we all sat in a circle about to open gifts I asked everyone to make a guess about the sex of the baby. My guess is it’s a boy. I’m sure it will be, because I have ESP.

After the party, on the way out the door, we had pretzels (twigs) for party favors. A little messy to make, but worth the effort. Dip pretzel rods halfway up the pretzel in melted caramel, let cool and dip into melted white chocolate. While wet, roll in chopped peanuts and almonds. You can buy the chocolate for melting and the pretzel bags at Michaels. Another great resource for crafts is Save-on-crafts.com.

I had such a great time planning and enjoying Kelly’s Santa Barbara Baby Shower. Thank you so much to our family that flew in from Philadelphia, and to our local friends that feel like family. We love you all.