Ghanian & Sierra Leone Baby Shower with a Royal Roman Theme

This week my dear friend Meemee gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. His name is Roman....and he is absolutely beautiful..but let me back track for a minute. Meemee is one of my closest friends. She is more like a sister. We have been friends since high school. Although we live hours a part, we still try and play an active role in each others lives.

So when she told me she was with child, and wanted me to help with her shower, I was beside myself. Meemee is one of the sweetest, most intelligent, most beautiful women I know. And now she is a mother. Oh the joy!

Meemee and her fiancé Baff have been together since college. Now they have a beautiful family and I couldn't be more happy for them.

But let me tell you about the Baby Shower! Meemee and Baff threw, by far, the best Baby Shower I have ever been to in life. Meemee's family hails from Sierra Leone and Baff's from Ghana. Bringing the two African cultures together was simply amazing. From the music, to the food, to the décor, to the fashion it was just fabulous.

The dance floor was packed all night long. So many different generations of African culture filled the room. It was definitely a night to remember. You really just had to be there, but since you weren't I've attached some photos below for your viewing. Do swoon :)

By the way I did not plan this event but I did provide some décor services, to include the dessert table, and I designed the card box and guest book as well. (go me)

The dessert/cake table

The young kings cake

Loved this!

Table toppers

The Card Box made by your truly :)

Just some of the amazing food that was served!

The hostesses and Meemee

The Fellas

Family

Oh Yea!

Just a few of the queens who were in attendance

More dancing :)

The lovely couple 

In case you didn't know, when men attend baby showers alone...they bring diapers

Hope you enjoyed, do come again :)

Jungle Themed Baby Shower

There is nothing more precious in this world than life. I absolutely love coordinating showers for parents to be. A lot of people think a baby shower is just a way for new parents to be showered with gifts for their unborn child, but they are so much more than that. A baby shower is an opportunity for parents to be to share their excitement and enthusiasm about being new parents, with all of their close friends, relatives, coworkers, etc. It is also an opportunity for them to get great parenting advice, and most importantly to celebrate this great new thing called parenthood.

When I was approached about this baby shower, I was super excited. I had never done a jungle themed baby shower. I went to party city to search for decoration after many hours of rummaging through Pinterest, my go to inspiration gatherer. To my surprise, jungle themed baby showers were very popular as there was a hole section in Party City devoted to it. There were banners, lanterns, favors, napkins, the whole shebang, all adorned with baby jungle animals in pastel shades of blue, green, yellow, and pink. They even had jungle themed baby shower games which I did grab.

However, the other items were a little too generic for me. Anybody can go to a party store, purchase a bunch of decorations, and put them out for a party. As a professional event planner I pride myself in being able to create decorative displays from scratch and creating unique events for my clients.

So I decided to create an entire jungle themed display using cardboard boxes, wrapping paper, and other crafts I had around the house, in an effort to keep the budget down.

1. The Food, Favor and Dessert Displays
For the food favor and dessert displays I used recycled card board boxes (shoe boxes, food boxes etc.), and covered them in wrapping paper from the dollar store, and zebra print ribbon from Michaels. The tree poles are wrapping paper poles with small paper plates stapled to them. I then cut out leaves from construction paper and stapled them to the plates.

2. For the cheese and veggie kebabs, I purchased the kebab sticks at Party City and added cubed cucumbers, cheese cubes, and baby tomatoes. I wrapped an eco foam block, I purchase from Walmart, with the wrapping paper mentioned above and the kebabs stuck in perfectly.

3. To create the favors I purchased a case of mini brownies from Walmart and stuck birch designed straws I found at Party City, in them. I than wrapped them in favor bags also purchased from Walmart for, and lastly I tied them with balloon ribbon purchased from Party City for 34 cent.

4. As for the cupcakes; they were both purchased at Walmart. The large ones were around $13 for a dozen, and the smaller ones were on sale for a little less than $5. I purchased the "It's a boy" lollipops from Party City for $10 and they came with the printed stickers that read "It's a boy" and "Thank You".

5. The card box was purchased at Michaels Arts and Crafts  and I decorated it with craft paper and stickers also from Michaels. I sliced an opening in the top for cards to easily be slipped in to. I love making custom card boxes. It's a small token of appreciation to my clients for choosing me to coordinate their event.

6. The mini salsa cups were purchased at Party City. I had them filled with pico de gallo, salsa, and sour cream. I purchased tortilla chips to go with them.

7. The panda plates, which are a little outside of the jungle theme lol, were purchased at dollar tree along with the cups and napkins. I used old zebra printed fabric I had around the house, to secure the napkins.

8. The streamers are plain green streamers with leafs made from craft paper stapled to them, and the animal print flag was also made from craft paper and ribbon all purchased at Michaels and Walmart.

I had an amazing time putting it all together and it turned out better than I could have ever imagined. The expecting couple had a wonderful time and loved the decorations and games. This was a very successful event that I am very proud of! Until next time!

Jackie