LotusHaus: Tropical Co-Ed Baby Party } Turquoise, Tangerine and Green

Feb 22, 2008

Tropical Co-Ed Baby Party } Turquoise, Tangerine and Green

Oh Boy! Here's a tropical themed co-ed baby shower that I recently put together for my dearest girlfriend. It was held at one of our favorite Latin restaurants, La Casa Del Mojito in the University District. The theme colors were inspired by the sunny, tropical colors of the restaurant...turquoise, yellow, tangerine and green and the motifs were inspired by tropical flowers like the Bird of Paradise. Above are the invitations that I designed. I used Sendomatic's blank evite to send custom digital invitations using my artwork. I printed and assembled just a few invitations to mail to her close friends and family.

I arranged the cafe tables in a U-shape so that my friend could mingle with the guests and easily walk down the aisle with her big belly. Color is very important to every party that I have designed and it was a fun challenge to find flowers and accents that conveyed my theme. The unique table decor that I created involved fresh orchids (from Whole Foods), mums and horsetail (from floral wholesaler). I cut bunches of horsetail and slid silver metal napkin rings (from World Market) onto the ends and inserted orchid and mum blooms. The turquoise mat is a simple foam felt square from a craft store. I wanted the table decor to be long and low to encourage conversation and avoid collisions with the belly (lol!).

Other flowers that I used were Bird of Paradise, Oncidium orchids and tropical foliage from the floral wholesaler. I made one centerpiece for the buffet table and arranged tropical leaves like a table runner.

The menu consisted of tasty treats like Tostones (crispy fried green plantaines topped with garlic cilantro sauce), Pastelitos (Pastries stuffed with savory fillings) and Shrimp Skewers (grilled shrimp with a spicy Jalapeno glaze and pineapple display). For dessert there were fruit and custard tarts from Whole Foods and to wet the whistle there were plenty of mango juice drinks and freshly made Mojitos!

The party favors were delicious lemon poppyseed scones wrapped in tissue, bagged and tied with striped ribbon. They remind me of the stork and baby image!

Since this was a co-ed party, the party games were very guy friendly! The first game was called "Diaper Free Throw." Each fella had 30 seconds to fill a diaper with a handful of candy, wrap it and shoot it into the basket. The guy with the most baskets won a mini champagne bottle and a brick of chocolate.

Another game was called "Celebrity Mini Me." I showed baby photos of celebrities like Usher, Chris Brown and Bow Wow and everyone had to guess who they were. We also played the game of guessing how big around my friend's belly was. However, instead of the usual rope, I showed the guests some cute little baby shoes and they had to guess how many "feet" around she was using the shoes as the measurement.

Lastly, my favorite game was the "Designer Baby Game." My friend is an independent fashion designer so she loved this one - so did all the guests! Each guest was given some play doh and they had to "Design" their own baby. My friend picked the cutest play doh baby and awarded the prize! Everyone was really into it! All in all, it was a fun and sunny day at this Tropical Baby Party!

Joanna Dyckhoff on Feb 22, 2008 in Event Design, Family Fun, My Baby Showers, My Flowers, My Parties | Permalink