A Mermaid Baby Shower

A Mermaid Baby Shower

One of my sweet co worker's at Starbuck's is having a baby girl. I asked if I could host a baby shower with her mom. When the guest list grew to almost 90, we decided to have it at a country club, instead of my home. Now, all the food and decorations had to be transported to the new venue. Thanks to dear friends, we were able to get everything there and put into place. I had difficulty finding mermaid stuff, so I stenciled mermaids, fish, starfish and sea shells onto dollies and stuck them onto strings, that hung from an existing valance. I put a blue plastic table cloth over the valance,  (which was rust and gold) and draped it with tulle.  

Now the new mommy loves mermaids, however is not a fan of Disney's Ariel. So, when I went on line to find mermaid "stuff", my choices were small. Everything mermaid goes back to Ariel! I got out my paint brushes and stencils and started to paint.

The above table is the "message in a bottle" table. The clam shell is filled with pre rolled papers, tied with twine. The sign says "Leave a message in a bottle", next to a very pregnant mermaid. The pens for all the tables were rubber "squid" legs! I found them at Party City for $1.98!

I needed to do this on a budget, so the painting worked out great. The decorations were tied together with strings of pearls, melted marbles, sea shells and old candle sticks. I found old netting from my husband's duck hunting days and used plastic table cloths to hide unsightly pictures on the walls or the valance on the top of the 'sign in table'. Blue tulle was on sale for 4 yards for $4.00! The blue runners were $4.99 for 10 yards. 

The "mommy to be" is an amazing baker, so she made a beautiful cake. We had 14 table scapes to decorate, so I put them together (on my living room floor) then put each one into it's own garbage bag so when we arrived at the venue, we could just put them on their own individual table.

I purchased "bubbles" for each table, so everyone enjoyed blowing bubbles, especially the children.

They were .49 cents a bottle.

I was amazed at how much stuff I had in my house that looked like it had been 

dug up from under the sea!

This was the dessert table. Aside from her amazing cake (with a mermaid tail coming up out of the top) there were cookies, chocolate mint popcorn, fruit skewers with fruit dip and the cutest pretzels dipped in blue candy coating with gold fishes stuck into it!

This was the icing on the cake! I painted a 4x4 foot board (from Home Depot, $8.00) of a mermaid, and had my husband cut out the head so people could take pictures. The bottom is an old drop cloth with shells, marbles, a rubber fish and more of the blue table runner/ sparkly mesh stuff. 

The shower came off without a hitch. We had chili, plenty of side dishes, lot's of fruit and veggies and even a platter with "shark teeth" cut out of cheese(s). 

Everyone had a great time, including the hosts, which is often the hardest part!

Now we just wait for the arrival of the baby mermaid, due in November.

:)