REAL PARTIES: Oh Boy! Gumball Shower

This next Real Party is a colorful “Oh Boy! Baby Shower” from Ebony Sparkes, featuring fun details like gumball-filled vases and an adorable plush-lion-topped diaper cake. Read on for all the sweet details, as told by Ebony herself…

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“My friend Nicole and I were so excited to plan this baby shower for our dear friend Torrie.   Planning this shower was an absolute joy for us, as Torrie has always been a great friend.  She gave us complete range to do whatever we wanted and “Oh Boy” did we ever!

We were inspired by Amy’s “Oh Baby” baby shower right here from the HWTM and added our own special touches, so we came up with the “Oh Boy Gumball Shower” theme.

The welcome table was decorated with a diaper cake that I made using the instructions found here on HWTM blog.

We added some bling to the table by adding crystals along with bright fresh flowers, in beautiful mint julep cups.

Guest could also make a scrapbook page for the parents album, sign the Piggy Bank and complete a label for the baby’s book club!

I made the invitation (pictured at top) using Adobe Photoshop and applied a cute pregnant diva stamp from Stamping Bella.  Torrie had not seen the invitation prior to the shower, so we framed it as a keep sake for her.

For the venue, we selected a beautiful art gallery in a community center that featured children’s artwork displayed on the walls. This gave us a great background for the shower and beautiful high ceilings.

The centerpieces were tall clear vases (about 17″) with transparent dots on them from IKEA.  We filled them with literally hundreds of gumballs that we ordered from Sam’s club.  Atop the gumballs we added beautiful fresh flowers for additional color.

We really wanted to incorporate Torrie’s favorite color orange, so we used bright orange table linens.  We added turquoise 12x 12 scrapbook paper for the place setting.  We made custom napkins rings with ribbon from our local craft store (A.C. Moore) and cut circles out of colored paper and stamped “Oh Boy” on them.

In keeping with the theme, the favor was a turquoise miniature gum ball machine, wrapped with orange ribbon and hang tag (see 2nd image, above)! They were a big hit.

The cake table was adorned with all things orange, brown and turquoise. There were treat bags, cupcakes, and edible arrangements (with fresh fruit).

Here is mommy-to-be on the left with the two hostesses (Nicole and Ebony on the right) that were both expecting by the time the shower took place.

Special thanks to Torrie for allowing us to share is the beautiful event, and we were all so excited when Baby Jayden made his appearance!”