My mom was throwing Ginger's shower, and she had the fellowship hall to work with. She has been working on this shower for months, with Linda being her faithful and hard working helper.  By the time I got home to MI, my room looked like a storage closet.

I had done the invites. My mom wanted something antique-y with owls. I came up with these.


With all of the stuff bought for the shower, my job, along with my grandma, Linda and Andrea Thibodeau, was to help set it all up. My mom and I would get up early, head up to the church, and meet the other helpers. Linda was kind enough to keep me fed by bringing me fast food every day (thank you), while my grandma was "okay with a yogurt" and my mom had a "soggy day old Subway sandwich" (yum!).

Even though we spent most of our days hanging IKEA curtains, owls, bunnies, garland, etc., I was spending time with family and friends, so it was a lot of fun. And we knew that we were making it really special for Ginger, so that made it well worth it.

So, the fellowship hall. Here is a before:


And here is an after:


And here are a few shots of what helped it get there.


It was the most gorgeous baby shower I'd ever seen.

We seriously had everything but the kitchen sink up at the church building. Every quilt my mom owns, dishes, trays, etc. The theme was "Out Door Country Picnic". There are a few details that are extra special that I have to point out.
 
The butterfly chandelier above the food table was a favorite. Everyone kept commenting on it. And the pictures really don't do it justice. The little pink and yellow fairies dancing around the chandelier are from Pottery Barn Kids, and the mirror garland was made by my mom.


The table clothes. I remember when my mom found this fabric, she was so excited. My grandma sewed them.


The owls. SO CUTE. My mom took left over fabric from the table clothes and made these. We hung them from the ceiling and they were just adorable!


Here's the crew helping out the morning of the shower. My mom and Linda are donning some awesome smocks which they removed before guests arrived. Suzy is setting up the chocolate covered cherries and gram is helping with sandwiches.


Cathy Allen did all of the flowers. I LOVED this vase of sunflowers and cut up lemons, limes and oranges.


We had little vases of flowers on every table.


The punch table was so cute. To fit the old time-y picnic theme, my mom had bought 100 canning jars to use as punch cups. It looked so chic, I loved it.


The dessert table was, of course, my favorite. These cupcakes were a major hit.


We also had chocolate coconut truffles, sugar cookies, peanut butter fudge (my favorite), chocolate covered cherries, baklava, mocha cookies, cannolis (which went before I got to try one!), Oreo truffles (amazing), short bread and coconut cream tarts.


Each table got to have their name drawn to win a gift. Ginger and Linda wanted to make it special, so they had some adorable Vera Bradley purses to give away. Here is the Vera Bradley table.


Ginger has so much love and support. We had around 100 people turn out. Before we ate, Bev read a really sweet and touching story called "a newborn's conversation with God", which had us all in tears. She also lead us in prayer.


I actually got Ginger's reaction on video. She loved it. The video is below, and I give a really loud and enthusiastic "YEAH!" right towards the beginning. Also, I say "aren't you glad you wore a dress!?" because she was going to wear pants, and the moms (mom and Linda) kept telling me to tell her that once she gets to the shower she will have "wished she had worn a dress". After explaining to my mom that I couldn't command her to wear a dress, I passed this info along to Ginger. And, lo and behold, we found a dress at H&M. One more thing. We were laughing because when she entered there was a huge aisle in front of her. Playing on the speakers was a lullaby version (by Rockabye Baby!) of The Cure's "Friday, I'm in Love", which kind of sounded like something a bride would walk down the aisle to. Hence her pretending she's walking down the aisle at the end.


It really was the most gorgeous baby shower I've ever seen. My mom and Linda worked so hard on it, and I'm so glad I was able to head home to  help out and be there for it! Ginger is like family and I was so glad to be part of it. I cannot wait to meet little Cali Capri and hold her! I know she's going to be so adorable!!!

Here's a pic of my mom and Linda holding up part of the gift that I had given Ginger.