Oh, Baby!
I love hosting baby showers at Tarenbee. What a beautiful celebration of a miracle. We have helped create a variety of baby showers over the years and I want to share some creative ideas with anyone who’s planning one. I will include some links for you to click through this post if you want to shop.
This particular post will cover a popular theme revolving around honeybees. I’m also a beekeeper so this theme is near and dear to my heart (We have several other themes that I will show you in future posts). You don’t *have* to have a theme for your shower but most guests expect it. It gives them something to look forward to, lets them know you’re putting a lot of effort into the party, gives them something to talk about at the shower, and makes your event more memorable.
In my experience at Tarenbee I’ve seen a lot of showers done right and a lot of showers that could have been better. Sometimes the decorating ideas that people have in their head don’t turn out like they planned. The decoration styles don’t coordinate, there’s no focal point, the pictures don’t turn out, so the whole shower feels off.
Here are my thoughts and suggestions for a honeybee themed baby shower.
Title and Invitations
Picking a title gives everyone who’s helping with the shower a focus which is helpful because there’s a lot of work to do. It’s also important to have the idea nailed down before you send out invitations.
All of our honeybee-themed baby showers have a title:
“Baby-to-Bee”,
“Mommy to Bee”,
“What’s the Baby Going to Bee?”,
“Our Honey is on the Way”,
“Oh, Babee!”
“Sweet As Can Bee”.
You should include your shower’s theme on the invitation. This will let your guests know that you’ve put some thought and effort into the shower and it’s going to be an organized party they won’t want to miss. Invitations should be sent out four to six weeks before the shower. The invitations should include the date, location, start time, end time, gift registry, RSVP deadline and an address to respond. It’s always fun to get a paper invitation in the mail but an email invitation is okay, too.
If you’re serving food you should ask if there are any food allergies you need to know about. Many people are allergic to milk, cheese, nuts, shellfish and mushrooms. You’d feel bad if all of your dishes included cheese and a lactose intolerant guest had nothing to eat.
Click here for some cute invitation ideas
OVERALL DECOR
This can be both fun and frustrating.
It’s easy to go overboard with this theme but I just want to point out too many honeybees are annoying. Just because your theme includes adorable honeybees doesn’t mean everything you put out has to have a bee on it.
Include things that are “honeybee adjacent”. For instance, honeybees love flowers! They especially love sunflowers and lavender and alliums so consider using those flowers in a centerpiece or on the buffet. Honeybees make beeswax so think about including lotions or lip balm or candles. Honey jars and honey droppers are also great additions!
Also, a little sparkle adds a special touch so consider using candles. Some venues only allow battery powered votives which still look good or you can use a string of battery powered string lights to add to the ambiance. Those lights will also give a nice glow to the honey.
The honeybee color yellow can be tricky. I like to look for a buttery, pale yellow (vintage yellow) Too much yellow gold isn’t flattering next to most skin tones and that’s not great for your photos.
You should mix-in soft colors of yellow with some other colors. This is easy to do if you think about flowers that honeybees love. Forest green, sage green, lavender purple and blue alliums are great additions. When you tone down all the yellow it will make the yellow you use stand out even more.
FAVORS
You might guess honey is my top choice for favors. Contact a local beekeeper and ask for 2.5 ounce jars of honey for each guest. They should cost you no more than $5 a jar. I don’t recommend you try to fill bottles of honey yourself; you’ll end up with a sticky mess. Local honey adds a personal touch but you can always order the small jars on Amazon. Honey looks so pretty on the table because it sort of glows… especially if you add some string lights or votives nearby.
But there are other options for favors instead of or in addition to honey — Beeswax lotions and lip balms coordinate well with this theme. How about this adorable beehive beeswax candle?
Another fun idea is to give out a packet of flower seeds as a thank you. I think many of you would give out a few of these things as favors and so you'll need a carry out box for your guests.
I'll include a link to some cute empty honey jars that come with cute honey stirrer and honeybee. But since I don’t I recommend you try to fill these yourself with honey you could fill these with jellybeans or candy.
Honey jars $2.50 - $5.00 each
Beeswax lotion $10 each
Beeswax lip balm $9.48 for four
Flower seed packet $1.00 each
Beeswax candle $2.50 each
Empty jars $1.60
TABLECLOTHS
Tablecloths that are too busy take away from the table setting. If you want to use a tablecloth with a busy pattern just don’t plan on putting out too make decorations on that table.
Since your bees and flowers are yellow don’t use a yellow tablecloth or everything will blend in too much. A burlap tan tablecloth goes well with a casual shower or consider a green tablecloth or white for the dining tables. The solid color will be a much-needed contrast and help emphasize the pops of yellow.
Tablecloths are expensive and so you should search around for something you already have. If you’re at a restaurant or venue you can use one of theirs. You can always buy something to add a special touch to the dessert table or a runner for the buffet table.
Square burlap overlay $11.49 (60”x60”)
Rectangle burlap tablecloth $20.59 (60” x 102”)
Forest green rectangle tablecloth $29.99 (55” x 70”)
Honeybee table runner $22.26 (18” x 72” there are other sizes as well)
PHOTO OPPS (CHAIR, BACKDROP AND DESSERT TABLE)
You need to concentrate on two focal points: where the mommy-to-be will open her gifts and the dessert table. While everything is important these are the two places that will be photographed the most.
CHAIR
For the gift opening focal point I suggest a chair with a high back that can be decorated enough to be seen in the photos. If you use a normal dining chair you probably won’t be able to see the decorations in photos. A wicker “peacock chair” works well. Don’t forget to consider outdoor chairs that might work well for you, too.
BACKDROP BEHIND THE CHAIR
You’ll also want to consider a backdrop. (If you have the mom-to-be sit in front of a window or glass door it will be more difficult to see her face because the background will be too bright) A popular option is an arch where you can attach balloons, flowers, and/or a sign. Make sure you have zip ties, tape, clips or chains to attach what you need. Most venues will not allow you to tape anything to the walls so you’ll need to make plans for this. Venues don’t allow helium balloons either (too hard to get off the ceiling in time for the next event) but air-filled balloons are great. The $20 you spend on an air machine will save you a headache from blowing up 150 balloons under a deadline.
Large arch $68 (I have this one 9 1/2 feet)
REGULAR ARCH $50 (6 1/2 feet tall)
I allow guests to use what I already have at Tarenbee (they have to do the balloons themselves HA!) so ask your venue if they have something you can use before you buy an arch or a photography background stand.
When guests arrive it is nice to get a picture of them standing by the mom-to-be so she can show off her belly in the photo. Check to see what looks best: have them stand right in front of the backdrop and then compare that to a shot of them stepping forward about six or eight feet in front of it. The size of what you’ve created will determine which option looks best. But also remember the shot should be the most flattering for the mom to be and not the background because she’s the star of this show!
Here are some options of things to hang from your backdrop:
MOMMY TO BEE BANNER = mommy to bee = $8.99
LARGE BACKDROP Mommy to Bee $17.14
Oh Babee large backdrop $8.99
(You’ll need something to attach this to because venues don’t allow you to fix anything to the walls) .
TABLE CENTERPIECE IDEAS
There are so many options for centerpieces with this theme and I love all of them: Flowers , and old fashioned bee skep, cupcakes, small cakes, jars of honey, tea pots…. I’m sure you can think of even more.
Let’s start with flowers. Honeybees love flowers and sunflowers are always a good centerpiece option for this theme. Lavender and alliums are wonderful for bringing in some extra colors. Sunflowers also come in a variety of colors if you need to avoid too much yellow.
I’ve had great luck with getting a big bunch of artificial flowers like this and cutting each flower off the stem and putting into small vases. All you need is a pair of floral wire cutters.
An old fashioned honeybee skep is super cute but it can get expensive so look up a skep craft project and have fun. Some of my guests have done a fabulous job with this project.
Consider having cupcakes or small individual table cakes decorated by a bakery with honeybee themes as your centerpieces. That two-for-one idea will save you money.
I will link some great little vases that I use often. I normally bunch up a few of these in the center of each table with one or two flowers in each of them. They come in clear, green and a rose color and the colors look good mixed up.
If you have honey as favors consider arraigning the jars in the center of the table with some lights to backlight the honey so the jars will glow. Battery powered votives are nice or battery powered string lights.
String lights are a fun touch on the dining tables as well as the buffet table and part of the backdrop. There are adorable honeybee string lights to go with your theme but if you have some Christmas lights check to see if they would work. I recommend you go with battery powered lights because electric lights make it difficult to have the cord hanging off the table to plug in.
You know what goes great with honey? Tea! Consider making tea pots the centerpiece and have tea cups an a variety of tea bags at each plate and maybe even add some cute honey dippers. Then add a honey spoon stirrer beside each cup for an extra sweet touch.
Small vases $35.98 for ten vases
HONEY DIPPERS $.30 each
Honey spoon stirrers $3.29 each
Multi colored sunflowers $14.99
Bunch of sunflowers $8.99
Honeybee string lights($9.99)
BALLOONS
If you want to use balloons to decorate I suggest staying away from too much bright gold yellow and looking for buttery yellow and white. Again, the $20 investment in a balloon air machine to inflate your balloons is worth it.
balloons yellow and white $27.00 for 100 balloons
balloons yellow gold and white $9.99 for 112 balloons
MOMMY TO BE SASH AND TIARA
To make the guest of honor feel even more special you can honor her with a sash and honeybee tiara that go with your theme!
Sash $9.99
Tiara $15.99
(I’m covering shower games in an upcoming post so stay tuned!)