Blooming Baby Daisy Themed Shower

When it comes to baby shower invitations, you have three choices - purchase fully customized printed invitations, buy fill-in invitations, or make your own invites. Your choice will be influenced by the size of the shower, your budget and your time constraints.

Personalized invitations such as the A Baby is Blooming shower invitation (also available with an African American baby design) shown in the photograph feature a vellum overlay that is printed with all of the shower details. This type of invitation requires the least amount of time because you simply mail them to recipients after getting them from the printer. However, they will likely cost the most out of the three options.

The second option of purchasing fill-in invites is a more affordable choice. You will need to handwrite all of the shower details inside each one of the invitations so if you are inviting a large number of people, this option could wind up taking a long time and could give you a hand cramp. However most companies that sell tableware, sell the matching invites so that you can give your guests a glimpse of things to come through the invitation that they receive.

The final option is to make the invites yourself. If you are good on a computer, you will likely have a graphics program or a program like Publisher where you can create your own invitations using clip art. This is an affordable option, but it will obviously take time to set-up on the computer. That said, you can choose the fonts and design to tie in perfectly with your shower theme and color scheme. You could also create daisy shaped invitations from cardstock if you have some scrapbooking supplies. You can use stickers such as bees and butterflies to dress the cards up and add your own little clever baby shower saying to the invitations.

The great thing about daisy flowers is that they are super simple to draw and replicate throughout the party decor so you can make all kinds of fun custom decorations for the baby shower. I always like to start with the tableware selection because the rest of the party decor can be done to match the color scheme chosen in the tableware. As you can see in the photo to the right, many companies sell daisy inspired tableware that includes plates, napkins, beverage cups, table covers and more. If you'd prefer to keep it more simple and less expensive, you could simply use a yellow and white gingham tablecloth with simple solid colored yellow and white tableware.

I recommend that you welcome guests to the shower by creating a yard sign or baby shower banner that says "Welcome to [mom's name] Bloomin' Baby Shower". Try to tie it in by drawing or making some paper daisies on the sign. Use streamers and colorful balloons that match the tableware throughout the party area. You can even make some daisy and bee-shaped cut-outs to hang on the walls for indoor parties.

Of course, for the centerpieces, you should have vases full of classic white and yellow or colorful gerbera daisies. I love these yellow and white or yellow and pink vases full of daisies from 1800flowers.com. You can use simple small vases with a single daisy stem throughout the party area. Another fun idea is to pull the petals off of the daisies and sprinkle them on the tablecloth around the food on the buffet table.

For daisy themed showers, I like the idea of utilizing foods that are yellow and white as well as foods that would tie in perfectly with a garden party (e.g. butterfly foods too). Some of my favorite yellow and white foods for showers are deviled eggs, German potato salad, bowtie pasta salad with yellow peppers and white chunks of mozzerella cheese, and egg-salad finger sandwiches (cut-them out with a daisy shaped cookie cutter if you'd like).

Since the shower is for a little girl, you can incorporate some pink into the food as well by creating a fruit tray with strawberries, watermelon, pink lady apples, bananas alongside a strawberry cream cheese and marshmallow cream fruit dip. Strawberry or raspberry jello salads are also an excellent choice.

Pepperidge farms make a line of Golden Butter crackers that are shaped like butterflies so if you are serving cheese and crackers, I highly recommend the butterfly-shaped ones for a garden type party.

For beverages, I think that fresh-squeezed pink or yellow lemonade is the best choice. You can put it in one of those giant beverage jars with a spicket or in a punch bowl. Freeze some wedges or rounds of lemonade to act as ice cubes in the lemonade jar or punch bowl.

For party snacks, place some pink lemonade flavored jelly belly jelly beans or lemon drop candies throughout the shower area.

Finally, make a daisy shaped cake, cupcakes or cut-out cookies for the dessert. Check out some of the fun cake photos below for some inspiration.

Photo Credit: Flickr Mandeye

Here are some baby shower game ideas that go with a garden party or daisy theme....

Don't Say Baby Game - a twist on the classic necklace version of this game. Instead of giving necklaces with beads or pacifiers when they arrive at the shower, give each guest a single daisy stem for them to pin on their clothes like a corsage. If anyone catches them saying the word 'Baby' during the shower, they must give that person their corsage. The person with the most corsages pinned to themselves (the person that caught the most people saying baby) at the end of the shower wins the game.

Guess The Herbs Game - Prior to the shower, either fill 12 small cups with fresh herbs covering each one with foil and poking a small hole in the top so the scent can escape OR cover the outside of dried herb bottles with paper so that you can just leave the herbs in their own bottles (they must be disguised enough so guests can't figure out what is inside just by looking at the bottle). Put a number on the outside of each bottle or cup keeping a master key of what herb is in what numbered cup or bottle. During the shower, give each guest a pencil and paper. Then pass the twelve containers around telling guests to write down what herb was in each numbered container. The guests that gets the most correct wins the game.

Guess How Many Daisies - if you are utilizing a big bouquet of daisies as your shower centerpiece, you could have your guests each guess how many daisies are in the arrangement (let them see it for only a few seconds prior to them making their guesses). The one that is closest without going over wins a prize (like a small vase of daisies).

Name The Flower Game - Buy a dozen or so unique flower stems at your local florist (or pick them out of your garden). Give each stem a number and ask guests to write down the kind of flower that corresponds to each of the 12 numbers. The guest that gets the most correct wins the game.

Classic Baby Shower Games - I have written another lens with a bunch of cheap baby shower game ideas. So check it out for even more great game ideas.

And for some quick printable games, check out this link....

You can find some adorable "A Baby is Blooming" personalized baby shower favors online at shops like Baby Gifts & Gift Baskets. As you can see in the above photograph, items such as custom candy bar wrappers, packets of coffee and lemonade and jars of hand cream can be personalized with the Mom-to-be's name and the shower date. I also love the idea of giving guests an edible favor such as the lollipops shown in the photo or foil-covered daisy-shaped chocolates. Either of these items could be displayed during the shower and then given to guests as they are heading home.

If you are good in the kitchen and are crafty too, making your own baby shower favors can be quite rewarding. Simply bake some sugar cookies using a daisy cookie cutter and decorate them to look like daisies or bake a batch of rice krispie bars putting some yellow and white sprinkles on top of the mixture after you've pressed it into the pan. Cut the bars into square shapes or use a cookie cutter to make daisy shapes. Place the cookies or rice krispie bars in cellophane bags that have a daisy print or make your own paper daisies to embellish clear bags. Tie them closed with a ribbon for an adorable guest favor. I found this photo of rice krispie daisy treats at Onodaware.

Another fun DIY favor idea are daisy flower pens - these can do double duty as decorations or centerpieces by placing some clear marbles or sand in a vase and then arranging the pens that you've made in the vase. Then just tell guests to take one as they are leaving the shower. Check out the following video which shows how to make the flower pens and how to arrange them in little terra cotta pots.

Incorporating some daisies into your baby shower gift is definitely doable with all the flower-themed items that baby retailers are selling these days. Daisy inspired personalized baby bibs, layette sets, and bath time gift sets with a floral pattern are shown in the photograph above.

Gift baskets with a flower theme are also an excellent choice. The one below is available from the Baby Gift Basket Company.

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