Our Co-ed Garden Party Baby Shower

on me : Asos dress (altered, availble in regular & tall), Steve Madden shoes

on Darren: Charles Tyrwhitt, Allen Edmond shoes, Ted Baker bowtie, Club Room suspenders, J.Crew pants

Hi everyone!  We're excited to finally share our co-ed garden themed baby shower.  As this is our first child I wanted Darren to be a part of the celebration and join in on the fun. We had an outdoor wedding and loved it so much we wanted the same atmosphere for the baby shower.  I started planning months in advance even before we found out the gender of the baby. Naturally I gravitate towards all things pink and feminine and a part of me was secretly hoping for a girl.  Come to find out we're having a baby boy so I had to switch gears and started adding more blue to keep the decor from being too girly.

I have attended several baby showers and they sometimes can be a little drab so it was important for us to keep our guests entertained. With a garden themed shower a flower crown station was a must. The onesie cookie decorating station was a Pinterest find, how cute is this tie-dye cookie design?!

I'm not a big fan of traditional baby shower games but was convinced by friends to have some anyways. A big hit was the egg cracking game where an egg is tied around your waist while you and a partner try to be the first to crack both your egg and your partners.  With hands behind your back the only thing you can do is thrust! Traditionally played with an egg and eggplant but we kept it PG and used two eggs instead. Another hit was pin the eggplant on the baby, a fun twist on Pin the Tail on the Donkey (which I haven't played since a childhood) but it's way harder than it looks.

Venue: Queset House at the Ames Free Library 

Stationary: Ever After Papier 

Flowers, flower wall, baby poster, table runner: DIY

Flatware: Amazon

A view from above

on me: dress: Asos | hat: J.Crew | on Darren : Frank & Oak sweater & shorts | Sperry shoes

Photos by Maitha Lunde

Hi everyone! As promised here's the second look from our maternity shoot in Positano. The yellow maxi dress is one of my favorites, it's regular sizing but maternity friendly. Yellow is sold out but still available in blue! I'm currently 39 weeks and anxiously waiting for  our baby boy's big debut. Hopefully soon because he's now the size of a watermelon and that's no fun to carry around!

Sunrise maternity shoot in Positano, Italy

Back in May, Darren and I went on our babymoon in the Amalfi coast and had our maternity photos taken at sunrise in Positano. While planning for the trip we had a tough time deciding when the best time was for us to go. After some research we found that recommendations for traveling were best during the second trimester into the beginning of the third. Personally, I wanted to wait for the bump to get a tad bigger for photos but Darren worried that the further along I got, the more strenuous it would be on my body and I'm glad I listened to him.  I was 25 weeks going on 26 and was still able to walk and sight seen comfortably but had we waited, walking would have been a challenge as we did a lot of that!

On me: dress - my own design. On Darren: Saks Fifth suit, Charles Tyrwhitt shirt, Ted Baker bowtie, Allen Edmonds shoes

Photos by Maitha Lunde

At the time we hadn't revealed the gender of the baby but I chose to wear a blue dress as a subtle hint for when we shared our photos. Being the procrastinator that I am, I made the dress one week before the trip and it nearly drove me crazy as I worked on it day in day out! We did two looks and can't wait to share the second look on the next blog post! Stay tuned!