When we first found out we were having a boy, I cried. Bad ugly crocodile tears. I thought my husband made a mistake reading the email. But after I recovered and realized a boy was exactly what our family needed, I knew that I had to have a girly baby shower before I committed to a life of Spider-Man and dinosaur parties.

The thought of flowers and hues of pinks excited me, so a “Baby in Bloom” was the perfect theme.

My dad had made an amazing arch for my bridal shower the year prior, so I always try to repurpose it for events. We stained it a dark walnut and stapled sheer white curtains on the backside to drape the sides. To hang the florals, I used clear stretchy jewelry elastic. This worked better than fishing line because of its ability to be tied into stronghold knots. Since I was using fake florals for the arrangements, I just bought an extra bunch of each of the different colors, sticking with only the smaller flowered ones. The majority of the florals, when picked off of the stem, had a hole through the middle, so I was able to string the elastic, and then tie a loose knot around itself to hold in place. The dangling flowers had a beautiful effect in the wind and surprisingly did not tangle. The backdrop was exactly what I envisioned.

Since I did use a majority of fake florals, to bring some life in to the tablescape, we picked up some fresh eucalyptus and other greenery to line the table. I love doing this combination because it allows me to make the arrangements of head of time and focus on other areas the day of a party, but still having that freshness mixed in.

The majority of table linens, as always, are from Tablecloths Factory, including the backdrop curtains, charger plates, and easel for the welcome sign. Pretty much anything you need to host a party, they will have. The only thing I didn’t order from them were the napkins. They didn’t have the perfect mustard color I was looking for, so I did buy those on Amazon.

As for table and chair rentals, we used Ricky’s Party Rentals. They have such a great variety, and I was finally able to use the ghost chairs I had been dying to use at our wedding. I was so sad when I found out how much they cost per chair for our wedding. And there was no way I was walking around all night making sure people noticed them to try and justify the cost. They also have a great variety of tableware, so we were able to rent gorgeous goblets for the place settings too.

Food is my one great downfall when hosting, but luckily, there are so many great options out there. We had Crepes Bonaparte come cater and make fresh crêpes for all the guests. They even had a coffee bar with a variety of syrups. Everything was so delicious.

All the little details came together so perfectly and created such a girly brunch to celebrate my new chapter as a boy mama — the craziest adventure yet.