A Shower Fit For an Autumn Princess!

“Babies are a blessing” my mama always says! That’s one of many things she and I agree on whole-heartedly! So when I learned my brother and his wife were expecting a daughter, I jumped at the opportunity to welcome their little blessing with them! A Royal shower was in order, because nothing less than what was fit for a Princess would do! My sister-in-law accepted my offer, and the planning was underway… somehow though, the date of the Royal Party got pushed back to one week before the little princess’s due date. I was nervous about how close the party was, but decided that it was a grand opportunity to play up the Autumn theme! So I set to work.

I shopped my deals and coupons for prizes for games, cardstock and ribbon for cards, labels, and so on. I hit up Michael’s end of summer sale, where everything was 80% off, and purchased decorations, trays, candles and such! Supplementing with a couple 40% off coupons for items that weren’t on sale, I picked up necklaces to honor the Mother and Mother-in-law, and charms for a necklace that was to be for the expectant mama to wear during labor! I sent out my invitations 3 weeks before the party, because I wanted everyone and their neighbor to celebrate this joyous moment of husband and wife becoming a family!!!

It was an hour to midnight, and everything was prepared for a grand occasion! Flowers had been purchased earlier in the day, instruction cards placed in their appropriate spots to guide guests through the activities of the shower, raffle tickets stamped for the diaper raffle, chairs cleaned, cider purchased, furniture moved, a tea tray assembled, disposable eatery bought, themed napkins acquired, autumn apple butter boiled, sieved and jarred, plus two hearty fall soups, whole wheat herbed foccacia bread, tortilla chips and hummus made! I even made the largest ever batch of Molasses Chocolate Almond Meal Cupcakes, that flopped, and we had scurried off for an emergency dessert replacement. Then I happened to check facebook one more time before retiring for the evening…the princess had made her debut!

My heart skipped a beat, and then it skipped two! I was excited for my new niece, Mercedes Ann!!! And then I was troubled by all of the work for a shower doomed to failure at the lack of the guest(s) of honor!

I slept on my worries and excitement, and woke with determination! I could not back down from a shower that was already set with food and everything, from planning and collaboration for months, the culmination of effort would not turn up idle...the shower would go on!

As the guests arrived, they dawned necklaces for the traditional “Don’t Say Baby” game! A total of 4 guests made an appearance, as everyone else had caught wind of the arrival and skipped the shower, but we continued with our laughter and good food!

Despite the dwindling guestlist, the diaper raffle was still a huge success! We tallied up 10 packages of disposable diapers and 6 fuzzibuns cloth diapers for the new little one! Three guests won prizes for their contributions!

We continued on with talk of our own children, designing some quilt squares for her Royal Highness, writing a word on a framed piece of paper of attributes we pray Mercedes will be blessed with as she grows, and filling out return envelopes for thank you cards to help out the new mama.

Because there was no guest of honor to shower with gifts and love, we all took turns picking gifts up off the table and opening what others had brought. Every gift was pictured and recorded so that the new mama would still know who had sent what, but it was so fun to open all the gifts together! The laughter was contagious as we read cards intended for a mother-to-be!

The last piece of the baby welcoming was a lovely charm necklace. I intended to honor both mother and mother-in-law of the guest of honor with their own necklace first; a pendant of 3 rings to represent the generations, but was only able to bestow one...the other would have to be delivered at another time. I found this charm necklace tradition from my mother, and I still have the ones presented to me for the labors of my girls to pass down. The significance of the charm/bead necklace is that every guest brings a charm or bead that represents the child, and in our case, a blessing they would like to bestow upon her. The mother is then to wear the necklace while she labors to be reminded that those people who brought those beads support her, and pray for her in her time of intense, but beautiful pain.

All of these charms and beads were given to the baby’s grandmother, the next of kin at the shower... it was sweet and joyous! Thankfully, we had also thought ahead to write down our blessings on little charm cards for Mercedes to look at as she grows, little did we know we would need them for the mother to know how much she was blessed too!!

We played one last game before the guests journeyed home from my castle--a baby name game, match the name of the animal to the name of it’s youngster! Then I stuffed their pockets with apple butter before sending them on their way!

It was a satire, this party for 4 guests, but thankfully they all appreciated the humor, enjoyed the company nonetheless, and hey! Everyone left with at least one prize if not more!

BUUUUT!!! Speaking of beautiful babes, I know some of you out there have your own, or know someone with little lovelies...AND there is ONE. MORE. WEEK. For the GIVEAWAY!! A cute Babies and Toddlers Wholesome food recipe book! If you want to be entered for a chance to win, please leave a comment below, or private message me. Just a tip on how to stay frugal, or a question on an area you’re struggling with, even just some encouragement! Good Luck!