Shower – Snapshots & My Thoughts by Ailee Petrovic

Baby December 4, 2016

Destiny’s Baby Sprinkle

Yesterday, I threw one of my best friends, Destiny, a baby sprinkle to celebrate the impending arrival of her sweet baby girl (and also her 25th birthday!). The shower was at Sweet Paris’ CityCentre location, and despite the weather outside being frightful, the atmosphere inside was seriously delightful (ode to one of my favorite Christmas carols). Destiny’s mom flew in from Las Vegas for the shower, and it was so nice getting to celebrate with Baby Thompson’s Nana there too!

We ate crêpes, decorated cupcakes, guessed Baby T’s arrival date, took photos in front of the sprinkle backdrop, watched as Destiny opened one adorable baby item after another, and had wonderful conversations amongst old and new friends. I love baby showers!

Destiny and I met last summer and quickly became good friends. We both have 2.5 year olds, Truman and Isla, who are also best friends, and I love seeing them together, as Isla always lights up when she sees her pal. Destiny is one of the most sweet, considerate, and thoughtful people I’ve ever met, and we wanted to show her how loved and appreciated she is. The group of ladies at the shower definitely filled the room up!

There were a lot of talented ladies who helped me pull off the sprinkle, and I’ll start with the invitations, which were created by Papellerie (the same gals who did our wedding suite and Isla’s birthday invitations). I am thrilled with how they turned out – they have sprinkles in them (see video on my Instagram here).

The gorgeous wedding cake was made by Lisa of Maple & Love, whom gave me all of our incredible travel suggestions when we went to Melbourne. It was a lemon and strawberry cake, and although I don’t eat eggs, I did totally get a bite of the icing – glad I did!

My Cricut got a good workout, as I used it to create the bottle shapes for the Eos party favors, the ‘Guess Baby Thompson’s Birth Date’ activity and the vinyl shapes for the mylar balloons. I left the heavy duty laser cutting to Monica of Paper Flour Ink, who made wooden boards reading Oh Baby Girl that she covered in sprinkle paper. She is the best!

At a recent party I co-hosted, one of the other gals suggested we order thank you cards and pre-address/stamp the envelopes to help the mama-to-be, and I thought this was such a great idea, so I ordered pretty pink and gold thank you cards from Tiny Prints. I also ordered customized mug from Tiny Prints that read, “Sugar, spice, all things nice – that’s what Baby Thompson is made of” for the tea and coffee. Side note: I’m also obsessing over their gorgeous Holiday cards. We’ve gotten a few in the mail that are Tiny Prints, and I love them!!

My amazing friend Amanda baked cupcakes that were at each place setting, surrounded by colorful sprinkles from Layer Cake Shop. Guests got to decorate them as they wanted, then take them home (because crêpes and cakes made for fully tummies!) in boxes, which had customized birthday stickers, also from Tiny Prints.

Meredith, the queen of creativity (hello invitation stylist!), helped me to blow up and stick all of the confetti-shaped balloons to the backdrop, which my wonderful mom sewed (Sasha DIYed the PVC pipe stand and Amanda sanded it down! Talk about a team effort!).

I am seriously so excited to meet sweet baby Thompson. Our oldest babes are already best friends and I know that she and Emi will follow in their siblings/mom’s footsteps. It was such a joyful shower, and I would love to re-live it all over again. She deserves all of the love and attention, as she is one of the most selfless people I know. February cannot come soon enough!

DIY September 17, 2014

DIY: Floral Crown

I seriously, seriously love floral crowns. They are perfect for weddings, wedding showers, maternity shoots, baby showers, newborn photos or just because! I have made suggestions on outfits with which you can style a beautiful floral crown at the bottom of this post.

Ever since I started my Floral Arranging 101 class, I’ve been motivated to create my own. I have read a number of DIYs (like this, this and this), and decided to give it a try! At first, I thought about doing a little one for Isla (she’s already worn this one in her newborn photos), but decided to do an adult-sized one and I’m so glad I did! I will admit that this DIY is perhaps not the most technical (as I use a hot glue gun, which would make many florists cringe!), but it works! Read the process below:

I went to the grocery store and picked up some cremones and carnations. Then I went to my front yard and cut down some foliage for fillers – you can also find these in the floral department of your local grocery store.
I cut all of the flowers so that they had 2-3 inch stems and then laid everything out on the island and placed it in the order I wanted for the crown.
I took an 18 gauge floral wire and bent one end about half an inch from the end and thread one of the carnations through – it is important to use a thick stem flower versus a piece of foliage at the end.
I then began to add the flowers and foliage by wrapping floral tape around the base and the floral gauge – laying the pieces along the length of the wire. When I got to a carnation or a cremone, I would take the wire through the stem of the flower versus the side layering technique.
Tip: As mentioned earlier, I also used a hot glue gun to secure some of the floral tape to the wire, and in some instances, to glue the bushy leaves to the wire.
When I finished filling the floral wire with flowers, I cut two pieces of cream ribbon 7 inches in length. Put a dot of hot glue on one end of each strand of ribbon and secure it to the end of the wire. Once the glue is dried, you can put it on your head and tie a bow at the back!

You can extend the life of your crown significantly by storing it in a drawer in your refrigerator. Mine lasted four days, then some of the flowers started to wither. Make sure you start the process with the freshest florals you can find.

Arrange all flowers in the order you’d like them on the crown, then thread them through the floral wire (steps 3-5 above)

Add the ribbon to the ends and tie, then voilà… a beautiful floral crown!

How to Style the Crown

Baby April 14, 2014

Pretty Floral Tea Party for Isla

I was totally spoiled by my sister and best friend this weekend – they threw me the most gorgeous tea party shower for little Miss Isla. It was held at our house, as many of our closest friends still had never seen the house since we re-did it last year (pictures here, here and here). I had such a great time talking to everyone – I love parties! McKenzie and Karine did such an incredible job planning and executing on their plans – how pretty is this floral tea party? The flowers are seriously to-die for. I want them to be in our house at all times!

Our dining room table transformed into a gorgeous feast

Pretty macaroons from Sweet

A proper English tea time (and of course, some champagne!)

Homemade tea goodies

McKenzie, Brittany and Karine – these ladies are too good to me

Spoiling little Miss Isla

Gorgeous desserts

Contest to see who could draw the best baby on-top of their head – so funny!

The aftermath of flowers – I hope these never die!

Little onesie notes for Isla (cut out by McKenzie!)

All cleaned up!

Belle was very excited when her dad got home from class!

Gorgeous flowers by Jess Hamilton

Cupcakes, truffles and macaroons from Sweet

Vegan cupcakes from Crave

Isla banner from Etsy

My dress from Hatch Collection

Decorations by McKenzie, Karine and my Mum

Baby January 23, 2014

In Full Bloom Baby Shower

I absolutely adore this ‘In Full Bloom’ baby shower from Hostess with the Mostest! It is completely over the top, but was planned by event planners (Double Take Event Styling), so what do you expect? The little pink and gold French touches are perfect, as are the florals, calligraphy and crafts – creating baby headbands? Too cute.

– Event Styling & Floral Arrangements: Double Take Event Styling & D’Lorah Ter Har
– Invitations & Printables: Modern Moments Designs
– Photography: Courtney Jade Photography
– Fondant Cupcake Toppers & Flowers: Two Sugar Babies
– DIY Shabby Chic Headband Kit & My Pink Flower Clip: LB Boutique
– Cupcake & Mini Fruit Tarts: Sugar & Salt Bakery & Catering
– Stripey Straws: Shop Sweet Lulu
– Mason Jar Flower Frog Lids: The Country Barrel
– Cake Pops: Poppies Cake Pop
– Baskets & Mason Jars: Pottery Barn
– Macarons: Jade Teahouse & Patisserie
– Ribbon & Fabric: Fabric Depot
– Mini Clay Pots: Michael’s

Wedding August 1, 2013

Summery Chic Bridal Luncheon

Samantha Hutchinson of Could I Have That? got married last week (congrats!), but before she tied the knot, she threw the most amazingly gorgeous bridal shower for her bridesmaids. It was featured on Glitter Guide, and I have gone through the photos a million times. The next party I throw will definitely be modeled after this chic soiree.