Bloghunter: Cambie Design III

This past May, Cambie Design decorated a very special event. A dear friend of mine was expecting a baby, and on a perfect spring day we hosted the most beautiful shower. The shower was held at the Boulevard Club in a modest room with a full backdrop of the lake and sailboats. The afternoon was filled with tea, treats, laughter and many, many tears from the thankful mom-to-be.

We asked mom and dad a bunch of baby related questions and decided a colour scheme for the party based on the colours selected for the nursery: light grey, indigo, navy blue, and pale yellow. With the baby’s gender unknown, we made sure the theme was neutral yet meaningful to the mother. She is a lover of craft and everything handmade, especially type and paper goods. I have a collection of her custom cardstock and personal letters that have been letter pressed, silk screened, and typed, using a typewriter. We decided the baby shower should be letter and alphabet themed.

My initial inspiration came from the following wrapping paper that I came across in one of my favourite shops in Toronto, The Paper Place. I thought it would be beautiful to make hanging garlands out of Japanese tissue paper of various letters. I decided to make this mobile-like feature a focal point in the room (and also use it to cover a particularly unattractive door way). I also found vintage wooden letter press blocks and made confetti of various sizes to scatter across the table top.

We made place cards for all of the guests using the first initial of their name, and using the letter tiles from the popular board game Scrabble, we made a place seating for ‘mommy to be’ at the head of the table and ‘for Poppy’ at the gift table. When the happy couple found out they were pregnant, they discovered that at that moment the fetus was a size of a poppy seed. The endearing nickname immediately caught on and for the remainder of the pregnancy, the unknown baby was referred to as Poppy by everyone close to the couple.

Upon arriving we had guests fill out ‘wishes for baby’ cards, were they had to complete a series of sentences, wishing various desires for the baby (a popular wish was to be a dog lover as the parents have three cats!). We tied and hung the wish cards to a cherry blossom branch and set the wish tree with the gifts for Poppy. We covered mason jars with printed paper, tied a bow around using striped twine and lined the table with fresh hydrangeas. Along with the flowers, wooden letter blocks, and confetti, we scattered alphabet cards throughout the long table to create an interesting centerpiece.

After the baby shower had finished, I made sure to collect all of the confetti dots as the decorations were being taken down. As a final token and memory of the beautiful day, I made a print using the confetti to hang in the baby’s nursery. I framed it with a basic white frame from Ikea and of course, the colours were bang on. Two months later and after the little bundle of joy arrived, I gave them the meaningful gift as a keepsake and reminder from the very special day.