Surprise Baby Shower!
A few months ago I threw a little surprise baby shower for my good friend Cassidy (on the left), under the guise of my annual "cookie exchange". She and her husband Drew had decided to leave NYC now that they were expecting a baby girl this summer, so it was a bit of a sad party to throw (Cass and I go all the way back to freshman year of college). I thought one final gathering of the girls would be the perfect congratulations and send off.
I drew a little stork for all of my signs and labels and to add a playful touch to the food and drink labels I cropped it depending on what fit best with the words. Of course no party is complete without party favors and since this shower was in lieu of my usual cookie exchange I tied a spatula and whisk together with baker’s twine. I love the way the stripes peak out from behind the front label!
Throwing a party in a one bedroom apartment in Brooklyn with a tiny kitchen for ten people is no small feat. It would be so nice to have a separate kitchen and living room so that all of the prep could be hidden behind closed doors. Ohh wishful thinking. I realized mixing homemade goodies with restaurant pick ups would be the perfect solution as well as several things that could be made ahead. I made this herbed chickpea dip a few days before and on the day of I toasted baguette slices to go with. For the main dish I picked up fried chicken and mac n' cheese from Wilma Jean, just down the street from me. For the drinks I created a Bloody Mary bar that was delicious both with AND without my cucumber vodka. I used McClure’s bloody Mary mix (the very best in my opinion) and threw a few cucumber spears into a bottle of vodka the week before.
For dessert I enlisted the help of our friend Kate. She made a buttermilk cake with raspberry jam filling that was to die for and the best part, it came to my door ready to serve. To go along with dessert I provided coffee and my homemade blood orange marshmallows (if you didn’t know already they make a great non-dairy creamer to top off your coffee). All in all it was a pretty great day, Cass got a lot of fun gifts for the baby including a toy camera! If this little girl is anything like her mother I'm sure she'll take to it naturally!
P.s. Cass is an amazing wedding/lifestyle photographer based out of the St. Louis/Kansas City area AND is willing to travel to NYC. She also shot me and my work for this site. Check out her work here. You may see a couple of familiar faces on there as well...