Beach/Surfer Baby shower on a budget

As I have covered in almost all of my party blogs, I love throwing a party! I usually start with the favors and go from there but this time, since the Mom2be was involved, I asked her opinions and went from there. She wanted a beach-y theme surrounded around the idea of "surfing" - I immediately decided on hosting the party at my parent's house since they have a beach house and it is decorated as such :)

I used my Cricut to minimize the spending here and since I only had 20 people or so, I was able to really put details into it.

Centerpieces - I love diaper cakes and since we were not having too many people, I came up with the idea of doing diaper cake centerpieces as 1. a gift for the mom 2. because are they not the cutest?
When doing a single layer diaper cake, I like to use large sizes because they are fuller and you use less (I think the number here was 5 on each cake and we used a toliet paper middle to hold the center)I bought some fabric that had a great shine to it and just kind of crumpled and pinned it on top and then used white puffy paint to "break" the waves on top. The baby on top of a surfboard was the hardest part- I bought those "surfboard" kits at the dollar tree (5 to a package) and then had to buy the baby separate (they are supposed the be crawling but I just stood them upright and they look like they are trying to catch the wave!) The total on these were about 6.00 total thanks to couponing for the diapers and using what I had (ribbon and glue and the puffy paint) These were a hit and they also did not clutter because the Mom2be got to take them home as part of her gift!





I think I have said it a billion times but in case you missed it... I love doing the favors for a party. I like them to be useful and unique and I like to usually make them myself. With bigger parties, it can be hard to do them because of sheer quantity but with a small party it is much easier!








With this party I picked a couple different favors- First I started with the "he" Hershey's bar. I used a blue sharpie and colored in the H and E letters. I used coupons and got all 20 for just a couple bucks (I think the price came out to be .20 each at the time so around 4.00 for all. For the other part of the favors, I got tumblers from the dollar tree (20.00) and used the vinyl I owned with my cricut and made surf's up designs on all the cups. The supplies cost about 4.00 for everything so total the favors were $28.00 and a big hit.

Since we were doing light finger food and desserts, I went to Publix and got the cake (They did this beautiful wave design for no extra cost and I added a Mickey surfer I had ) and the cupcakes. My cousin made the fins out of fondant she owned and I believe another cousin made the rice krispies. The total for cake and cupcakes at the time were $27.00

 The decor was pretty easy because my parent's house is ready made for a beach party but I really wanted to do something different for the front. My parents have a fully stocked bar with random things they collect, like three packages of unopened drink umbrellas that they would never use. I was able to put them to good use and got a wreath form from the dollar tree and started poking with umbrellas. It was a huge hit and I tied it to the from door with ribbon. Also- My parents have never surfed- at least in my life- and much like the paddle boat and kayaks they keep on hand, this surfboard really was sitting on the deck. It was a little old and worn but I figured at least I could decorate it for the shower and prop it up by the front door. I added the mom & dad's names and the word congrats with an anchor and surfs up label. It was also a hit and cost me 0.00  - The entire decor cost me somewhere in the $10.00 range because I really did not need much!

 For entertainment we decided to do lots of games. Since I had already bought diapers for the centerpieces, we did the "advice diapers" which basically consists of you using a sharpie and writing funny or inspiration words on the diaper for when you are changing the baby in the middle of the night. We also had a BIB decorating contest where we broke into teams and decorated bibs for the first 7months - I had all the puffy paint and fabric markers on hand so I just had to buy bibs and I bought 8 for 5.00 after coupons. It was also a huge hit and everyone had a ton of fun! We did the baby food game and that was also a blast (for me to watch- I would not be able to eat baby food !) I think we had 2 or 3 winners there so it wound up in a tie breaker and I was very kind when picking those- I made it ONLY fruit or fruit blends because.... blended meat. NO!
Total on games was about $10.00, prizes were around $10.00 as well because I got on sale and went into my "closet of gifts" I keep stocked

Food - This was easy, cheap and fun. Crockpot BBQ chick or pork (not sure which, but I know I spent 5.00 or so on the meat so I think it was a pork roast) on Slider Buns, Veggie Pasta (Garlic, Olive Oil, eggplant, zucchini or squash and Penne Pasta) BLT bites, chips, veggies and fruit
I spent about $30.00 on Food, Juice and soda. Had water from a previous "FREE" sale at Walgreens (save all those points and once a year when the water goes on sale for 1.99 a case (sometimes around July 4 or memorial day) - buy them up and stack in extra room. We usually use about 50 in points which is 25 cases of water) Because we were having at my parents, they always have sangria, wine etc and so we did not spend anything on that

Papergoods - Refer to my previous parties where you will find that I reuse my same tableclothes over and over :) I love them, best investment ever (and by investment, I mean I spent 2.00 on clearance each!) They are going on I think 8 parties now plus countless other dinners and they are still beautiful! I also do plates, forks and cups in bulk - might actually need to buy new ones by next year for my son's 6th Birthday but for this- It evens out to about $2.00 for all those items divided.


Total for this party comes in around $130.00 after Misc. - While that is somewhat "high" for my parties, this was a baby shower, not a birthday party- and the details were important! I love baby showers and only get to do them every so often, so this was very fun!