So excited to share all the deets from our travel-themed baby shower! We’re still feeling overwhelmed by all the love and fun from our shower weekend!
Our baby shower was a couple of weeks ago, and we are so grateful to our family and friends for showering us with so much love. It was just so sweet to see everyone so excited for Baby A’s arrival and for us to become a family of three!
I love a good theme because it helps get ideas going for decor, invites, and even food and games (though we didn’t necessarily lean into the travel theme for those last two—but you could!). When I was researching baby boy shower themes and came across a travel and adventure-themed baby shower, I thought, how perfect! It was off to the races planning the party from there.
I’m sharing all the details, links, and photos of all the elements that made our travel baby shower so special and fun!
Invites:
Omied designed our invites in Canva, and I love how they turned out. We ended up using our custom design in Paperless Post to make RSVPing easy, but I got some printed out as a keepsake and for another project I’m working on—have you seen the TikTok trend of sending out a baby shower invite to brands you want to work with? I’m giving it a try, haha!
Click the images below to shop for these baby shower must-haves:
Decor:
We had some decor and signage outside for a cute welcome moment as people walked up to our house. I got this “Welcome baby” sign on Amazon and added these cute airplane garlands from Etsy.
My sister-in-law is so artistic, and she made this beautiful “Welcome to the World Baby A” sign for us.
How gorgeous are these handmade hanging hot air balloons?? They’re by this Etsy shop Root to Vine and made out of books—such a fun idea! We used them as decor hanging over the favors table, and after the shower they’ll be hanging in the nursery.
A very sweet follower reached out when I announced that I was pregnant and shared about her sonogram art. Her Etsy shop is Kristina Heredia Art, and her art is so beautiful! I sent her a photo of Baby A’s profile from our 20-week ultrasound, and she created this stunning piece with it.
I put it out on display as decor during the shower, and it’s now hanging up in the nursery. We’ll treasure it for years to come! This would make for such a special and unique gift for any expecting parent.
She also shared this video showing some behind-the-scenes of her art coming to life!
These globes are so beautiful! Selah Grace Designs on Etsy makes them, and you can customize the messaging and colors.
I put the white one on the dessert cart (more on the dessert cart below!) and the turquoise one out on a nearby counter with Baby A’s ultrasound pic next to it.
They were such a fun touch and they’ll also be in the nursery as decor!
Legit dying over how cute this diaper cake is! We had this out as decor on our indoor dining table, and it would also make such a fun baby shower gift.
Sweet Baby Cakes & Co. makes these custom diaper cakes and she found the cutest little pilot teddy bear to add to our diaper cake. This was such a fun centerpiece to have at the shower, and afterwards we’ll be able to use the diapers and give Baby A the adventure teddy.
Shop for these travel-themed baby shower items by clicking below:
These hot air balloon centerpieces were such a show-stopper! The Etsy shop Crafted by Yudi made them, and my mother-in-law added flowers to the hot air balloon basket.
These hot air balloon centerpieces are so beautiful, and she can do them in different colors to go with your theme. Of course, the baby blue is perfect for a baby boy shower!
I also got these little globes on Amazon and sprinkled them around on the tables for some extra decor and color.
How sweet are these onesie garlands by Etsy shop Bubblegum Dish? We strung these up around the house, and they were such a cute touch.
They’re made from a thick cardstock, and she has tons of color options available.
This BABY box was easy to set up and the set comes with balloons for filling the boxes, plus more if you wanted to do a garland next to it. To keep it simple we just put the extra balloons on the floor around the boxes.
I strung up more of the paper plane garlands (from Etsy shop Little Yooniverse) on our credenza which we used for snacks (more on the custom snack packaging below) as well as outside on the catering tables to jazz them up!
Baby Shower Party Favors:
As people entered, we had this table set up with party favors. I wanted to make sure people didn’t forget to grab them on their way out and they were all so pretty and cute, they made for great decor.
The Oh Boy! chocolate box from this Etsy shop was so adorable—I loved the little teddy bears and gold lettering. She can do all kinds of different colors and themes.
We also had customized matchboxes on the favors table. Since we had some kids at the party, I thought bubbles would be a fun touch. These are both from White Confetti Box on Etsy, and they did such a great job.
We also had these absolutely gorgeous cookies from Marta’s Cakes and Cookies, who I found on Etsy. I seriously cannot get over the details on these! I was able to work with her to totally customize and pick the designs for the cookies, and they turned out even better than I had envisioned.
I can’t decide which one is my favorite and they were such a hit. She also included a note about how the recipe she uses is handed down from her mother who owns a bakery in Ukraine. I can confirm, not only were they beautiful but they’re delicious! Can’t recommend her enough for your next event.
I snagged these map party favor bags from Amazon and put them out on the favors table so guests could easily take one of each home with them.
Click below to check out my baby shower favorites:
Desserts & Snacks:
We rented this cute dessert cart from Zayda at La Fiesta Balloons, who did our photo backdrop (more on that below!). It was the perfect way to display all of the delicious desserts!
Also linking my outfit here! My dress is from Petal and Pup and my mules are from Dolce Vita—they were so comfortable I was able to wear them all day, even at 34 weeks pregnant!
SusieCakes is our favorite for birthdays and special occasions. They also did our gender reveal cake (watch the video here!), and we knew they’d be perfect for desserts at the baby shower.
No surprise, SusieCakes crushed it and did the cutest designs! We did a 9″ vintage round cake, and I added these cute teddy bear and balloon cake toppers from Amazon.
We also ordered a custom sheet cake to make sure we had enough cake for everyone, and I just about died over the hot air balloon sprinkle design! So, so cute.
To fill out the dessert cart we did a dozen cupcakes and also opted for a few gluten-free ones for our GF friends. Their flourless chocolate cupcakes are delicious!
I also sprinkled a bunch of hot air balloon confetti from the Etsy shop PartySprinklesCo, and it turned out so cute! She has several different colors you can choose from and also makes matching cupcake hot air balloon food picks (I stuck one in the corner of the sheet cake, hehe).
Tbh, I was wondering if it would be “worth it” to do a whole dessert cart, but I just love how it turned out!
I think one of the best compliments I received was from a friend asking if we hired a professional to do the event. Well, I did do events for Google for five years, so, technically, I am the professional. 😉
Ok, these custom snack bags were too much fun! I saw Lauryn from The Skinny Confidential tag Lana Nicole Events on Etsy for custom snacks at her fabulous parties and had to check her out. Guys, she’s even done stuff for the Kardashians parties lol.
We did custom M&M bags, Doritos bags, and Baby Bottle Pop labels and they were such a hit. I will say if you are filling any chip bags, do it the day of the event—since they’re more paper-based rather than foil like a real Doritos bag, your chips will be a bit stale if you do them the day before like we did.
Photo Backdrop:
Zayda from La Fiesta Balloons killed it with this backdrop! She totally brought my vision to life, and it was so nice to have this area for taking beautiful photos with family and friends.
Highly recommend her if you’re looking for someone in the Bay Area to do a balloon backdrop, garland, etc. She was lovely to work with!
Shower Games:
We played these two baby shower games, and they were perfect for a co-ed shower! I wanted them to feel casual and not like, “Ok, everybody, come and sit down and play these games!” lol.
I also bought these little passport booklets on Amazon and asked guests to leave some advice for us.
Shop for these travel-themed baby shower products by clicking below:
Signage:
Omied designed these signs in Canva (I love the little bear in the hot air balloon) and we tied in the travel theme with things like “In-flight beverages” for the drink bar and “Baggage claim” for the favors table.
Non-Traditional Elements:
For our shower, we did a few nontraditional things, which I loved. I thought I’d share them here in case they inspire you for your own shower.
Co-ed: For starters, it was co-ed. Personally, I love a co-ed shower! Omied is becoming a dad too, and it was so special to celebrate this new chapter together.
We hosted the shower at our house: Our families helped a ton with planning, set up, and food, but we just have a great house for hosting, and we thought Napa is a destination that people traveling from out of town could make a weekend trip out of.
Presents: We didn’t spend time opening presents and having people watch us—I’m so glad we went this route because we were able to make the most of our time catching up with friends and family.
Books: In the invite, we put a little note asking people to bring books instead of cards:
One small request we hope won’t be too hard:
Please bring a book instead of a card.
Whether pre-loved or brand new,
Please write a line or two,
So when we read it to Baby A, we’ll think of you!
I’m so glad we did this because it helped us build up a little baby book library for Baby A. It’s been so sweet to read people’s notes in their books, especially when they read the book to their kids!
I got these blue trunks and Books garland on Amazon for people to put cards and books in.
Games: As I mentioned above, we played some shower games, but they were pretty casual and could be done at your own pace. We didn’t want to have to gather everybody up to explain rules and play specific games all at the same time. This ended up being perfect for a co-ed shower, and people mentioned how they loved the games.
At the end of the day, it’s your shower and it’s ok to make some non-traditional choices. We loved how our shower turned out!
Our shower weekend is one we’ll never forget. Thanks to all our friends and family for making it so special, as well as the brands and Etsy shops that contributed the sweetest touches to the day! We can’t wait for Baby A’s big debut. He is so loved already, and he doesn’t even know it yet!
Elise Armitage is an entrepreneur and founder of What The Fab, a travel + lifestyle blog based in California. At the beginning of 2019, Elise left her corporate job at Google to chase her dreams: being an entrepreneur and helping women find fabulous in the everyday. Since then, she’s launched her SEO course Six-Figure SEO, where she teaches bloggers how to create a passive revenue stream from their website using SEO. Featured in publications like Forbes, Elle, HerMoney, and Real Simple, Elise is a firm believer that you can be of both substance and style.
