Carly and her husband, Adam, were engaged in Paris (France) and married in Paris (Las Vegas)… so a french-inspired baby shower just seemed fitting. My co-hostesses and I kept the details lightly-themed, fun and festive.

We borrowed inspiration from the new nursery – gender neutral, as they’re waiting to find out – to create the color palette of turquoise, yellow and red. The invitations included a coordinating bookplate and message letting guests know we were building a library for the baby-to-be.

I printed the invitations on a gorgeous linen stock, and added a tiny swirl lollipop in the illustration to give a hint of the party decor we were planning.

The cake was gorgeous and a big hit – vanilla/chocolate layers and raspberry filling topped with tons of delicious mini macarons. I designed and printed the topper on the same linen stock as the invitations.

The sweets table was decorated with a seersucker fabric backdrop and huge paper-and-foam lollipops – they were a blast to make.

In addition to the cake, guests munched on marshmallow pops and swirl lollipops (we provided labeled bags for taking home the treats).

We had a little fun with the couple’s decision to wait to find out the gender of the baby. Instead of a guest book, I designed a small poster allowing guests to sign labels and attach them to their best gender guess. (And “girl” won, by the way). This photo was taken by grandfather-to-be (and amazing photographer) Ken Steinhoff.

One simple-but-fun game was played as well – baby photos of members from both sides of the family were lined up for guessing. We titled the game “who dat baby?” as a silly reminder of Carly’s love of the New Orleans Saints.