Showering Baby Liliana

Joanna, Kat, and I hosted a baby shower fiesta this past weekend. Our BFF for life, Holly, is expecting her first baby (GIRL!) in May. As some of you know, I’m kind of an event planning freak. (I mean that in the WORST way possible.) All the little details completely consume me and I go a little crazy. Poor Joanna and Kat always get roped into my crazy ideas. BUT if anyone deserves to have the most fabulous baby shower fiesta you ever did see, it’s Holly. Holly is one of the most kind, tender-hearted people I know and I’m so thankful she’s mine. If baby Liliana is anything like her mother, we’ll all be in love in no time!

If you’re looking to throw a fiesta, you have come to the right place. I’m sharing allllllll of my fiesta knowledge with you! Let me go ahead and get my shameless plug out of the way. Take a look at the invitations Kat and I designed for the event!

First thing’s first, THE FOOD. My mom made a batch of her famous Cowboy Caviar for guests to snack on when they arrived.

For the main meal, we had Willy’s cater for us. Best decision we ever made! I found it to be super affordable and insanely delicious. They literally deliver everything you need – steak, chicken, taco shells, salsa, lettuce, cheese, sour cream, chips, rice, beans, and guacamole! I knew Holly was a fan of street corn so we added this recipe to our spread. SO GOOD. For dessert, we ordered churros from Kakao. If you’ve never heard of Kakao, just stop. Clear your morning and get there for a breakfast burrito. I guess we kind of cheated a little bit on the food by having everything catered – but it just meant we could focus on the atmosphere more!

We found tons of elaborate piñata garlands on Etsy and Pinterest but they were like $40 a letter. Sorry Liliana, I’ll think about spending that much on a garland for you when you are old enough to remember it. SO, we found this great alternative on Etsy. The letters are made of tissue fringe but it’s not actually a piñata – much more budget friendly! We also picked up tons of these papel picado garlands from this website.

Joanna has an awesome outdoor space at her house that she let us decorate. We schemed with both of Liliana’s grandmothers to get baby pictures of Holly and JP. There were definitely some photos they will have to reenact with Liliana!

I know this isn’t realistic for everybody, but if you just so happen to have a trip to Mexico planned while you’re in the midst of planning a fiesta themed event, it’s really helpful. This photo was THE inspiration for Holly’s shower so I just had to have these table runners. I actually found tons of Etsy shops that sell similar blankets….for $50 each. Kat and I were on a mission to find these blankets in Mexico and found them for $8.50! Yeah, I said $8.50. So we bought one blanket and had my mom turn them into table runners. Thanks, Mom!

So cactus’ are kind of expensive – you know I love you Pike but I just couldn’t spend $8 per cactus. We found a supplier out in California that ships mini succulents and cactus plants all over the US for weddings and events. I was super impressed with this company! We were able to get 30 baby cactus plants for the same cost as FIVE at a nursery here in GA. Other than the cactus thorn I had in my finger for 2 weeks, everything with Cactus Limon went smooth and I’d highly recommend them. Kat and I hand painted each of the pots and then let guests take them home as a party favor.

What’s a fiesta without a piñata? I’m not sure if Holly loved it or hated it, but we filled this gold star fringe piñata with lots of goodies for baby Lily. (We added our own tissue tassels. I’m a total weirdo and can’t just leave things alone.)

We love you Holly and can’t wait to meet baby Liliana in just a few weeks. I love her so much already!