makins of a jenkins

ah, a baby shower for my baby girl.

my super generous friend, Quinn, who also put together our gender reveal party hosted and planned our baby shower, alongside my sister meagan. her house is gorgina and the most lovely template to bring people into.

now, i did just have a bridal shower the year before….so when we found out we were pregnant i instantly felt guilty…people juuuust went thru the wedding with us and now they have to buy a baby gift for a shower?!  but i was assured people love babies and love buying baby stuff. but still, i felt a little guilty here my friends were again planning something for me! i owe you guys!

anywho. with my bridal shower, since we had such a small wedding in mexico (28 people) i felt like girls coming to the bridal shower should probably be coming to the wedding, so it was pretty small and intimate…buuuut with the baby shower, i really wanted to celebrate with the so many special women in my life, sooo i invited a lottt of people (sorry Quinn!) and we had a great turn out that felt so special (maybe 30 people?)

Quinn’s house was transformed into beautiful golds and whites and pinks (pink actually really grew on my thru out the pregnancy…in the beginning i was set on not buying one pink thing…well that didnt happen).

The amazing thing about the shower was being able to really see and feel the amount of love that is and was already so present for our future baby. not just people supporting me and CJ….but so much love for our girl. Its been incredible to feel the love, interest and excitement that exists for her. its not just about me, about us….its about her. i dont really know how to explain it…but its such a beautiful thing to feel so much love for your unborn child from friends and family.

the shower was a day that i was surrounded by friends, family and fellow moms….giving me love and advice about our soon-to-be future. it was a really….really lovely day.

one of my favorite – ok my favorite – moment was seeing my gramma and aunt walk into the room. surprise!!! i had just spoken with her last week and i knew she wasnt coming. it was so close to thanksgiving….and its not a quick drive from spokane…i really didnt expect them to even consider them coming. so seeing her walk into the room was such an amazing surprise. she hadnt seen me since we told my whole family at her house this summer i was pregnant….so i started the shower off in tears. it was such a great surprise!  we all got to go out to dinner that night and spend time together….it was great!

GAMES WE PLAYED AT THE SHOWER

• You got a safety pin and if you heard someone say “Baby” you could steal their pin. (i literally lost mine in 7 seconds) 
• Girls filled in a questionnaire of “Who knows Andi best” and we read the answers live to see who won.
• And then they had each girl fill out a notecard with advice for the future as a parent….CJ and I read them after the shower and they were so special to go thru each one. (my personal favorite was from my gramma: who said something about not being afraid to give the baby a little scotch…haha thanks gram) 

my college girls

my sweet little hosts

(pro-tip: you’re not allowed to stand sideways next to a pregnant girl. thanks meg.)

THE DRESS 

I’m not kidding when i say, finding a dress for the shower took more effort than finding a wedding dress. I wanted something tight (people want to see that shape), but couldnt be too tight of a material or else i would be strangled in 5 minutes. I wanted it to be sexy but not okkkay-calm-down-you’re-about-to-be-a-mom too much. I wanted it to be feminine but not too flowery or toooo pink. i think CJ thought was concerned we could have bought a car with the amount of huge shopping boxes were arriving at our house (i promise its all free returns babe! i assured him)  and i spent sooo much time trying on dresses. Asos, Nasty Gal, Missguided, Forever 21. so. many. dresses. first of all, maternity dresses are a joke and all fit so weird and was more suited if i was carrying 12 children. so i stuck to normal non-maternity wear and just had to careful about the material since my belly would be pulling it wayyy further out than normal wear.

I finally settled on the pink dress above from Nasty Gal (in a medium) it fit most of the criteria i wanted and by that point anything i “liked” was miles better than most i was trying on. i did wear some spanx type shorts by Belly Bandit underneath because that material was basically 2nd skin sooo i wanted a tad more of a barrier in between my skin and the dress (read: i experienced cellulite for the first time and we dont need to see that thru the dress thank you). 

I re-wore shoes i wore during my wedding events, minimal earrings and a bracelet from the wedding. The lip i wore is a NYX super matte cream lipstick that my sister recently told me about (in Prague). It’s a not-as-long-lasting but way more moisturizing dupe for Anastasia lip stains. It stays on for a good few hours, but is no where as long lasting as Anastasia….but they’re like $4 compared to $20. i have Anastasia in colors i really like and slowly adding the NYX ones in colors that are more fun to try.

PAPER

If you followed our wedding, you know that paper is always important to me. i designed our wedding invites, wedding book, day of decor and such and it was the best and really something that brings me joy. so for the shower, once i got to looking at invites, i thought…i could just make them myself. so i did!

wanted to keep them simple, keep them minimally feminine and somehow get the theme of “practical shower” across without saying dont buy us clothes….please bring us nipple cream.

Here’s what we mailed out.

and of course, just as with the wedding, we had them printed at CatPrint.com – a place where you can get thick lovely paper without tapping into your 401k.