An Adorable Woodland Welcome for Baby Joey

There’s no denying that I LOVE planning and throwing baby showers for my family and friends. To date, I’ve thrown one for Tori, Sam, Dana, and Shannon, and a couple of short months ago I had the honour of throwing one for my Steph and her little baby boy, Joey! For those of you who may not know, Steph is mine and Tori’s cousin and just happens to be sisters with Sammy! Steph is kind, hilarious, and oh-so-talented (she recently started up her own photography business!).

I knew I wanted to do something special for Steph’s baby shower but it also just happened to be smack dab in the middle of our busiest season of the year (Jilly Box, gearing up for 12 Days, etc.) and since baby showers are so near and dear to my heart (I consider them a way to honor a new family member!) I knew I wasn’t going to be able to make this just as special as I wanted it to be on my own. So, I reached out to Yuriko from Vintage Origami to help me out!

For those of you who may not be familiar with Yuriko, she is always my go-to and saving grace when it comes to party and event planning. She has such an incredible imagination and eye for design. Well, Yuriko pulled through for me once again and we were able to pull off the most adorable Woodland themed baby shower for little Joey.

To change things up a little bit, I thought it would be fun to have Yuriko contribute to today’s blog to walk us through her vision and inspo and provide you with all of the beautiful little details of Joey’s shower. So, Yuriko, take it from here!!

What would be a better representation for a Canadian born baby than a “Canadiana National Park” theme? Buffalo plaid is the simplest party attire to request for a winter season baby shower, and that proved true for the proud parents Steph and Jesse. Jillian put on the sweetest celebration for her handsome little nephew Joey and it was a warm, cozy and festive shower at 19 Okanagan Grill + Bar. Many thanks to the owner Neil Martens for always delighting guests with the spectacular food and topnotch service from his restaurant in West Kelowna.

My name is Yuriko and I’ve been so fortunate to be part of Jillian’s family celebrations and parties over the last 7 years with our decorating business, Vintage Origami. It’s been beautiful to see how Jillian loves on her family by throwing thoughtful and creative parties for each of them. Jillian is a superb and generous hostess and a creative designer with each of her events. It’s amazing to witness how close Jillian is with her cousins and how they are, not only family but the best of friends with one another. It’s exciting as they enter into this new phase of their life where their children are growing up and are following in their parent’s footsteps being the best companions with each other and creating so many amazing memories together.

The guest list consisted of close family and friends of the beautiful couple, and the theme was a surprise for the new parents Steph & Jesse. When they arrived they were greeted with our plaid cabin themed photo booth we custom made them displaying vintage snowshoes, retro wooden snow skis, ice skates, a coat rack with hanging Hudson Bay jackets, and an antique yellow-painted barn door. Guests placed their baby shower gifts into a beautifully restored antique rowboat with wooden paddles that I borrowed from my dear friend Kevin Trowbridge with a vintage fishing rod, wooden reel and woven basket borrowed from our friends at Caldwell Heritage farm.

We surrounded the rowboat with varying heights of Christmas fir trees that I already had in our Vintage Origami collection and Erik from our team built us two large tents out of recycled canvas fabric complete with fur pillows and a homemade fire pit vignette. We brought in lounge furniture to adorn our Hudson Bay blankets so that family and friends could cozy up together for conversation around a fire pit and take turns holding sweet Joey. There was also a harvest style dining table for guests complete with my large collection of vintage plaid thermoses, antique kerosene lanterns, custom made plaid napkins, and specialty flag pennants with Joey’s name on it that Vintage Origami made out of cardstock and wooden skewers.

Steph’s best friend Briana had recently started an eco-friendly balloon business with her creative mother, Lana. Their local Okanagan business is called Cloud Nine Designs. In front of our cedar wall backdrop, they built a custom balloon garland and also added large (24 inches) perfectly round white helium balloons to fill in between our forest trees. What a precious and personalized gift from them to Steph and Jesse with the matte coloured red, mocha brown, white and grey colours. Not only that, but they intricately placed real cedar boughs within the balloon garland to add texture and personality to their display.

On the dessert table, I designed a large National Park banner for Joey. There we placed tiered platters filled with delicious forestry-themed gluten-free cupcakes complete with s’more toppings and personalized piping designs. The incredible cupcakes were from the talented Kirsten at Sugar Sweet Cake Co. You should have heard the shrills of excitement when Izabela’s cookies from The Cake Mama arrived in the shape of plaid camper trailers, personalized onesies for Joey, forestry trees, and axes. It was more cuteness than I could handle!

As Jillian greeted her family to the party she created it was so fabulous to hear them say that the theme fit Steph and Jesse so well. The open-air venue space was kept warm and cozy with heaters and handsome little Joey was snuggled and photographed throughout the whole event. Joey is very loved, and with adventurous parents like Steph and Joey, he will have lots of chances to explore the great outdoors and various National Parks across Canada. It’s written in the stars for you Joey. You’re going to be an explorer, and your life will be filled with adventure and many outdoor excursions with your beloved parents, cousins, and grandparents by your side.

xo

Yuriko