i'm planning a party

April has crept up on me in a big way, and so it's time for me to start thinking about a Sip & See for Valerie and her baby boy.

My MIL and I are throwing the shower (with input from my go-to party helper, my FIL) the last Sunday in May, and I wanted to pick a color palette that is very *boy* but at the same time can be made very elegant, summery and even a little feminine. 

I came across these two images while I was image searching Google with various color combinations (seriously, try it sometime, it helps so, so much). I tried teal + orange, aqua + brown, grey + yellow (my favorite color combo of all time), yellow + blue, navy + lavender until I finally tried Kelly Green + Navy Blue. I'm in love with the colors together. Perfectly preppy, no? Throw in a little white and we're all done!

As far as the details go, my in-laws have a great house to host a Sip & See. 

Since baby Kennedy will be only a couple of weeks old, if that, we've decided to close off the doorway between the entry and the living room, and we're going to funnel people through the dining room, kitchen, and breakfast room past the spare bath and its sink and soap and a hand sanitizing station we'll have set up. That way, we can keep Val and the baby in the living room, where they can kind of hold court. 

I've already talked flowers with Rog, and he always does something really great, so I'm not worried about that. I'd really like some potted moss to put on the tables we're decorating... I think it'd add some needed live greenery, while at the same time keeping overly-girly florals to a minimum. 

Also, I'd like to find some items, thinking decor items, tchotchkes, that are very representative of a little boy and spray paint them in the three party colors. I think these would be whimsical and add a fun pop of color to the decor. I'm thinking dinosaur figures, little metal cars, blocks, balls... I'm going to start keeping my eyes peeled and picking up little things as I find them. 

Also, can we talk about these straws? 

Who wouldn't want to have one of those sticking out of their drink? I'm thinking it's a must-do. 

I'm really excited to get going on this, get things together and designed. 

I need to sit down with Roger and get the invitations hammered out-- I'm just trying to think of a nice way to say "keep your germ-infested children and sick selves at home." Ha. Adult ladies only. No kids. No men. People who will be capable of keeping their voices down and the baby calm. So yeah, no kids, no guys, no hacking coughs. 

Fun stuff. 

Now... if Baby Kennedy had ended up being a girl, I'd have drawn every single ounce of inspiration from this photo:

{circle monogram, striped tie, moss boxes, hydrangea display, white hydrangea, sweet lulu straws, pink and green}