A Shabby Chic Celebration!

My friend Kendall and I have been friends for around 8 or so years. We met in college through church, and pretty much became besties overnight. The year after Chris and I graduated college, I was still attending classes for my Master's degree even though we had moved an hour away from campus. So, I would spend the night in our college town two nights a week to save on fuel cost and time. Kendall and Amy lived together in a house (with two other girls), and they graciously allowed me to crash with them those two nights a week (for a YEAR!). Even more graciously, Kendall shared her double bed with me so I didn't have to sleep on the floor. We would talk ourselves to sleep every night I stayed there, so we became close very quickly!

A year or so later, Kendall (who is about 3 1/2 years younger than me) got married, and I had the privilege of being a bridesmaid in her wedding. Kendall's wedding (in 2004) was toward the beginning of my struggle with infertility. Chris and I had been trying for about a year at that time, and though I hadn't shared much about it with anyone yet, I would lean on Kendall (and others) in later years for support and strength as I dealt with the nightmare that is infertility. 

As time went on, I suspected that Kendall may be dealing with some infertility issues herself. I was beyond heartbroken for her when the reality hit home for her that yes, she definitely had some issues in that area. Over the last year or so, I have watched her own infertility story unfold. Generally, I like to have things in common with my friends, but not in this case. I hated watching my friend go through the same pain and heartache that I had experienced just a short time ago. 

You can just imagine our joy and tears and relief and thankfulness to God on the day that Kendall found out she was expecting! The MOMENT she told me her first Beta number, I thought "She has more than one baby in there!" and sure enough a few weeks later, she found out she was carrying TWINS!

This past weekend, our other besties and I threw Kendall and her twin baby girls (Julia & Caroline) a beautiful baby shower. Kendall (and her husband, Wes) have a shabby chic decorated nursery, so we tried to stick with that vision when decorating for the shower.

As untraditional as this is, we actually had the shower at Kendall's house. It was the best location for several reasons, and it worked out perfectly!

This is the entry way table:

The cards you see in the photo above were prayer cards for the guests to fill out. There were six different versions of the card that each said one of the following:

I pray Caroline will seek . . .
I pray Caroline will treasure . . .
I pray Caroline will be blessed with . . .
I pray Caroline will achieve . . .
I pray Caroline will learn . . .

And of course, half of them said Julia instead of Caroline :-).

Here is the mantle where we put the gifts:

I made this pennant border,

as well as these framed initials:

This girls and I also made this fun fabric mobile to hang from the ceiling where Kendall sat to open her gifts. She kept it to hang in the nursery!

I decorated the chair where Kendall sat as well. How fun is this?

On the counter top, we decorated raw wood frames (from Hob Lob) and put photos of Wes and Kendall as babies in them. Also, we put a couple ultrasound photos of the girls up for the guests to see. So far, it looks like one baby looks just like Wes and one looks just like Kendall!

Mason jars, a little twine, and baby roses made a perfect little accent!

Amy stamped these feathers that we sprinkled around the room on various surfaces. So sweet!

 Bumbies is what we called the babies before we knew they were girls :-).

Amy also made these precious menus for the party. We planned it as a Tea Party, so we served hot tea with finger foods from real china tea sets.

Kimberly and Kate are the babies' middle names.

There were about 40 guests, so we moved most of Kendall's furniture out of the living room and set up folding chairs. Not exactly the most ideal thing, but lack of space required it. What we really wanted to do was rent round tables to set up for everyone, but there just wasn't room when we the RSVPs started coming in. It worked out beautifully like this, though.

My sister and I made this wreath for the front door. I gave to Kendall for her hospital room door . . . so fun! And yes, I got very good (and fast) at making the fabric flowers that were pretty much on everything!

We actually served the food to the guests for the most part, but here is what the food table looked like before we began serving. YUM!

The gifts!

Another thing that was so fun about having the shower at Kendall's house is that we all got there in the morning to set up, then got ready at Kendall's before the guests started arriving. I know this is a total girl thing, but isn't it so fun to get ready together?

Amy and me in the bathroom:

Angie and Kelsey (Kendall's sis) in the other bathroom. Kendall was in the shower at this time, so no pics of her :-).

The hostesses and Kendall:

{Kelsey, Chelley, Kendall, Amy, Angie} 

Another fun thing we did was paint this old frame baby pink and have the guests use it to take photos.

 {Me, my niece Chloe, and my sis Lisa}

Not too busy hosting to have a little fun!

The photo below is of Kendall and me at the very end of the day. All the guests were gone, most of the clean-up was finished, and we were wiped out!

Annnnnnnd finally, Kendall with all of her loot! Chris had taken our kiddos to a birthday party just a few miles away, so after the shower they stopped by. Chris helped a ton with the clean-up (he's a keeper for sure!!!) while B&B broke in some of Caroline and Julia's new books and toys. Brianna had to sneak in this photo :-).

Kendall's parents had this wagon that was hers as a child. We asked all the guests to bring a book and we filled the wagon with reading material for the girlies!

It was so wonderful to celebrate Wes and Kendall's beautiful and long-awaited blessings in this way. We can't wait to hold those precious baby girls!!!