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pregnant best friend + love of bugs + me = a completely unique & magical butterfly baby shower!

when my very best friend told me she was pregnant with a baby girl, i jumped at the chance to host her shower.

planning & moodboards started months before the October shower date because the ideas were never ending. after a few days of hard elimination (i wanted to create so many things), i landed on 3 main DIY-able elements:

a dripping wisteria focal point
dozens of oversized cardboard butterflies
and a sculptural “tree”

it took about a month of working on the weekends & in the evenings, but it came together so well!

concept & inspiration

the mama-to-be has always loved bugs, so when we found out she was having a darling baby girl butterflies felt right.

*images pulled from Pinterest for inspiration*

since the shower was slated for the fall, a little dark academia helped round out the color palette to suit the season.

the event space had a narrow entry stairwell, large main reception area with fabulous view of a lake & a small kitchen. the reception room included massive brown beam along the ceiling & i knew the decor needed to hide it while still allowing for those gorgeous views & have enough seating for all the guests.

knowing the vibes & the space, it was time to work.

elements

the wisteria focal point

i’ve been haunted by this dreamy wisteria window fixture from Anthropologie for years. its dramatic, overwhelming & absolutely breathtaking. the event space’s large overhead beam was a perfect anchor to to drape my own version.

the installation needed to recreate the dreamy wonderland while being oversized & visible from all angles in the room. it consisted of dozens of double ended ‘wisteria’ strands with a single long, & i mean loooonng, mixed green tablecloth banner woven in between.

ingredients for each wisteria strand consisted of:

custom dyed coffee filters in varying shades of purple & cut into 3 different sized circles, small, medium & large
dozens of strands of green twine cut to length & knotted at each end

to create the “blossom” on each end

the smallest coffee filter circles were folded & hot glued around the knot in the twine; this went up the string varying degrees so that each wisteria was completely unique
the medium size circles were then folded & hot glued up the string
finally the largest circles were hot glued

crepe paper ‘leaves’ were twisted & glued at different levels on the strand to help cover up more of the beam & add depth to the layering.

the last step was the create a basic table cloth fringe banner in carrying shades of green.

for install, the table cloth banner was long enough & heavy enough that it could be draped into place along the beam; that alone helped cover a good portion of the beam. next, each wisteria strand was tossed over the beam so there was a blossom on either side. individual strand lengths were adjusted by knotting the string that rest directly on the beam (where the knots weren’t visible) to shorten them as needed.

any gaps in the flowers where the beam could be seen would be covered by cardboard butterflies later.

note: a huge thank you to my friends who came to help me with the install - you made this shower even more special because of it.

cardboard butterflies

i don’t know why, but butterflies immediately make me think of Disney’s animated Alice in Wonderland; where everything is dreamlike, whimsical & larger than life. so oversized butterflies seemed like a must. each one of these was handmade, from the bodies to the painting on the wings.

i wish i had counted the final butterfly number, but it was definitely more than 30 each with hand-formed, taped & painted bodies, individually cut & painted wings & carefully taped/glued or wired in place upon installation.

& while i LOVE how these came out, if you decide to recreate them, i do not recommend using card board. they were so heavy that installing them became rather difficult. if i did them again, i would use wire for the wing shape & crepe paper for the wings. but you live & learn right?

note : another huge shout out to @limezinniasdesign for painting cardboard wings & shipping them across country! & another shoutout to a few more friends who helped me get things painted

sculptural tree

when you come through the wisteria garland, there needed to be a focal point. the parents-to-be were going to open presents in front of the fireplace (which we didn’t light because it was a warm day) and i wanted something cool to anchor the room. my husband had to talk me down from buying a tree from the nursery to use in the space so if you can’t buy one, make one instead!

i foraged large sticks with interesting shapes from nice neighbors & the local park. the sticks were then floral wired together to create an organic ‘tree’ shape & stuck into an empty planter. chunks of cardboard & styrofoam were stuffed inside the planter to hold the tree in place. to make the tree feel more alive, individual clusters of fresh baby’s breath were hot glued all over & moss was added to the top of the planter to hide the support cardboard.

finishing whimsical touches meant hanging mini disco balls & vellum butterflies. this was such an inexpensive, but fun piece.

note: thank you to my friend who helped me wire together the tree shape!

mood

once the major elements were installed, it needed more moodiness to bring in that dark academia. so candles were placed throughout the room for warmth & age - we didn’t want the space to feel like it was only a couple hours old, but instead, like its been here forever. i used a mix of brass candlesticks with tapers, clear glass punch cups with tea candles & battery operated pillar candles along the fireplace.

DIYed butterfly terrariums were scattered in and amongst the vessels of few blooms to mix in science with femininity. i also included few framed ‘specimen’ pictures that were actually just vellum butterflies attached to poster board & framed.

& finally, outside the expected, disco balls were layered for movement & sparkles. while all of these items could have been omitted & the event would have looked beautiful, including them really brought the space to life.

finished look

so here it is - the full walk through!

full video tour of the butterfly baby shower & its many details

a butterfly baby shower