pring is a wonderful time to throw a baby shower. The season is all about budding new life, growth, and beauty – just like your “welcome” celebration for baby-to-be! Look to nature for inspiration when planning your soirée... colorful flowers, plants, butterflies, dragonflies, moss, and the like are all fabulous elements to incorporate into your party décor. Here are some tips on how to put together your own fun, spring-inspired baby shower.

Butterfly Garden Baby Shower
Color Palette
For a Girl: Fuchsia, Orange, Lime Green, various shades of Pink

For a Boy or Gender-Neutral: Lime Green, Yellow, various shades of Blue and Aqua

Invitations
Set the tone of the shower with spring-themed invitations featuring flowers and butterflies. Here are a few of my personal favorites:

Fresh Spring (girl)
Baby Dots (boy)
Spring Beauty Shower Invitations
Branch of Flowers (girl)
Rich Floral (choose aqua/green palette for a boy)
Singing Birds (gender neutral) 

*Some of these invitations feature text for bridal showers, but all of these ideas can easily translate to baby showers too by just changing the wording.

Poppy Box Camden Fair & Butterfly – An upscale option for large showers, this is a three-dimensional invitation-in-a-box featuring an imprintable flat invite, decorative band of cherry-blossom paper, and a faux butterfly. (Sold in sets of 50 DIY kits for $240)

Tablescapes
A flocked moss mat makes for a fun and unexpected table runner.

Use paper party ware featuring a pretty floral motif, such as these green Chinese peony plates, napkins, and place cards.

For table centerpieces, display flowers, moss balls, and butterflies in brightly colored vases (think orange and hot pink). Embellish vases with a pacifier strung on a ribbon or words such as “baby” and “mom.”

Silver butterfly and dragonfly place-card holders or topiary place-card holders add a pretty touch to sit-down brunches and luncheons.

Party Décor
Hang tissue poms and decorative butterflies and dragonflies from trees, outdoor trellises, the ceiling, chandeliers, and any other surface that will work. Use clear fishing wire to hang the butterflies so that they “float” in the air. For a whimsical touch, decorate the butterflies and dragonflies with glitter and adhesive rhinestones (available at most craft and scrapbooking stores). 

Cut or punch out different sizes of butterfly silhouettes from scrapbook paper featuring fun, colorful patterns that match your theme, and then use them to create a butterfly motif on walls and windows. Fold the silhouettes in half so that the wings are at an angle, giving the paper butterflies a fluttering, three-dimensional feel.

Hang pint-sized sundresses (for a girl), shorts outfits (for a boy), and spring-themed onesies featuring butterflies or floral prints from a clothesline.

Fill baby bottles with bright candies and embellish them with a band of ribbon and paper or a faux butterfly. Place the bottles all around the party to decorate food and drink tables, side tables, and gift tables. 

Fill bowls with bright green moss balls and flocked moss pebbles, and then set a few mini butterflies or dragonflies at the top.

Float rose petals and gerbera daisies in decorative bowls filled with water and river rocks. Sprinkle more petals on the food and cake tables.

If you really want to go all out, Estilo Weddings has fantastic Swarovski crystal butterflies and crystal dragonflies for decorating cakes or flower bouquets.

Food
Serve fresh fare, like a variety of fruits, hearty salads, veggie platters and muffins, which are perfect for a spring garden theme. For dessert, try mini fruit tarts served with small scoops of raspberry or kiwi sorbet.

Party Favors
Send guests home with any of these colorful treats:

Personalized mint tins in silhouette butterfly or cherry blossom designs.

Candy-filled spring flower favor kits or daisy favor boxes

Butterfly Garden gift baskets with wildflower seed packets