How To Throw A Pastel & Alligator Themed Baby Shower – Part 1

PASTELS ! ALLIGATORS ! WATERMELON MIMOSAS ! OH MY.

If you know me, you know I love a detail & details were exactly what consumed my entire baby shower. But lets back up.

The inspiration for my alligator & pastel baby shower originally came from Patricia Altschul. Surprise, surprise. Love her so much ( more on that here ). She threw this alligator party on an episode of Southern Charm, you know the one where Kathryn & Thomas fought at the dinner table?

The theme is so unique & chic, & isn’t quite masculine or feminine. It’s right in between which was perfect because no one knew the gender. The alligators kind of teeter on the masculine side, so I decided to add pastels to trick our guests.

To keep the theme cohesive, we asked all the guests to wear pastels. From the party being scented with cotton candy, to Baby Bosstick Cheetos, to passion fruit probiotic mimosas, to pomegranate Meyer lemon pancakes, to the Bossa nova jazz music, the five senses were happening. It all felt very Disneyland & Alice in Wonderland-esque.

You can watch footage of the baby shower on my Instagram highlights, but I also wanted to do 2 in-depth posts in case any one needs some inspiration for their own baby shower ( or a friend’s ).

You know that I’ve been to a lot of baby showers & my personality is that I’m not a games fan. It’s not my thing, never been my thing. I wanted mimosas. I wanted mimosas flowing everywhere. & I didn’t want anyone to watch me open presents for an hour. It doesn’t sound fun, but that’s just me.

No games, no presents, lots of alcohol, & I always wanted a coed shower. I have tons of girl friends, but I also have a ton of guy friends who are truly my best friends. Hopefully I’ll be at their bachelor parties LOL. I also wanted my dad & father -in law there so that’s what we did. You should also know that for big events like this ( like our wedding too ) we keep it really intimate & only have our closest family & friends there.

My stepmom, Julie, mother-in-law, Lisa & I worked together to make the vision come to life with Encore Events. So thankful for Lisa & Julie because they really helped the event go off without any glitches.

As far as the gender reveal, we decided we didn’t want to pop a balloon or cut a cake. Nothing wrong with those at all, but I just wanted to do something super different & creative. So we utilized the ‘Man Servants.”

If you haven’t heard of Manservants, welcome to the best thing of your life. We used them for my bachelor party too. You can hire them to basically do anything. It was such a hot day so these hotties were holding pastel parasols over everyone’s head while we noshed on banana bread & egg white frittatas. Half of the Manservants were dressed in mint green & the other half were dressed in funfetti pink, serving cocktails at the door with cotton candy. As I said, we really wanted to confuse our guests with the gender.

So  when the baby shower was about 2 hours in & everyone was nice & toasty we blasted Girls Just Want to Fun which was so fitting because Micheal & I were in a 6th grade play together & I sang that song. All of our friends from school immediately got it & remembered I sang this at the 6th grade Jubilee.

Anyway, as the song was playing the Manservants came out dressed head to toe in pink, even the shoes & sunglasses. One was carrying a huge matte pink bottle of rosé, another had a Barbie, one had aa pink vintage phone, & someone had light pink & dark pink roses. Michael also wore a pink polka dot shirt & walked out with them. We also had the Encore Event girls come out with a big sign that said “Michael is so fucked” & they were wearing pink blazers too.

Sidenote: I found this old photo of Michael dressed as an alligator when he was 2 years old so we had that photo blown up & brought out too. I asked my mother-in-law if she still had & she does !! So our daughter can wear it for Halloween when she’s 2. So cute !

You can watch the whole thing go down in this video:

It’s probably worth mentioning that I strategically placed the alligators all over the even tin doggy-style to keep it light & funny. This wasn’t a PG shower & there’s nothing wrong with having some fun with it.

We decided to have the shower at the Beverly Hills Hotel which was super fitting since we did our pregnancy announcement photo shoot there too. It was inspired by Faye Dunaway, sitting by the pool after she won an Oscar.

The Beverly Hills Hotel is just iconic & so is the courtyard. I love the depth of the history with Hollywood Stars. Since we’re having a girl I thought it would be so perfect for her to frame this photo one day & have it on her wall & she can tell people that she had an alligator, pastel themed baby shower at The Beverly Hills Hotel. I mean, she better get this fucking picture blown up. I know this sounds so bougie but it’s just my dream.

Also the hotel is just so well-branded. From the second you drive in you’re surrounding by big palm trees, there’s white & pink striped wall paper, the font is iconic & everything is just very strongly branded. It was just the perfect venue.

Ok, let’s get into who made all of this happen.

Belle Âme Balloons
website | instagram

We were very specific about the balloons so we need this specific balloon company. There were huge, beautiful balloons everywhere.

There’s nothing worse than working with a company who doesn’t bring enough balloons, but Belle Âme brought tons & tons so the whole place looked really full. There were pastel balloons everywhere, even in the trees.

Betchin Cakes
website | instagram

Brittni makes the most epic, cutest, unique cakes in the world. She’s made cakes for Shay Mitchel, Jackie Schimmel of The Bitch Bible, & Stassi Schroeder & let me just tell you she does not disappoint.

As you can see, this came has Michael & I in doggy style & she used a little gummy worm for Michael’s weener which I thought was so funny. All the girls at the party were flicking it, & at the end of the day I pulled it off & ate it. Brittni also worked with us to make a custom alligator cake which was just perfect with our theme.

Bliss and Bone
website |instagram

You guys might remember Bliss and Bone from my wedding invitations. Here’s the thing: sometimes I’m not the best at communicating exactly what’s in my head ( is anyone else like this? ). But Cindy immediately got my vision. In fact, there were no changes when she presented the custom invitations. Which is very rare in my case. Usually I am overly specific.

It’s nice to work with someone who GETS IT so it was a no brainer to have Bliss and Bone do our  baby shower invites & menus for the event too.

I’m going to do a full post on this separately but as you can see we had alligator themed invitations with green & a pop of pink. We wanted to stick with the masculine/feminine look because we hadn’t announced the gender yet. We also did hints of pink marble every, like inside the envelopes. We really wanted to throw people off. The menus were such a highlight at the table too. We kept the same color-scheme but used a bit more pink.

Burlap & Crystal
website | instagram

You guys have met my stepmom, Julie before ( check out this post if you haven’t ). She has such an incredible, creative eye so obviously the nametags she made were adorable & chic. She’s such a visionary when it comes to events & she always helps me. Plus, isn’t her handwriting beautiful?

Encore Events 90210
email | instagram

Thee planning could not have gone smoother because of Encore Events. I found this company through one of Kylie Jenner’s friends & Brittany & her team were able to completely streamline my entire vision.

They delivered EXACTLY what I wanted. I told them everything that was in my head, & using all their resources ( including an amazing graphic designer ) they made it happen. When I saw it, I LOVED IT. Like, no changes you guys. That never happens ! It was exactly, I mean exactly what was in my head.

It’s so nice working with someone who understands your vision without having to tell them every single detail. Their employees were wearing pink blazers & skirts & made everything streamlined. I could not recommend them more for any event.

Lady Glitter Entertainment
website | instagram

When I was in St. Tropez there was this little beach club that does glitter tattoos while you’re partying & I get one every year. & so I wanted this at my baby shower because I wanted something interactive. Instead of everyone just sitting around, I wanted them to have something to do ( but not games ). This was the perfect way to keep people entertained & also have something for them to do while they were drinking & eating. I got a silver glitter tattoo with little rhinestones which reminded me of St. Tropez.

Lana Nicole Events
website | instagram

Lana worked with me to make custom Cheeto’s bags that said BABY BOSSTICK & skittles bags that said BABY BOSS. We also made BOSStic tic tacs. I thought this was such a fun way to personalize some takeaways for the guests.. Any opportunity I can get to be creative  & to make a project fun, I take. I just love a special touch like this.

ManServants
website | instagram

I had my first taste of ManServants at my bachelorette party. Basically, you tell them your type, his duties, & his name ( our’s was named SUSAN at the bachelorette party ). Then he comes over & treats you like a queen. He built my sister’s baby swing ( my nephew, Dax was there! ), fed me grapes, made skinny margaritas, & gave us foot rubs. He also took Instagram pics – a real catch. FESTIVE. Oh the ManServant can also speak French, fan you with a banana leaf, & propose to you in public. Who cares about strippers when you can have this?

So when it came to the baby shower, like who better to help us serve pastel colored cocktails, hold umbrellas over the guests ( they did this for the whole event because it was so hot out ), & help us with the gender reveal, as I said above. They can also rub your back & make a mean martini, so what’s better than that?

Objectify Rentals
instagram

The linens needed to be very specific because, as you know, I wanted them to be pastel. We needed some that blended right with the alligators & plates. The ones that Objectify provided felt amazing & laid great. It’s so important that they don’t pop up on the tables.

Olipop
website |instagram

This brand makes these drinks with prebiotics, botanicals & plant fiber. Fiber has been a huge theme on the blog this year so it was very on brand to have these.

Olive & Nectar
website | instagram

If you want a cheese & meat plate that’s on fucking steroids then Olive & Nectar is your go-to. I’ve never seen Charcuterie boards like this before. They made one for my sister-in-law’s baby shower & first of all it was about 6 feet long. It was so decorated that it’s more like a piece of art. Sofia is so artistic with the way she lays it out- not only did she have all these amazing cheeses, but there were tons of fruits, nuts & crackers & the whole thing was out of this world.

Naturally, we needed a board at our baby shower. Sofia made one for my hotel room so all the girls could snack while we were getting ready. To keep in on theme we had tiny alligators climbing all over the food.

Patricia Altschul
instagram

Pat was kind enough to lend us her alligators from her Southern Charm alligator party & she sent all different kinds. It was perfect because there were a lot of albino alligators which fit right in with the pastel theme. You guys know how obsessed I am with Patricia so this was a big moment.

Petals LA
website | instagram

Petals did all the flowers & they were honestly incredible. They were all pastel, covering the tables & made the whole party feel very ‘Disney princess.’ This company is amazing especially because when your party is over, you can give them back their vases & take the flowers home in the Oasis ( you know, the green foamy stuff florists use? ).

Revelry Event Design
website | instagram

They provided us with tables & chairs & worked with me to make sure the chairs were just perfect. As you can see it was very ‘Alice in Wonderland’ & without these chairs it wouldn’t have been the same.

But you should know that Revelry does amazing event design. Think table settings that will have your jaw on the floor. They have furniture & are basically & interior design company for events.

Scent Events
website | instagram

This company scented Katy Perry’s candy concert with a sugar scent & did Coca Cola’s latest event in cola scent. When I found out about this I immediately asked them if we could scent my baby shower with cotton candy. Boy oh boy he did not disappoint.

The entire shower smelled of fresh, fluffy cotton candy & it really evoked the five senses. I normally have all 4 senses going but to have 5 going with the smell involved was just a whole new world. Let’s just say the whole event was ‘sweet.’

Softy Straws
website | instagram

This is my favorite straw brand on the planet so instead of using paper or plastic at the shower, I wanted everyone to experience a Softy Straw moment. I reached out & asked if they could send us a bunch of straws so we also included them in the goodie bags. We had them throughout the party hanging out of watermelon mimosas.

Sprinkle + Whisk
instagram

This TSC reader reached out & wanted to make us some custom cookies which I was all about, of course! She took them to the next level. We had tiny alligator cookies with pearls on them, we had cookies with the instagram photo we used for our pregnancy announcement, & little Beverly Hills Hotel ones.

Suja
website | instagram

I’ve been a longtime fan of Suja. Their drinks have been a theme over the last 7 years so it’s no surprise I wanted them at the shower. Suja makes cold-pressed, organic juices & they’re just so good. We did watermelon mimosas & we used their probiotic passion fruit to make mimosas too. This way you get your probiotics while having a little fun!

Sweet E’s Bake Shop
website | instagram

This company was kinda enough to make these chic, marble cakes for the shower. They worked with me on the color scheme & also did some cake pops for us. I requested mint green cake pops & they were totally game. Not only were these so pretty, they were delicious too. They had these flowers sticking out of the pastel colored cake & it was such a pretty touch.

The goodie bags were filled with Kopari, Taja Collection candles, Glow Recipe skin care, Woo, Softy Straws & PooPourri but we’ll do a whole post on that next week ( along with my outfit deets ).

Hope you guys liked these ideas. I just wanted to get as detailed as possible on each aspect of the party in case any of you wanted to throw an alligator/pastel baby shower or party ( specific, I know ! ). If you do use any of these ideas, please tag me on Instagram so I can repost it.

&, I’m well aware of how extra I am. I can’t help it. The creativity of pulling everything together & executing a vision is what gets me off. But I can tell you I was hungover after this party even though I didn’t have one sip of alcohol. The following day I actually couldn’t even get out of bed.

Massive respect to all the party & event planners out there. Be sure to stalk part 2 next week where we’ll be talking goodie bags & my outfit.

x, lauryn

+ scope how to throw an epic bachelorette party by Erica of Fashionlush.

++ check out other tips & tricks for baby showers here.

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