Jackie's Baby Shower
WORDS: CHYKA KEEBAUGH
IMAGES: MARCEL AUCAR
WOW! What A DAY!
Jackie and I became great friends when we started shooting Real Housewives of Melbourne all those years ago. We instantly clicked, and over the years, I absolutely love this little pocket rocket and her wonderful husband, Ben. We have had so much fun over the years - from travelling together to having a blast on filming days, and our friendship is one I truly cherish. When I found out that Jackie was pregnant with her treasured babies, I knew I had to do her baby shower because we often talked about it. I was so incredibly excited to celebrate their fantastic news plus have the opportunity to create something extraordinary for Jackie. When creating and making any kind of event, I absolutely love to have a theme, and if you know Jackie - you could guess that my theme for her Baby shower revolved around feathers, clouds and angels.
We have the most beautiful chapel at The Commons, and this was the perfect place to set up the Baby Shower. And I am excited to be able to share all the details with you…
With the theme of the Baby Shower revolving around feathers, clouds and angels, I knew that my colour palette had to start with white. I went about collecting as many cloud and baby-related accessories as I could find, clouds of gyp, white tulle for the table, cloud lights to add detail, balloons upon balloons and a sweet clothesline full of teeny tiny baby clothes. I layered the dining table with tulle to create a cloudy, floating effect and then ladened it with beautiful gyp, otherwise known as baby's breath- how fitting! I used baby bottles, white teddies and dummies as decoration and kept the china simple in white and classic glass. Keeping your tableware simple means that your accessories will shine! And that's precisely what they did.
For me, a baby shower needs to have a beautiful table full of delicious treats that are in keeping with the theme. It is a table that is seriously delicious to look at, so much so that you just want to eat it all. How do you achieve this? Well easy! If the theme is white, then keep that through the food. As I was pulling together a desserts table, I had a simple yet amazing cake made by the very talented The Butchers Daughter kept all the icing white, a collection of very cute cookies created by Michelle’s Cookies, all matching back perfectly with the Chic De Partie gold-flecked macarons. I used glass vessels to serve and elevate the treats, cake stands to create depth and height and marble trays to display food.
Keeping an all-white themed food table makes it look extraordinary, and I love that you can get all colour-blocked lollies at Lombards. This makes such a difference when shopping for the details; you can keep to your theme no problem at all, and everything looks amazing! Cloudy, soft and sweet, this dessert table sat in front of a bespoke handpainted backdrop especially made for the shower by Hey! Nice Murals. Handpainted in whites and greys, this backdrop fit snugly into the alcove of the chapel and was the perfect backdrop to a beautiful day.
Having attended quite a few in my time, baby showers have games for the Mum to be. These can be fun ways to share our own experiences, share advice and give tips to the new Mum, so on this exciting day for Jackie, I knew we needed something extra special. As we sat at the table under a cloud of white balloons beautifully made and styled by Poppies For Grace, I had a collection of oversized balloons filled with feathers and cushion filler to look like clouds. Each balloon had a question to ask Jackie, our Mum to be. This was a fun way to get everyone chatting, laughing and sharing their stories. Its interactive elements like these can make a day even more memorable.
This Real Housewives of Melbourne shoot was an enjoyable and happy day, and I loved that we were able to keep it relatively drama free and enjoy Jackie’s baby reveal! Finding out the sex of a child is very exciting - so when there are two - you guessed it, it was double the excitement! Keeping the shower in whites and neutrals created a beautifully subtle backdrop to the colours that shot out of that cannon, don’t you agree?
