A Practically Perfect Baby Shower
When I found out I was having a baby girl, I knew that I’d want a baby shower theme that was light and bright featuring lots of pastels. My baby is due in spring, so there’s no better excuse for pretty pale colors, right? I’ve never shied away from a Disney theme before — hello Tangled Bridal Shower and subtle Disney wedding! So when I was reminded that my favorite Disney movie was celebrating its 60th anniversary later this year, it seemed like a practically perfect fit for my baby shower theme.
From the music to the characters, Mary Poppins has always been a special movie to me. In my house growing up this is one VHS tape we played on repeat. My mom shares birthday with this special movie’s anniversary year and it was one of Walt Disney’s last films he was a part of before his untimely death. I cover what makes this movie so special in an episode of my podcast, The Carousel Project — and spoiler alert — it’s a lot! I even shared a pretty special moment with Mary Poppins at Walt Disney World in my childhood. She was the one to tell me and my sister that my mom was expecting our baby brother Kevin!
When I began researching a Mary Poppins themed party, I found that most decor stuck to her classic colors — red, blue, yellow, and black. With a vision of pastels on my mind, I decided to pull inspiration from my own collection of vintage 1964 Mary Poppins merchandise! All of the books, games, and other keepsakes I’ve collected over the years featured more whimsical coloring with an emphasis on pinks and purples.
With these keepsakes as a guide, my sweet hostesses and their party planning team went above and beyond to bring my favorite Disney movie to life on for my baby shower! One of my favorite areas that they created was the seating area where I’d open my presents. The pastel balloon arch with fun penguin balloons near my chair was definitely one of the biggest compliments for decor I received from my guests.
I also brought my daughter’s future dollhouse bookshelf from her nursery to fill with her books as I opened gifts. It was so fun to see the shelves fill with stories we can read together someday! I even made a special list of Disney Books for your Baby’s Library to make putting these special pages on your registry that much easier. I can’t recommend this concept enough because my guests were awesome about pulling books directly from my registry to avoid doubles!
When it came to cookies, I knew I wanted these to be the star of my shower. This was my guests’ favor and I wanted to bring the elements of the original Mary Poppins film to life, but with pastel coloring. My girl Michelle at Michelle’s Custom Cookies took my inspiration photos and color requests and created the Mary Poppins cookies of my dreams. I told her since our shower theme was “Practically Perfect in Every Way” I wanted a special tape measure cookie like the famous scene from the film, but with gold coloring instead of the bold yellow. I also requested umbrella and carousel elements, the penguins (if possible), and a gold spoonful of sugar cookie to tie in with one of our desserts at the event.
As you can see, she absolutely nailed these! I love how she added elements of black without it overpowering the overall pastel and white color scheme. If you’re in my area locally, I recommend Michelle’s Custom Cookies for you next event!
One fun touch we saw throughout our party planning was Spoonful of Sugar Cake Pops! We knew this would be a sweet way to tie in one of Mary Poppin’s most iconic musical numbers. Some of the extra details that I loved about these cake pops were the fun gold spoons we used and of course Mary Poppin’s hat on the tiered platter.
A special surprise that my hostesses had for me at the shower was Mary’s Mimosa Bar with a classic Disney Parks drink option, POG Juice! Anytime I’m at breakfast on Walt Disney World property, I’m ordering a POG juice so this thoughtful touch meant so much. My guests loved this juice choice as well — It was more popular than our special themed shower punch!
For the shower’s main punch we concocted a “Practically Perfect Punch” which could be garnished with pineapple or raspberries, which was a fun nod to Disneyland’s Jolly Holiday Cafe on Main Street. We even made some “Practically Imperfect Punch” featuring Tito’s, too.
My cake was from our local grocery bakery and featured a pastel carousel topper. I loved the simplicity of this cake because it tied the other sweets together perfectly. (Also, there wasn’t a bite left!)
I created both of my baby shower games on Canva along with the party invitations and food label cards! Once I got the inspiration for the party in place it was easy to build on it for little elements like this.
I have a number of vintage Mary Poppins books in my collection, but Josie gave me one more that is truly priceless now. We used a large vintage Mary Poppins book as my guest book for the shower and once the day was over it was fun to look through the illustrations and see what messages were left for my baby girl.
Last but certainly not least was Jane & Michael’s Candy Bar! My party planning team went all out stocking this table with sweets for guests to grab while I opened my presents. They even included cute candy bags for people to take with them on their way out.
No Mary Poppins candy bar would be complete without toppins, right? They truly thought of everything when it came to the party details! Some of my other favorite candies featured were the pink and white rock candy sticks, assortment of Sour Patch Kids, pastel M&Ms, and Airheads.
If you’re planning a Mary Poppins themed baby shower or party, I hope these details helped bring your concept to life! I even created a list with some of the elements we used for my baby shower to make shopping even easier.
This special day was truly a dream come true for me. When the idea of a Mary Poppins themed baby shower came to mind, I never could’ve imagined what beautiful details my girls would bring to life for me. The shower theme may have been “Practically Perfect in Every Way” but my baby shower was absolutely perfect in every way!
