The Shower Diva: Where Fun Reigns!

Jennifer Sbranti, The Hostess with the Mostess®

Jennifer Sbranti, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Hostess with the Mostess™ shares her insider tips for entertaining with style!

Special note from Susan "The Shower Diva": I was honored to meet with this creative hostess and talk about what moves us. We share the same passion and I've admired her for some time now. I'm so pleased to introduce you to you one of the most talented hostesses I know. You are in for a treat as Jennifer shares some of her insider tips and secrets to entertaining.

Weddings and new babies are major life events and showers are an important part of the celebration. If you’re the hostess for an upcoming baby shower, bridal shower or bachelorette party, get creative and add some out-of-the ordinary touches to create a unique event. With a little bit of ingenuity and some insider organizational tips, you can throw a memorable, high style shower. The secret is to decide what you want to include in your shower and customize it to the occasion.

Where to find unique theme ideas. If the Guest of Honor picks a theme, it will make the whole planning process easier because you’ll have something to base all your decisions on. Your theme can be very specific, or it can simply be the Guest of Honor’s favorite color. If your Guest of Honor needs some inspiration for her theme, try a few of my favorite sources:

• Take a trip to some local dress shops, department stores, and fabric outlets. Often, a great piece of fabric or a beautiful dress will inspire other ideas for your party décor.
• Visit stationery stores to browse their gift wrap selection. Look for patterns and colors that entice you as a jump-off point to your own original theme.
• Shop for scrapbooking elements you love and coordinating embellishments. These days there’s something for everyone at a scrapbooking store.
• Look at decorating and party magazines and websites.
• Pick a traditional theme and give it your own unique twist. For instance, if you decide on a rubber ducky themed baby shower and the Mother-to-Be is a very modern girl, pair modern ducks with sleek accents. If she’s more vintage, go with vintage duckys and accessories.

New trends for the 2009–2010 party scene.

• There are a lot of great bold color palettes coming out right now and I think they’ll be around for awhile. People seem to be veering away from pastels and going for bright colors. Some combinations I’m seeing a lot lately are grey and yellow, black and white, and aqua and yellow.
• Co-ed showers are another big trend, but if you’re doing a Jack and Jill bash, it needs to be guy friendly. You might want to consider a barbeque or something similar if you’re including men.
• Signature drinks and cocktails—or mocktails if you want something non-alcoholic—are very popular and a lot of fun. Do something that matches your theme and name it after the Guest of Honor for a special touch.
• A lot of people are doing dessert and candy buffets instead of the traditional cake at their showers and they look beautiful. Offer a variety of sweets such as slices of cake, decorated cookies, cupcakes, and miniature tarts—they’ll look best if you display them on serving dishes of varied heights. Add several varieties of colorful candies in mini apothecary jars to round out your dessert table.

Focus on the Guest of Honor, even if it’s a Baby Shower. Bridal showers have always sort of naturally focused on the Guest of Honor but traditional Baby Showers are very focused on the baby. Of course everyone is very excited in anticipation of the new arrival, but there will be lots of celebrations centering around the baby once he or she arrives—naming rituals, the first birthday and similar occasions. Remember to celebrate the Mother-to-Be at your Baby Shower by choosing a theme, colors and activities that are a reflection of her.

Decorating like a designer. Oh there are so many great ideas out there. Here are a few of my favorites:

• Buy a set of coordinating scrapbooking supplies and use it to create customized party décor. It will be very easy to make everything match. For instance, you can use the scrapbooking materials to customize plain invitations. The 12 x 12 scrapbooking pages make festive placemats. Buy complimentary ribbons to use as napkin rings.
• You can buy rub-on transfers to decorate your plates and glassware. It’s so easy. Pick a design you like and use a burnishing stick to rub it onto drinking glasses, plates, or vases for your centerpiece. One idea using this method is to get words like love and cherish and apply them to white plates. With very little effort, you have a designer look and the rub-on transfers come right off after the party.
• Fill glass cylinders or vases with pretty items to make a colorful centerpiece. You might line clear cylinders with orange slices, or fill them with fruits, vegetables or potpourri. Wrap a band of pretty paper around the cylinder and add a tag or medallion with the Guest of Honor’s name.
• Boxes wrapped up and bedecked with ribbons also make fun centerpiece. Go for the look of a pile of presents on the table.
• Decorate with items you already have around the house or with something you can give to the Guest of Honor. An eclectic group of vases with a single flower in each one makes a striking display. Or photo frames with pictures of the Guest of Honor.
• Feather trees and bouquets are another inexpensive way to create dramatic décor elements and they’re easy to make. A little floral foam will secure the feathers in any position you like.

Choose games and activities that are inclusive. People don’t like to be put on the spot, especially if they don’t know everyone in the room. Group activities are very popular because they help your guests feel comfortable and included. Try:

• Decorating onesies at a Baby Shower. Have the Mother-to-Be award a prize for her favorite.
• Incorporating celebrities, for instance playing the celebrity name matching game.
• Providing scrapbooking supplies and having everyone make a page for a scrapbook that’s given to the Guest of Honor. Have her award a prize for her favorite page.

The more organized you are, the better. Seasoned party planners mind the details and you should too.

• Make a binder with a section for each major element of your party. It should have a section for food, drinks, inspiration from magazines, activities, etc. Add a zippered bag to your binder and put all your receipts inside so you can watch your budget—it’s easy to get carried away when you’re shopping for party supplies.
• Set up a mock table before the day of the shower so you know for sure how everything looks when assembled and you’ll be confident you know what you’re doing the day of the party.
• Be working ahead of time. Aim for having all your preparations in place a couple of weeks before the shower. That way, if you forgot something, you don’t have to rush around or pay overnight shipping charges to get what you need.

If you’re going to be throwing a lot of parties, invest wisely. Buy a great set of basic white tableware. It will go with everything. Then, add cool accent plates. They’re less expensive so you could buy a set of zebra prints, a set of holiday prints, a set with red polka dots – whatever you want for your next party. Clear glassware is also a great investment. You can always dress it up with ribbons or bands of paper to achieve a designer look for a fraction of the cost. The same goes for simple white linen napkins and tablecloths.

Remember, most great hostesses are made, not born. Keep your eye out for interesting ideas and keep practicing. You’ll soon be known in your circle of friends as the “hostess with the mostess.”

About Jennifer Sbranti.
An accomplished designer, entrepreneur, and entertaining guru from San Diego, California, Jennifer Sbranti and her husband Sonny founded Hostess with the Mostess, Inc. in 2006 to help inspire others to celebrate their friends and family with panache. Having hosted countless celebrations herself, Jennifer knew there were lots of beautiful designer products on the market but they were very expensive. So, she set out to find creative ways to throw great parties at a reasonable cost and teach her fans how to become a “hostess with the mostess.” Today, she is Founder and Editor-in-Chief of HostessWithTheMostess.com and writes a daily blog: The Hostess with the Mostess Guide to Fabulous Finds for Contemporary Entertaining. Watch for her posts from the upcoming BlogHer conference where she’s co-hosting the SocialLuxe Lounge. Jennifer has been a featured in People, InStyle Weddings, and Extra TV, and is a featured contributor for several online communities including RealSimple.com.