Gamecock Football themed Baby Shower

My best friend from college, Oxana, is expecting her baby boy in March.  When she said she wanted a Gamecock baby shower I was a little hesitant.  Even though I LOVE the gamecocks and Carolina football, I didn't know how I was going to keep it classy and cute instead of having the shower look like a tailgate.  Since it was the theme she wanted, I decided to run with it and I was really happy with how everything turned out.

Invites: I decided to make football ticket invitations for the shower.  I usually go with handmade invites but I couldn't come up with anything creative on card stock so I decided to go this route. Charlie (my fabulous and mac savvy husband) made the invitations come to life in Illustrator (with me annoying him over his shoulder) but I couldn't give a tutorial on how to do these if I tried.  If you're interested in re-creating the invites, I'm sure a local invitation shop could help.

Wreath: I used my typical go-to twig wreath and wrapped garnet and black ribbon around it with the football ticket invitation at the bottom.  I also stuck in some football "picks"to add to the theme of the wreath.

Decor: Because Charlie has a "man room" full of Gamecock items, I had an easy time with party decorations! I was also given a ton of USC platters when we got married so I had the table covered there too! I bought some black fabric to use as a table runner over my mom's garnet table cloth and the table theme was set.

Themed Food: I thought it would be cute to have at least one concession type food item so I bought popcorn bags at Party City and had a huge bowl of popcorn on a separate table.  I also brought in the football theme to the table with some football cupcake toppers bought at Party City.  They were actually meant to be "party picks" but they were perfect for cupcake toppers.

 Party Favors: I almost always stick with decorated sugar cookies as party favors and this time was no exception.  The always fabulous Pink Magnolia Bakery did the cookies and I was so excited with how they turned out.  They made the onesies into football jerseys and did the others to match the pregnant mom's top with a little football.

 Games: Instead of a typical baby shower game, I came up with a trivia game about Gamecock sports and sports related questions about the mama-to-be, Oxana, and the winner got a prize.

The shower was so much fun and we had a wonderful turn-out.  Here's a picture of me and the mama-to-be with our garnet and black on... just like the old days!