Circus Baby Shower – Invitations & Decor (Part 1 of 2)

If you are planning a circus baby shower, read on for the best and easiest circus decorations.

This past weekend, I co-hosted a circus baby shower for my sister, Melissa, who is pregnant with her first child, a boy named Landon! (I love the bunting with his name made by Lisa Leonard. SO perfect for decorations and photo shoots.)

We hosted the shower in Wisconsin and had such a wonderful time. I am so excited to share all the details with you. Today I am going to share about the theme, invitations and decor, and tomorrow I will share about the food and games. Some links in this post are referral and affiliate links.

The circus baby shower theme

The idea for the circus baby shower theme was sparked when I found Valentine’s circus cookie jars and small treat containers at Target on clearance 90% off. Apparently, they were not a hit for Valentine’s, but I thought they were PERFECT for a baby shower. I bought everything I could find in Nashville, plus had some friends buy some in other cities and we were set. (This goes back to my tips and tricks for party planning in advance.)

Circus Baby Shower Invitation

I was shocked how difficult it was to find a cute circus baby shower invitation. I found one on Etsy that I loved, but the shop was closed during the period I needed to order. It all worked out though because I found a different circus birthday invitation that stole my heart and the designer modified it with text I provided to make it baby shower specific. (This invitation is no longer available, but this one is similar.)

Everyone absolutely loved it!

Once I received the design, I uploaded and ordered the cards from Minted. What was great about using Minted, in addition to the phenomenal printing and card stock quality, was that I was able to upload all the addresses and have them printed on the envelopes for FREE! Such a huge time-saver! When you use my Minted link you’ll get $25 off a $100 purchase.

I also ordered return address labels from VistaPrint that had elephants on them to keep with the circus theme.

Photo booth

I made a primary colored bunting to hang up with some colored fabric to make a sweet photo booth at the shower. (To make, get 1/3 yards of five colors and a pack of bias tape. Cut the fabric into 7″x8″ triangles, sew together the triangles, then sew to bias tape. I like to make my buntings double sided so that they will work anywhere.) If you don’t want to make a bunting, this one is very similar and affordable. The photo spot was centrally located in the room and was a focal point as people walked into the shower.

In it, we had a variety of masks (similar here) and clown noses for people to pose in a photo booth.

We also had a clown wig, but the ladies didn’t want to wear it. However, Elias was a huge fan.

Because of the photo booth, we were able to get pictures of Melissa with just about everyone who attended the circus shower, which was so nice.

We also planned to have her open gifts at the front of the room under an Ikea big top canopy that I hung above the fireplace, but people couldn’t see her, so we moved her to the more centrally located photo booth. The backdrop was darling for her gift photos, though I was disappointed to not have the big top in more photos.

Ticket accents

I bought tickets at the Dollar Tree and created a ticket garland on the railing leading up to the clubhouse where we had the circus baby shower. We also tied balloons to the end of the railing. It was SO easy and everyone commented on how cute it was.

I also wrapped tickets around jars of candy on the dessert table (more about the food tomorrow) and attached tags sent to me by the sweet Kerri P. (be sure to click the link to see her amazing circus shower). The small circus napkins were from Michaels.

In the photo you can also see one of the circus tent cookie jars that I bought at Target after Valentine’s Day. We tied red, yellow and blue balloons to each of these and scattered them throughout the room. Originally we were going to use the Valentine’s cookie jars as centerpieces, but because of me being out of town, things didn’t work out as planned. However, what my aunt came up with was perfect!

The centerpieces

My Aunt Sandy took the lead and designed these beautiful popcorn circus baby shower centerpieces with the prettiest lollipops I have ever seen. They looked so awesome.

We scattered mint filled little circus tents (bought at Target after Valentine’s) on the tables as well.

After our circus baby shower, we made a quick video explaining how to put these centerpieces together. These centerpieces could work for a variety of themes. I am going to be creating similar ones for Adeline’s Sesame Street party in a few weeks. The possibilities are endless. Check it out below.

Read about the menu and games in this blog post.