Tacos and Tequila: Amy and Greg's Baby Shower

This past weekend the girls and I helped host a couple's baby shower for our friends Greg and Amy. Little back story on Greg and Amy...they have been trying to have a baby for several years now. They had tried IVF several times with no success. Amy was going through her IVF experience while several of us were pregnant with our first babies. I'm sure that couldn't have been easy for Amy, but she was nothing but excited and happy for us, and even helped host our baby shower back in November! What a great friend! Amy and Greg tried IVF one more time at the beginning of this year, and....HOORAY...IT WORKED!!! Baby Spock will be here November 2015! God is so so good! So needless to say, we were all very excited to celebrate this miracle child, and the wonderful parents to be! 

If you know Amy at all, then it's safe to say you know that this Texas girl loves herself a good fiesta themed party and some even better Mexican food! So we all knew that despite our desire to throw her a Star Trek themed baby shower (there last name is Spock! Just kidding Amy we would never do that to you!!) a Mexican themed shower it would be! Their only other request was that the shower be a couples shower for men and women. So after scouring Pinterest, we decided that a Tacos and Tequila theme was perfect for a Guy/Girl shower in honor of Baby Boy Spock!

***I feel like I should mention that party planning seriously stresses me out. I'm getting hives just thinking about it. I am not crafty or organized so the idea of hosting a couples shower for 65 people was right up there with basketball and self-pedicures as things I fail at. Conveniently, our group of friends is filled with talented women that put together fabulous parties like it ain't no thang! So when I say that "we" did all of the following things, just know that I was much more of the manual labor end of this party, as opposed to the conceptual side! I can, however, assemble party lanterns and rope lights like a boss now! Marketable skills people...marketable skills. ***

**Disclaimer 2: One of the hostesses, Sarah, is a generous and talented photographer who graciously captured all the goings on from the shower so that Amy and Greg have some great keepsakes from the night.  She also let me share them on my blog today! If you want to see more of her work, and some of her great photos from around Kwaj, check out her page here.

We had the shower at the Yacht Club on island, and it turned out to be a great location! We were a little nervous because most of the Yacht club is an outdoor patio with a portion that is covered, but it's shall we say "open to the elements." We went to set up the morning of the shower, and it was sunny and bright with nary a cloud in sight. The party was at 6pm that night, and our plan was to head down to the Yacht Club around 5:15 to set up food and give everything a once over before guests arrived. Well...our beautiful sunny weather was more along the lines of this when we arrived...

That is lots and lots of rain...there are other islands out there you just can't seem them because...RAIN!

We had streamers and tablecloths and center pieces all set up, but then the aforementioned rain hit, and you've never seen 6 women in heels move so fast to take everything off the tables before they got soaked. Thankfully that was the only hiccup, and the rain actually ended up cooling the temperatures down, and stopped by the time most of the guests got there! We were even able to dry everything off and get the original decorations put back out: 

Tables, centerpieces, and fiesta lights 

The weather finally cleared enough for the guests to go outside

The centerpieces were beautiful and so easy...just some glass hurricanes filled with lime slices, lemons, and some natural flora that was growing near by :)

Everyone had to grab a necklace ...

And a Koozie ;)

We served a few appetizers (taco dip, queso, guacamole, mini taco cups) then a buffet style dinner with pork and chicken tacos, tamales, rice, beans, various taco toppings: 

For dessert we had a very talented woman on island make a Mexican Chocolate cake (it had some kind of cinnamon spice in it) and it was delicious!

Sarah and I were in charge of the games for the party, and we were pretty much on the same page as far as what kind of games we thought would be good for a couples shower. We figured that most of the men in attendance wouldn't want to guess what kind of candy bar was smashed in a diaper, or "pin the sperm on the uterus", etc. so for our first game we had a "Guess the Baby Beer" game. We filled 6 baby bottles with 6 types of beer ( we used Corona, Dos Equis, Bud Light, Miller Light, Redd's Apple Beer, and Hoegaarden) and you got to sample beer from each bottle then try and match which beer was in which numbered bottle. We had it set up on the bar right where you walked in so it was a nice way to get people to play, and make sure people were getting drinks and having a good time. I highly recommend this game for guy/girl showers because it really gets the men folk involved. If I did it again though, I would pick beers that weren't so similar because nobody was able to guess them all correctly. We did however have two guys get 4 out of 6 right, and we made them our winners.

Eric was one of the lucky winners!

We wanted our second game to feature Greg and Amy in some way, so we played a little baby trivia game. We had Greg and Amy sit in front of everyone while wearing their finest Mexican attire while I read some multiple choice baby trivia questions. I used some of the questions from this trivia sheet. Greg and Amy were pretty impressive with their baby knowledge, and it was nice to have a game that featured just the two of them!

Action shot of the trivia game...no...that's not a microphone I'm holding...I prefer to do my emcee-ing, drink in hand. #crushedit

Amy and Greg in their fiesta finest

no peaking allowed!

We didn't want the night to be too game focused so, after the trivia game, everyone relaxed and enjoyed the rest of the party! Here are some candid's from the rest of the night: 

The parents-to-be: Greg and Amy!

Two of the hostesses Lindsey and Mandie

I should probably work on more animation when I talk...

You can't have a Tacos and Tequila shower without margaritas

Most of the gentlemen spent the evening propping the bar up ;)

A little Baby Spock love. Photobomber-Don

Rounding out the promised tequila portion of the evening...

...it went down smooth!

Some gag gifts were opened

the centerpieces were diligently inspected by Maya and Aksel

The hostesses-minus Angela, Cher, and Jane who were off island!

It was such a fun shower, and I think Amy and Greg really enjoyed it! It was a perfect mix of celebration and island fun. Baby Spock we can't wait to meet you...you are already so loved!