Tanya of Save the Date for Cupcakes was super excited to work on the dessert table for Operation Shower‘s recent Once Upon A Shower themed baby shower event in NYC… and rightfully so with such an amazing cause attached! With a lot of support and teamwork from many other great vendors (donated in honor of our troops & their families) this storybook theme came to life in a big way! Read on to see how once upon a time, 40 military-moms-to-be were showered with love, gratitude, and insanely cute sweets… at what can only be described as a fairytale of a baby shower. ;)

PARTY HIGHLIGHTS to look out for….

• “Once Upon A Shower” themed cake and mounted table backdrop
  
• Adorable “Cow Jumped Over the Moon” cake pops
• Curious George inspired candy kabobs + Lorax themed marshmallow Truffula Trees
• “If you Give a Mouse a Cookie” decorated sugar cookies
• Story book backdrop designed by Paper and Cake!

PARTY DETAILS, as told by Tanya…

I was thrilled when I found out that Operation Shower was coming to NY to host their “Once Upon A Shower” themed shower! Even though it was my first time working directly with the lovely ladies who run Operation Shower, it wasn’t the first dessert table that I designed for them. During the holidays I designed a Sugar Plum Fairy Nutcracker Dessert Table where I donated the proceeds to Operation Shower. I come from a military family so I understand that every penny counts, and how much it means when people come together to support our troops.

Styling a dessert table with lots a vendors can be tricky sometimes. I’m glad I was able to reach out to one of my favorite dessert table stylist, Marie from Sweets Indeed for advice on this one! Not only is she super sweet for chatting with me but she donated some of the cutest Banana Topped Curious George inspired Candy Kabobs for the event!

I decided to have each dessert represent a different storybook inspired by the modern storybook designs by Paper and Cake. I reached out to Darcy Miller and One Girl Cookies who collaborated on custom illustrated stickers that Darcy designed herself for the boxed Pumpkin Whoopie Pies that Dawn of One Girl Cookies donated. I worked with Sugar Couture on the gorgeous colorful cake that was used as the focal point of the table. It was propped up on a painted wagon that matched the wagon in the designs. Sugar High Inc. made the MOST AMAZING fondant characters that I’ve ever seen that were used throughout the entire dessert table. I honestly can’t pick a favorite! The Marshmallow Studio donated Pink/Orange/Yellow Truffula Trees to represent the Lorax. Glittery apple topped Chocolate Covered Oreos were made for The Very Hungry Caterpillar from Pretzels Pleaze. NY Cake Pops made super cute cow shaped cake pops for The Cow Jumped Over The Moon.  Sugar Cookies made to match the designs and yummy Salted Caramels were donated from Firefly Confections. I displayed the caramels in striped paper cups provided by The TomKat Studio. I bunched Pink Flower Lollies from The Sweetest Affair in glass vessels that were lined with printed patterned paper. I loved mixing and matching all of the fun patterns and colors.

For the backdrop, I wanted to focus on Operation Shower and the storybook theme so I asked Abigail of Paper and Cake to send me over a large PDF file of the books from the designs to be printed in poster size. My fabricator (AKA my husband) used spray adhesive and a foam core board to mount the poster. It was one of my favorite parts of the table! I had a lot of fun collaborating with everyone to bring my vision to life. Most importantly, it was for a good cause!