Can you believe it?! I had another little marshmallow and now our little family is complete!

Since this was our third child, I didn’t want a traditional baby shower. I didn’t want the pastel tones, the same old shower games, the girls-only type of party…

I wanted a MEXICAN FIESTA! I wanted to celebrate our love, my heritage and our family.

We were fortunate to have my mother-in-law Rhonda, and our good friends Melissa and Erica host our shower. All I had to do was the styling, decorations and invitations.

My mom had done a fiesta party in the past so she already had all the decorations made. Definitely got lucky!!

I designed our invitations in Photoshop then printed them on cardstock paper. I fringed tissue paper and attached it to the top and bottom. I finished it with a strip of washi tape.

There were so many festive and fun details in this fiesta.

My mom hand-made paper flowers which I used on the dessert table, the centerpieces and by the cantina.

To decorate the tables,we laid serape print fabric runners over the tables,placed a few paper flowers on a barro cantarito, then added a few other surrounding decorations – Jarritos sodas with sombreros, a mini donkey piñata, hand-painted maracas and a little basket filled with traditional Mexican candies.

    

I grew up eating these yummy candies!

We hung a plastic papel picado banner from side to side on our back brick wall. The banner measures a whopping 100 feet long so it was more than enough to cover our 70 foot wall. This was such an economical way to decorate the whole back and much easier than making my own with tissue paper. If you’re having a fiesta, a Cinco de Mayo celebration or anything of the sort, I strongly recommend purchasing this banner!

We had lots extra so we used it to decorate everywhere else.

I have a small baker’s rack that I purchased years ago from Walmart that I always use in my parties. It’s the perfect size for disposables, favors and additional decorations.

This time I used it to display the fiesta favors and a few disposables needed by the appetizers and cantina station.

To get our guests in a fiesta mood, we had adhesive mustaches for the men and flower hair clips for the ladies.

Somebody would not take off his sombrero for the whole time. Good thing we had a few extras, the kids loved running around with them on.

We also had hand-painted wood maracas that the kids and adult guests loved playing with.

The box came with 24 plain wood maracas. I painted them all different with acrylic paints and drew different designs and patterns on them with Elmer’s Paint Pens. I loved how they came out.

In the appetizers station AKA la cantina:

We offered horchata and tamarindo waters for non-alcohol drinkers and cerveza and margaritas for the borrachos.

I made the signs pretty much the same way that I made the invitations, with hand-cut fringed tissue paper.

To go along with the yummy tacos, we had:

Mexican deep-fried churritos with sal, limon and chile,

spicy peanuts,

‘

tortilla chips and guacamole,

phyllo cups – half with jalapeño and cheese and the other with vanilla pudding and chipped strawberries and kiwi.

   

In the cantina we offered a variety of margarita options:

Traditional, pre-mixed, mango and strawberry!

Lovin’ the serape on the tequila bottle and the sombreros on the mix bottles.

The plastic margarita glasses and the blenders are ready to fiesta!

My friend Erica is the margarita connoisseur.

I caught her in her zone here LOL

   

Taco time:

We had the traditional – carne asada, pollo asado, rice and beans with three salsas.

Here’s the tough decision you had to make after making your tacos:

Tomatillo green, roasted molcajete or pico de gallo?

The peltre spoons I found were the perfect touch for our food bar. These are very traditional in Mexico.

For dessert:

I made the backdrop with yute twine and fringed tissue paper. I hung the twine in a zig zag pattern side to side on my PVS frame. This was so easy to make but a little time consuming as my “fancy” Martha Stewart fringe scissors did not work for this. Apparently they only work if you’re doing very small details not full tissue sheets. Anyway, I decided to glue on the sheets to the twine so they wouldn’t blow off if the wind picked up.

The table has very traditional desserts such as: borrachitos (liquor infused milk and sugar candies),

cups with home-made horchata ice cream (which was absolutely the most delicious ice cream I’ve ever had. Tip: scoop ice cream balls into shot cups with lids and freeze them ahead of time so you don’t have to sit there scooping as your guests wait on you.),

cups with home-made arroz con leche (my mom made it right before the party. It brought back so many sweet memories.),

churros,

and a variety of Mexican sweet bread and cookeis,

All served on traditional hand-painted barro platters.

We put together little favor baggies filled with Mexican candies and handed them to our guests as they left. I designed and printed labels for them.

Resources and Vendor Credits:

• Styling, photography and invitations: The Marshmallow Studio
• Paper flowers, hand-painted signs and arroz con leche: Carmen Ramirez
• Plastic papel picado banner, flag paper picado toothpicks, bottle serape, mustaches, hair flower clips, fiesta napkins, DIY wood maracas, and mini donkey piñatas: OrientalTrading.com
• Galvanized steel cake stands: Pick Your Plum
• Sign frames: Ikea
• Treat baggies, yute roll, Americana acrylic paints, Elmer’s paint markers, washi tape, cardstock paper and envelopes: Michael’s 
• Labels: Onlinelabels.com
• Disposable plates, cups, utensils, margarita glasses, mini spoons, and mini cups: Party City
• Catering: Maxima Market
• Mexican bread, water mixes, Jarritos sodas, candy, spicy peanuts, churritos, chips, tortillas and salsas: Cardena’s Market
• Churros: Costco
• Horchata ice cream: Shanna Schad from Pineapple and Coconut

Above: my mom and I. Everyone thinks she’s my sister haha.

Below: my hubs and I just three weeks away from popping!

DISCLOSURE: I received products from Oriental Trading for my event. This review is based strictly my opinion. Others may have a different opinion or experience with the product listed above. I was provided the sample free of charge by each company or PR agency and I provided my honest opinion. No other type of compensation was received for this review.