Festive Backyard Baby-Q Bash!

As a true Southerner, this Fall Backyard Baby-Q Bash spoke right to my heart! “I’ve thrown lots of showers, but this one holds a special place as it was for my sister and her husband,” shared Christina Prusz of Le Partie Sugar. “My sister is more burgers and hot dogs and less crumpets and tea, which is how the idea for a Baby-Q started. The colors were inspired by their baby’s nursery: navy, natural browns and whites.” Read on for lots of party details from favors + games to the food stations and decorations….

 PARTY DETAILS
The Baby-Q Bash was hosted in my parents’ backyard, we had a Gourmet Burger Station where burgers were grilled to order, there were several food and drink stations, tables and chairs for eating, a few cocktail tables for socializing,  globe lights and hanging mason lanterns from the trees. To give the evening a rustic feel I used some old, vintage furniture from my parents’ house and a heavy dose of burlap and kraft paper to coordinate all the pieces.

FOOD & DRINK
The main food was the Gourmet Burger Station, I hired a caterer to come and grill the burgers to order.  I also had special custom buns made for the “babyburgers”, since they were smaller than a regular hamburger but bigger than a slider. Guests were able to taste a few, and some tried all three! The burgers were served in kraft paper boxes with kettle chips.

The beverage station had Autumn Sangria, Red and White Wine, Beer, and old “Pop Shoppe” bottles filled with soda and stripey straws. I hung an old wire tiered fruit basket from the tree and filled it with custom-wrapped water bottles. I made three different water bottle labels each containing the baby’s due date (11/11/11), each bottle had a fun little note: “diaper duty starts 11.11.11, rocking our world starting 11.11.11 and baby makes three 11.11.11”.

There was also a food table with lots of fall hors d’oeuvres: Persimmon Salad with Goat Cheese, Pomegranate Seeds and Toasted Hazelnuts, Spaghetti Squash with Jalapeño Cream and Jack Cheese, Macaroni and Cheese, Cheese platter with figs and marcona almonds, and the very popular Pigs-in-a-Blanket. I also made some Butternut Squash Soup Shooters served with Grilled Sourdough topped with Gruyere and Fig, the caterer hand-passed these to the guests.

The dessert bar contain lots of delicious mini dessert treats including brownie bites, chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin pie bites and caramel apples. We also had a coffee station with kahlua and special rock sugar stirrers.

FAVORS & GAMES
The favors were “S’mores For Two” kits in kraft boxes. Inside I wrapped graham crackers sealed with a navy sticker and tied with jute a bag of dark chocolate and marshmallows. I included heating directions so people could make them in the oven at home, and at the very end of the instructions I let people know they could show “s’more love” for baby phillips by signing up to bring the new parents a meal via MealBaby.com.

I also made mad-lib style New Parent Advice cards, and had rustic twig colored pencils – everyone had so much fun filling these out (even the guys!) and we had a blast reading back the notes the next day after the party. My sister didn’t want to have any traditional “games”, so the advice cards served as nice way for guests to be involved and we also Cornhole set up to the side.