Our drive-through & virtual baby showers

Being pregnant in a pandemic hasn’t been easy. From wearing a mask all day, to not being able to have my husband at any appointments with me, there’s been a lot of dealing with the unknown and unexpected.

I knew that I did want to have a baby shower despite everything, but I also knew that I was not comfortable with a traditional shower under the circumstances. Yes, a lot of my friends and family are vaccinated, but some are not, and I didn’t want to go down that road. In addition, we have a lot of close friends and family who live across the country, and I wanted them to be able to be included too. So we decided to have a drive-through shower for local friends & family, plus a virtual one for those who were far away or couldn’t make it in person. It took some careful planning to make our vision come to life, but what came out of it was nothing short of incredible. We had the most amazing time and everyone got to celebrate with us, which just made it all the more special. 💗

We had the drive-through shower at my brother-in-law’s house because he lives on a cul-de-sac, which made it easy to set up a loop with “stations.” The first thing you saw driving up was our great sign done by Card My Yard. I loved all the details in this sign and how it set a festive vibe!

Next, our guests drove around to see us. Our family set up this incredible backdrop and it made for a beautiful place to spend a few minutes chatting with each group that came by. It was so nice to see everyone’s faces; some who we haven’t seen in over a year! My only sadness was the fact that we couldn’t talk to each person longer, but it was still so good to have the time we did.

Finally, we had a station with food and desserts. My mother-in-law made a full Jamaican spread in to-go boxes that was absolutely delicious! Our niece put together these insanely yummy treats bags (if you’re local, find her on Instagram here), and my mom had these gorgeous cupcakes made. Everyone raved about the food, so it was definitely a hit! We gave out hand sanitizers with a little thank you card as a favor; the perfect pandemic accessory, haha!

Since all of our family that put on the shower is vaccinated, we got to spend some time with them after, which was so needed. I’ve missed having that support so much!!

The next day, we held our virtual shower at our house. My mom and husband used some of the décor from the drive-through to set up this a cute area in our house where we could host from.

We set up a short agenda and kept it under an hour so no one was sitting on a Zoom too long.

• We said hello to everyone as they logged on.
• We played a short video I made documenting my pregnancy using the 1 Second Everyday app.
• We played a baby shower game that we set up using Kahoot (yay for being a teacher and knowing how to do this!) and had our guests battle it out for gift cards. This was so fun and many laughs were had!
• We did a little tour of baby girl’s nursery.
• We opened gifts from anyone who was on the call and got to thank them.

It was super fun to “see” everyone and celebrate with friends and family from all over the country! People in New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, North Carolina, California, Oregon, Washington, and other parts of Florida were all on the call, which I just think is amazing. If it weren’t for this pandemic, we would have never thought to do a Zoom baby shower, so I am actually grateful for the idea. I hope in the future we still do some virtual events like these to include those who may be far away.

We had the best weekend celebrating our baby girl! By using creativity and technology, we were able to include so many of our family & friends, and we feel blessed to know that our daughter is already loved by so many people. 💗

Also, a special shout out to my amazing brother, who took my camera and captured the event for us without me even having to ask. I am so grateful to have these beautiful photos to remember the day.