Environmental Party Decorating

Recently, I watched the new movie, Motherhood, starring Uma Thurman. Now I know that it probably isn't something that most of you have seen since it got such horrible reviews but it definitely hit the spot for stay-at-home-moms.

It also got me thinking about party decorations. In the movie, there is a scene were Uma's character debates doing goody bags for what reason, I'm not positive but my hypothesis is that it had to do with being environmentally unfriendly.

I told my husband that I had never really thought about the waste that is caused by always sending people home with junk that they will never use again and now I was torn between wanting to throw the best parties ever and wanting to protect the environment as much as possible.

My conflicting views were then put to the test when I began to plan my sister-in-law's baby shower. How was I going to make centerpieces and goody bags without buying a bunch of stuff that I would never use again?

Well, it turns out that I was up for the challenge! Although not completely successful(due to a small budget and the need to supply tablecloths and other misc. decorating items), I did manage to create fun centerpieces that would be used over and over again!

The basic idea of these was to use baby pictures of both parents-to-be and add baby items that could be used after the shower. Also, the buckets that I used were dumped of sand and sent home with all of the attendees that had children!

I then decided that the goody bags would contain only edible goodies which went over really well. Each bag contained cookies and an assortment of candy.

Not only were the decorations and goodies reusable, they were also purchased on a shoestring budget! All the tablecloths, candy, picture frames, and buckets were found at Dollar Tree; and all of the baby items were purchased at a consignment sale. I did however purchase sand (pretty cheap)which I could have avoided with a little more time and ingenuity.

All in all, I'd say that it was a pretty big success without being a giant failure for the environment! Now if only I could make sure that my brother and his wife start cloth diapering!