How We Celebrated Lenora’s 100-Day Baby Shower In 2023

In a sure sign of how much I plan ahead, Lenora’s 100-day baby shower was more or less finalised weeks before she was even delivered. This idiosyncrasy of mine might have upset the wife time and again, but I assured her that this was about taking care of all things possible before the baby came out. This meant the venue, caterer, guest list and invitation cards were all taken care of already and all that was left was for the big day to arrive. And yes, we were glad it did.

Baby Shower Venue

To start planning the 100-day baby shower, the first thing to tie down is the venue. As we don’t have any free venues (definitely not our house) that can accommodate our guest list, we started to look for commercial venues to rent. We narrow the criteria to include the following:

• Minimum seating capacity of 50 pax
• Available for rent the entire day
• Entertainment/activities for children
• External catering is allowed
• Air-conditioning

With big sister Olympia, we are now at the stage where she has her own guest list to draw up. That also meant that we require a venue that can keep children of various ages reasonably entertained throughout the event. We also wanted to break up the day into 2 sessions (lunch and dinner) to ensure that we can spend quality time with our guests.

After shortlisting several venues and viewings, we eventually booked with The Happi Loft as it met all the requirements on our checklist. The seating capacity is 60 pax separated over 2 levels and it helps that it is located quite near our home. This was a great decision because it allowed Lenora to take proper naps in between the 2 sessions.

As shown in Diagram 1, the entertainment options at The Happi Loft spans the entire spectrum – ideas for toddlers all the way to even adults. For instance, there is a kids’ corner, foosball table, air hockey (which is not common), PS 4, pool table, mahjong table and even instagrammable spots for the influencer wannabes.

Since the venue is 2000 sq ft huge, it can even accommodate bouncy castles but we didn’t see the need for that. The only minor downside is that there are limited street side parking lots available for those who drive. This was probably exacerbated by our decision to hold the celebration on a Sunday where the Little India enclave is probably at its busiest.

Baby Full Month Gift Box and Customised Cakes

For Olympia’s baby shower 5 years ago we purchased the full-month gift box from Choz. Since they did such a great job, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t go back to the same vendor for Lenora’s full-month gift box.

During my engagement, I also learnt that Choz has been re-branded as Celebox and is part of Neo Group. This gave me the confidence to purchase the baby customised cakes as well as the food catering from Celebox and saved me the hassle of having to deal with multiple vendors.

The thematic setup comprised of a fresh flower arrangement in a delightful pastel pink hue which complemented very well with the Enchanted Garden Galore cake that we chose. I also loved that the cake sat nicely at the centre of the themed setup with the rest of the food as shown in Diagram 5. The advantage of having a thematic setup was that we could make do with zero decorations for the rest of the venue.

Food Caterer

With Neo Group being the dominant caterer in Singapore, I know that the food quality will be of a minimum standard. To my pleasant surprise, majority of the guests praised the quality of the food. As shown in Diagram 6, the quality of the presentation must have whetted the guests’ appetite immensely.

Celebox also arrived promptly to prepare the thematic setup which in itself took an hour to complete! Olympia and I were early to witness their craft and fortunate enough to be the first to have first dips!

Baby Shower Party

As aforementioned earlier, we held 2 sessions on the same day to break up the guests into smaller groups so that it was more manageable on us. This way, it was less crowded and the kids could all have their turns at the fun games and activities available at The Happi Loft.

Our guests started streaming in from 11am for the lunch session. No surprise that Lenora was the centre of attention.

In between sumptuous food and horseplay for the guests, we also cut Lenora’s birthday cake. Once again, hardly a surprise that the kids present at the party promptly formed a beeline for the cake thereafter. Then it was followed by more play for the kids upstairs while the parents (including us) can take a breather downstairs, which is probably the biggest advantage of The Happi Loft.

Our second batch of guests started arriving from 5pm onwards. Prior to that, Celebox already came to clean and set up dinner. I ordered a completely different set of food from the menu so that there was more variety for the immediate family who were staying for both sessions.

When it was 830pm, we packed up, did light cleaning and checked out of the Happi Loft. Everything proceeded smoothly without a hitch which was a testament of the vendors that we worked with. All in, we spent just under $5,000 to organise this 100-day baby shower. It was no small sum but definitely well worth every cent. Most importantly, we were extremely appreciative of our guests who turned up with gifts and ang baos to celebrate this significant milestone with us. Your presence made this an enjoyable day for my family and this will be a memory that we hold dear in our hearts.

Since I know some of the readers will enquire about the vendors, I might as well put it out here:

• For those who are interested to book your party at The Happi Loft, you may contact Calista at +65 8505 5202 and quote “HEARTLANDBOY” to enjoy an additional 2 hours to your booking.
• For those who are interested to learn more about the services offered by Celebox, you may contact them via whatsapp at +65 6235 2281. Quote “CELEBOXHEARTLANDBOY10” to enjoy 10% off your buffet catering and customised cakes.

The final picture sums up how we felt at the end of the long day- super tired but our hearts are full (just like Lenora’s cheeks).

This article is published on 23 Sep 2023.

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