Set up the western baby shower with an imaginative invitation. You could create a really cute invitation using a desert backdrop on your computer and western-themed scrapbook cutouts. Or, create a “Wanted” poster on parchment paper. Print out the invitation using a font like Goudy or Rockwell. Roll up the invitation and keep it closed with a leather strip or a bandanna. Ask your guests to come in their best western denims, preferably paired with cowboy boots.
Set the décor of your room in a scheme of brown and turquoise. To add an authentic look, put some hay bales outside the door. Add some cutouts of cacti behind them to add a sense of depth to the vignette. A little cowboy teddy bear sitting on the hay bales and a pair or two of baby cowboy boots complete the western baby shower scene. Put a basket at the door with bandanas and cowboy hats for your guests to use if they want. Have bouquets of wildflowers or simple daisies in jam-jars with its own bandannas scattered around the room.
Set the tables with denim tablecloths and chambray napkins to echo the brown and aqua scheme. You can use leather or chamois strips as napkin rings, if you like. Echo the teddy bear at the entrance by using a stuffed bear at each table for a centerpiece. Surround the little bear with a miniature lariat, a baby cactus, and a few wildflowers in a jam-jar.
The buffet table is set with barbecued ribs, barbecued chicken, biscuits, chili, or stew. Have a selection of barbecue sauces on hand as well as salsa and chips for munching. What makes this spread different is how you present it. Put the chili or stew in the biggest iron pot you can find. Surround it with little ironstone bowls filled with toppings like grated cheddar cheese, sliced chives, sour cream, and sliced pickled jalapenos.
Get a wooden slab to serve be barbecued meats and put your barbecue sauce selections in more ironstone bowls. Place a bowl inside an upturned cowboy hat and fill it with chips. Put bowls in the top of cowboy boots and fill one bowl with salsa and the other with cheese dip. Arrange the three objects together. Use bricks to add height to the bowls or the wooden slab, if needed.
Desserts could be banana pudding, sweet potato pie, or a decadent chocolate cake. If you can find a little cowboy bear to top the cake, that would make it perfection. Surround the bear with aqua jelly beans to tie it into the color scheme.
There are a lot of games you can play with a western flavor. Musical Hats is one, a variation on Musical Chairs but using hats instead. The Hat Toss is another, where each player has to toss a hat onto a baby bottle.
The prizes should echo the western baby shower theme. So, fruit leathers, jolly ranchers, jerky, licorice ropes, and sunflower seeds would be just right. A perfect favor for this western baby shower is a low-maintenance cactus plant in a pot that's been given its own bandanna.
Have a great time at the western baby shower! Yippee-kay-o, buckaroo!