How We Planned a Fiesta Baby Shower!

How to plan a taco / Mexican themed baby shower with decorations, food, drinks, games, activities, prizes, and music.

I had no plans of making this a blog post because I am far from any sort of professional party planner. But over the weekend, my friend Coribeth and I threw a fiesta baby shower for one of our best friends (Carmen from Living Letter Home). After I shared it on Instagram, so many of y’all had questions about all of the decor, I thought I’d compile it together here.

With it being right near Cinco de Mayo and the fact that this shower was for a rainbow baby, we wanted to go all out with all of the colors of the rainbow… and also, who doesn’t love an excuse to devour a taco buffet?

It was such a joyful theme that could be done for a baby boy, baby girl, or gender neutral shower. Or even a kid’s birthday… heck, I’d take it as my own grown-up birthday party really.

Decorations

Banners

I hung up these papel picado banners using duct tape and Command hooks on every surface possible to make our entire backyard feel bright, colorful, and fit the fiesta baby shower theme for not too pricey.

Dining Table Decor

For the tables, I always keep several plain white tablecloths in my stash so that I can easily change the look of them using different runners and flowers. I used these serape blanket runners and multicolored maracas to spice them up.

And I used white bud vases I already had alongside these colorful bottles to fill with grocery store flowers. Flower arranging is so easy when placed in multiple vessels scattered along a table.

As party favors, I put a baby cactus from the Home Depot garden center at each seat.

(We’ve had these outdoor bistro chairs scattered around our pool deck for a while. They hold up so well and are so comfortable.)

Seating Area Decor

Our back porch faux fireplace is getting a makeover hopefully this fall, but I jazzed it up with more grocery store flowers, some pieces from this rainbow party decor set, this serape tablecloth on a table for holding the baby gifts, and this mama and baby pinata.

Our refreshed back porch finally got broken in! Yay for gathering again! A banner was all it needed to carry the fiesta baby shower theme.

Food Table

I used more serape tablecloths for the food tables, more paper fans from this party set, and these cute “Taco Bout a Baby” balloons. That old busted fence is coming down soon so we just embraced it as “rustic” texture for our background.

(We’ve had this white rolling cooler since last summer, and it’s been so handy for having around the pool.)

Activities

There are usually two types of people: those who love baby shower games and those who cringe at the thought of them. I’m in the second camp because honestly, to me, baby shower games are awkward. Haha! That’s just the way I am.

So I tried to pick a few that were interactive without being uncomfortable. This designated activity table kept everything in reach.

Guestbook

I bought the storybook Dragons Love Tacos for guests to sign so the baby can enjoy it as she grows up. My kids LOVE this cute book!

Hot Tamales in a Bottle Game

I filled up this baby bottle coin bank with Hot Tamale candies. (You don’t actually have to count the candies. Just multiply the serving size by the number of servings on the nutrition label.)

For the signs, I bought this design template from this Etsy shop and adapted the wording on Canva to make them along with this guessing sheet so guests could jot down their number. Whoever guessed closest got a prize (*sharing the prizes we used later in this post).

Bib Decorating

As a fun art activity, we set out fabric paint and fabric pens with these plain bibs so people could decorate them for the baby.

Baby Gift Bingo

This one is so easy because it keeps people occupied while mama opens her gifts. Before the gifts are unwrapped, we handed out these baby bingo cards. Everyone had to write down typical baby items on their bingo card blanks. As mama opened her gifts, they had to cross out the items she opened on their card. Whoever crossed out 5 items in a row, column, or diagonal first got a prize.

Baby Name Race

This quick game was really fun and simple. We passed out this baby name game sheet to all of the guests then let them all start at the same time to race each other as they jotted down every baby name they could think of for each letter of the alphabet. The first person to list all baby names A-Z got a prize.

Food / Drinks

Taco Bar

Salsarita’s for the win! It was worth every penny of not having to cook anything by ordering a catered taco bar.

I found these biodegradable palm leaf plates, bowls, wooden utensils, and serape napkins to go alongside it.

Cake / Cupcakes

For the cake, I just picked out a kids’ birthday cake at Publix and asked them to leave the birthday writing off of it, then stuck this “taco bout a baby” topper on it.

For the cupcakes, I bought these icing cactus toppers and placed unwrapped store-bought chocolate mini cupcakes inside of these 2″ terra cotta pots. For the “dirt”, I crushed Oreo cookies on top of the cupcakes and guests just spooned it out of the cactus pots. It was so easy, and they ended up looking so real and whimsical!

I stuck any leftover icing cactus toppers on the cake.

Drinks

It’s not a fiesta baby shower without margs! I wanted the mom (and any non-alcohol drinkers) to be able to enjoy margaritas, so I made a margarita mocktail inventing this recipe below.

“Mama”rita Punch (fills an entire drink dispenser)

• 3 cans of frozen limeade concentrate (stirred in with 13 cans of water – just follow the directions on the back of the can)
• 2 Cups of orange juice
• 2 Cups of simple syrup
• 1 Liter of club soda
• Sliced limes

Serve with lime wedges, margarita salt, and tequila on the side so guests can spike their margs if they choose.

I found these plastic margarita cups to make it feel extra festive.

In the rolling cooler, we served different flavors of Jarritos Mexican soda, Corona beer, and bottled water.

Music

I put together a Cinco de Mayo playlist on Spotify to play from a Bluetooth speaker. You can access the playlist here. Some of the songs use the words “mama”, “mamacita”, and “baby” which just makes it all extra fitting for a baby shower. 😉 *Some songs might be borderline for kids so play at your discretion.

Prizes

I didn’t think to get a photo of the prizes, but I put together prizes in gift bags, one for each game.

Prize 1 – Bath & Body Works margarita scented candle and hand soap

Prize 2 – “Fitness taco in my mouth” kitchen towel and Mateo’s salsa

Prize 3 – “Feed me tacos and tell me I’m pretty” makeup bag with fiesta red lip balm, nail polish, and margarita scented body wash.

And I found this “Nacho Average Mama” sash for the mom-of-honor.

It all turned out so sweet and full of joy! Some of it is still decorating our back porch because I couldn’t stand to part with it yet. Rainbow colors and tacos… 5 stars… highly recommend.

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