A Surprise Mother’s Day Brunch

Hello, hello! Happy Friday my friends. I hope you all have been having a fabulous week and are ready for the weekend. It has been a pretty good one over and I seriously can’t wait for the long weekend, sitting by the splash pad with my baby girl. It is going to be so good. I feel like I have been so ready for this summer!

Today, I am finally getting around to sharing my surprise Mother’s Day brunch I threw over the past weekend for my mom, grandma, aunt, mother-in-law and granny (John’s grandma). You guys, this was so much fun to plan, and we all really enjoyed ourselves. Truthfully, it was not something I had months to prepare for, so I feel like you could easily use this framework for throwing your own party, no matter the reasoning behind it.

When I found out my mom and grandma and aunt were coming the weekend after Mother’s Day, I knew I wanted to do a little something to celebrate given I am not typically with them around Mother’s Day. For those of you that may be new to my blog and my story – all my family is in California and I live in North Carolina. I am one of four girls, so family gatherings like this and birthdays, are probably one of the things I miss the most and feel the deepest when I am not there, so it was a special treat knowing I would get to possibly do something to celebrate, even if it was a weekend late.

My husband’s parents and grandma were planning on coming to our house to see my family since they were visiting, so it all started coming into place once I realized I would have both moms and grandmas in the same place.

I decided to make it a surprise because I didn’t want them to fuss about it because all of these women love to help and get involved, but for me, the most important thing, was that they just relaxed. I feel like mother’s never really get the opportunity to just sit back and relax and enjoy someone else doing something for them. They are always willing to help in any way they can, which is a beautiful thing, but also can be hard because they don’t know when to just relax haha. So, I knew I needed it to be a surprise.

I created a pretty good lie in telling them we were all going out to brunch, which worked well except I had to figure out how to get my family out of the house, while also ensuring that my husband’s family would not arrive early, so I could get everything set out. There was definitely a lot of thought and coordination with this aspect haha. So, while everyone was out of the house, I set it all up.

I opted for simple decorations – I bought a balloon arch and some other decor from Target and hung it as soon as they left and then just used flowers for the rest. Trader Joes has excellent flower options that are affordable and beautiful (one of ours is actually known to be bought up every morning by various local florists). I made all the arrangements in advance and hid them away so that I could just pull them and place them.

For food, I did a simple brunch. I bought already made quiche I needed to just pop in the oven. You could also make this in advance and freeze it, but I was short on time the week they all arrived. Then I bought a mixed fruit bowl, some already made chicken salad and croissants, and then my hubby made waffles and bacon for everyone. I bought a cake from a local bakery here in Charlotte called the Batchmaker and had it stored at a neighbor’s house (it was SO good).

For drinks I bought sparkling water for the table, brewed coffee, and mimosas. My favorite mix for mimosas is Trader Joes blood orange (found near the orange juice), courtesy of my mother-in-law, but I couldn’t find it at my local TJs, so I opted for an orange peach mango with a cut strawberry on the rim. This was a delicious alternative.

Then, I had a few surprises up my sleeve…one of which was having professional photos done. This was SUCH a special treat you guys. I probably cherish them more than anything else, but because we were having two of Arabella’s great grandmas in one place, it seemed like such a special idea to capture that. My mother-in-law actually suggested this and I couldn’t be more grateful for the idea.

Another surprise included corsages for the women to wear. I knew my family wouldn’t be able to take home flowers, so I opted for corsages as a simple sentiment. They turned out beautifully!

Next, I had little goodie bags for all my guests. These just included a few simple items, that were essentially their “Mother’s Day gifts.” I included a little hand lotion, bath bomb, etc.

And lastly, I had all the children of each mom make a little video thanking them. I then took each individual video and compiled them together to make something they could watch on the day of.

I feel like as a mom, you don’t really need “things.” You just want a little encouragement and love and relaxation, which is exactly what I wanted to create for the amazing women in my life. This was such a special day and it was so nice to just sit and chat and honor how wonderful these women really are.

I think you could easily re-create this concept for any type of party you decided to throw, but you could also save this as an idea for next year’s Mother’s Day too, surprise or not.

I hope you all have a fabulous Memorial Day weekend and I will see you back here on Monday!

xoxo,

Melissa