Today we're featuring an adorable and modern "Born to be Wild" themed baby shower we designed just a few months ago for a dear friend and co-worker! Now I'll be honest, I'm not a huge fan of animal prints (gasp). They just have the potential to get super busy and (sorry) tacky really quick if you're not careful with how many colors and prints you're incorporating into a design.

So when the mama-to-be told me her nursery was going to be a safari animal theme, I set out to find a style for the shower that stayed true to the essence of wild animals, but in a softer, clean, more natural and modern approach. It helped that the nursery colors were more muted: gray, mustard yellow and almost an aqua blue...so I took those colors and ran with it!

For the centerpieces and the food table decor, I knew I wanted to have actual safari animals, but I wanted to stick to the more natural, modern theme. So I purchased two different size animals (you can find them HERE and HERE) and I spray painted them all white.

I found a four pack of these adorable neutral-colored monkeys on Amazon and had to have them! I hung one on our chandelier (with some added greenery), snuck one into the welcome sign outside and of course a couple of them had to hang out at the mimosa bar, because what safari brunch is complete without wild monkeys and mimosas?!

I stuck to a few strategic pops of animal print on the swag and the water bottles (with the help of some awesome animal print duct tape you can find HERE) .

We also asked each of the guests to write a prayer for the baby to go on our prayer tree. These will be sweet prayers that mama-to-be can treasure for years to come and share with her son!