Mom-to-be Katherine Heigl enlisted her mother, Nancy, to throw her an unforgettable baby shower. The 38-year-old actress, and her husband, Josh Kelley, are expecting their first son in January, joining daughters Naleigh and Adalaide. It’s Katherine’s first pregnancy, and as much as I’m not a big fan, she certainly is rocking the pregnancy glow.
Katherine gushed about the party and shared photos of the event on her blog, Those Heavenly Days. She was happy that Mom took her (many ideas) for the party into consideration, confessing, “I’m kind of a control freak on occasion…OK more often than not, so getting to have a voice when it came to the shower was pretty awesome for me!” I can believe she’s a control freak for some reason. She said her “rustic and elegant” shower “spoke to not only the holidays, but also our mountain home in Utah where the baby will be born.” How very Goop-y of you, Katherine.
As I think every mom-to-be (or any wannabe mom-to-be, for that matter) is wont to do, Katherine turned to Pinterest for ideas for her shower. Her pin board included stork designs for the invitations and simple winter white flower arrangements for the tables. Katherine is a self-confessed milk glass collector and mixed natural pieces, including deer antlers, pine cones and white gourds to create centerpieces. The affair’s menu featured simple, farm to table dishes and, of course, cake and holiday cookies.
Katherine shared her delight, writing, “The Christmas holidays are a pretty big deal in my family and not only will we now be celebrating our babies [sic] birthday around Christmas, Josh and I also celebrate our wedding anniversary December 23rd. So it’s a month full of joy and gratitude for us for many reasons!”
From the pictures I’ve seen, the shower looked like an elegant, refined affair – far from the chaos I’ve experienced at any baby shower I’ve been to. I think I would have enjoyed this party, especially if I would have been able to hang out with Katherine’s Doubt co-star Laverne Cox, who was in attendance at the fête, along with some of Katherine’s fellow actors, including Kobi Libbi, Lauren Blumenfeld and Dulé Hill. And, hey, as long as they didn’t play that awful “melted candy bar a diaper game,” I’m completely okay with this.
Check out https://t.co/SQ2cAcHZiP for all the details, inspiration and photos from @JoshBkelley and my baby shower! pic.twitter.com/FFyXF9Sjlg
— Katherine Heigl (@KatieHeigl) December 10, 2016
Photo credit: Getty Images, WENN.com, Fame FLynet
I don’t know anything about their family life. But for some reason this gives me a vibe.
I may get yelled at for this, but I hope they don’t treat this baby like it’s more special than the ones they adopted.
I don’t think that will be the case. Katherine has adopted siblings of her own. She grew up in that type of family dynamic, which is why she’s very pro-adoption. I don’t think there’ll be a line between them. 😄
No yelling from me…I’m adopted and it happens.
I’m adopted and my older brother is biological. He would say the favor sways the other way toward me.
She is passionate about adoption and chose to adopt twice not because she struggled with infertility, but because that was her desire due to having a sister who was adopted and loves, to adopt first. Adopted children are wanted desperately by the parents, who go through a lot to adopt.
I didn’t mean to imply they weren’t wanted, at all. I remember reading about how overjoyed they were when they adopted the first time.
Like I said, I know absolutely nothing about their family dynamic. I am purely, gossip-ily speculating. I think I’m just biased against Katherine Heigl give what we know about her. I’m sure she’s an amazing mom, I just get a weird vibe over this over-the-top, extravagant baby shower for a third child.
Yeah. Baby showers for #3 seem selfish.
I don’t think that statement is fair. You can drag her all you want as an actress. She has made some critical mistakes in her professional life and they are fair game.
However, she keeps her personal life pretty locked down and by all accounts is a very involved wife and mom. This is probably the first time she had a shower bc it was the first time that she knew for sure a baby was coming. Adopting is a hard and occassionally devastating process where the birth parent can back out and you try very hard not to get your hopes up just to have them crushed. Showers are a no go for a lot of adoptive parents for that reason.
Let her enjoy her pregnancy. It is new for her. That doesn’t mean she’ll love that kid more.
This. The families that I work with in adoption rarely ever shower the mama prior to the babies arrival.
+1
That’s very fair, Alyce. It was 7 am and I was being quite cynical.
@Shambles, I am often quite cynical at 7am before coffee. Haha. 😉
Both her daughters are Korean, and it can be a really long process to adopt there. Basically it’s file paperwork, wait for however long (I know people that had to wait a couple of years) and then they’ll tell you the adoption is on you drop everything and leave within days. It doesn’t really work well for a baby shower unless you want to do it after the baby is home.
Though I’ll point out, at least one of her kids was considered a special needs kid (a relatively straightforward heart surgery) so the adoption was fast tracked.
Bridget, her eldest daughter is Korean; her younger daughter was adopted domestically.
I got a different vibe – that she’s using her baby shower as a chance to drive traffic to her website. Tacky.
I think it looks very pretty.
I know she’s reportedly very difficult to work with, but it does seem like she’s a good mom.
Eh. This is her third child — why the need for such an elaborate shower (or any at all)?
According to Miss Manners, family members aren’t “supposed” to host showers for the mom-to-be; friends are. Anybody know what that rule’s about?
Also, that cake looks a bit like a memorial, just sayin’. I think it’s creepy.
Most people view the baby shower not as an event to collect gifts for the baby but rather a celebration of the new life to come nowadays. I would want to say this is true for rich people who really don’t need anyone to gift them anything. I agree with you on the cake though, could have used a hint of color somewhere.
Nowadays your first is the shower, while any more that follow are called a “sprinkle.” I had a sprinkle for my second baby, which like you said was a celebration of life not a gift collecting affair (there was no gift registry). I was of the mind that just because she wasn’t my firstborn didn’t mean her impending birth didn’t deserve a little celebration. But that’s me. To each his own.
I’m the opposite. I love the cake.
My mom’s family won’t have anything to do with baby showers whatsoever. The only baby shower ever, the baby died within a day of birth. So, my mom, her sisters, and aunts won’t attend and nobody on that side of the family has them. My dad’s family has them but only for the first baby and the expectant mother is not involved in the planning at all – total surprise. After the baby is born, there is a celebration (a baptism or just a party to welcome baby).
So sad about the baby 🙁
Well, it’s the first boy and while I personally don’t think babies should have to many gendered things they might see it differently and enjoy getting some “boy” things. Also, it’s her first pregnancy, so she might enjoy getting spoiled a bit and getting things from other women who were already pregnant and give her stuff and advice to help with giving birth and breast feeding (if she plans on doing that). Since she’s a rich celebrity, there was never really a need for a shower at all, so it’s probably more like an excuse to have a celebration and it’s nice to have things for the baby that came from friends and families, makes it more meaningful.
Wow, I didn’t know about the familiy. My sister hosted my other sister’s baby shower. We import the holidays but not the protocol hahaha thanks for the answer!!! 🙂
I came here to say the same thing. It’s in poor taste to have a family member throw one for you. It’s supposed to be organized by friends. But, then, hearing how difficult she is, maybe that’s why Mom’s doing it.
Who wrote the rule that it’s “in poor taste” to have a family member plan a shower? So now we have the shower police? Her baby, her choice how to celebrate. If someone doesn’t like it, they needn’t attend. Geesh.
“It’s in poor taste…” and “It’s supposed to be…” Bah. I’m not a fan of elaborate showers, but am even less a fan of silly rules and the phrase “poor taste” rankles.
That’s so sad to me. Not every person has a lot of friends, or friends that live locally, or friends that have enough free time to organise an elaborate party for them. All the showers I’ve ever been invited to have been organised by family, not friends. Nobody should be looked down on for that.
It would be really sad if women are still living life by Hyacinth Buckets Dos and Donts in 2016. If you want to throw your relative a shower, go for it. I cant imagine anybody in the real world with real life challenges cares either way.
I disagree as well, I can’t think of any baby shower that WASN’T thrown by a family member.
Sounds like a silly rule to me and I don’t see why a mom/MIL/aunt/cousin/sister throwing the shower is tacky or in poor taste.
It’s her third child, but is it her third shower? As someone (actually it was Alyce and Little Darling) mentioned above, adoption isn’t as certain as a pregnancy (and that’s not to say that all pregnancies are 100% certain — just that adoptions can be less so).
I’m not going to research it further than I did (only finding photos of Heigl with Naleigh at a shower for her sister), but it’s possible Heigl didn’t have showers before the arrivals of her daughters — simply because there are so many external factors involved.
It’s what celebrities do. It seems more like a get-together to see friends and family than the actual gifts which are secondary and not needed. I don’t think negative comments are warranted for what seems like more of a social occasion than a desperate need for gifts.
Oh. Only 38?
Really? I actually thought she was younger.
I thought she was older too.
Same… Kinda shocked cause she reads to me so much older than me but im only two years younger?
Also re: BestMomfriend throwing her BestssisterdaugtherfrienCoworker a shower… well… I mean is Heigl who is notoriously difficult ( remember that article saying how none of her costars want to work with her again?) How hard would it be for those two ladies to round up non relative friends? … lets be real
Baby showers weren’t a thing in in my country until a couple of years ago. I really don’t understand them. Some clues? I’ve been to a couple and felt so out of place.
The idea behind showers originally was to help out folks getting married or having babies with practical items, as many new couples did not have a lot of extra money. So the gifts would be utensils, dish cloths etc. Diapers, sleepers, blankets, that kind of thing. Nowadays they’ve morphed into catch-all celebrations a bit. At least according to Hollywood and Pinterest! Not sure why a family member can’t host. Another silly etiquette rule.
Honestly, all I got out of this was it was warm enough to have the shower outside. It’s 7 degrees here!
That headliner pic of Katherine Heigl is not doing her any favors. Her baby shower looks like a wedding reception to me-very pretty.
It’s not doing me any favors, either. I might have nightmares.
I feel a kind of distaste when I see her face. A baby shower isn’t going to make up for how her mother mismanaged her PR.
Heigl does not look good. She was really lovely when she started on Grey’s but got really hard. Considering how notoriously unpleasant she is, I’ve always thought that what we see is the result of makeup and hair people that don’t like her.
Also, this is a really big baby shower for kid #3. Celebrating a new life is always great, but it feels more like content for her lifestyle website. It looks like pretty much everything you find on Pinterest nowadays.
I think of baby showers as a form of begging.
Or blackmail.
I think that might be why they say friends should throw them instead of family. Not that I personally care about that rule (or even knew of it before the internet came about), but I can see why it started back when things were done more traditionally… to be more appropriate.
Is it me or did I spy her in a peppermint bark commercial? They focused on this blonde woman for maybe three seconds but I could have sworn it was her…
like the black tote, thats all i got. i have friends who have done baby showers for 2nd and 3rd kids and its kind of like—ummmmmm, really? its great to celebrate the arrival( pending or otherwise) of a new child but its not really the point of a baby shower. maybe im splitting hairs over this, but when youre handing out an amazon wish lists and gift requests for your 3rd kid its tacky. but hey, you do you.