Micah Ryan Designs

The Ultimate Guide to a “Next Chapter” Event Theme

My very close friends are celebrating two major milestones, an baby due in a couple of months, and a move to Alabama in about a week. To send them off with love, laughter, and baby gifts I planned a party to serve dual purposes, a Goodbye Party/Baby Shower. This “Next Chapter” theme works great for any milestone: birthdays, graduations, baby showers, wedding showers, and goodbye parties. It’s also perfect for combinations of these events (like this one).

The first area of the party to think through was the backdrop behind the guest book that would greet guests when they first arrive at the event. I have seen DIY book walls and they looked easy enough, so that would be my starting project.

To create this book wall I started by purchasing a 1/2inch 4×8 plywood sheet from Home Depot.

I used a cordless circular saw to cut the height down, but did not take off any width. Next I thrifted books and specifically looked for ones that were thick and had yellowed pages. It took around 60 books to make this- I would thrift 65 to be safe as different sizes will fit differently and you could need a little more or less.

To make the stands in the back of the wall I used the excess pieces of wood cut off from the height and cut them into 2 triangles. Using a scroll saw I cut notches out of each as pictured above. These notches held a piece of 2×4 that that went into both notches and was weighted down in the middle to hold the book wall. The yellow areas are where I attached 1″ hinges (purchased at home depot) on the stands and the backdrop.

Once the stands were attached I laid the wall face up on the ground and laid out books one row at a time to check placement, then secured them with staples and a staple gun. I continued one row at a time until the entire board was covered in books, secured with staples.

Lastly would be folding. I added a small post-it on all books that weren’t naturally flared and full as a mark that it would be folded. Then I used this tutorial to identify my favorite folds and did about 4 books per type of fold.

Next for the guest book backdrop I used 2 more sheets of plywood to cut out two arches and sanded down the edges. I used the same method for the stands, but for these I only needed one stand per arch secured to the middle of the arch and weighed it down on the cutout directly, instead of using a 2×4.

I used peel and stick wallpaper to cover the arches and chose colors that matched the light greens and blues in the rest of the event, and patterns that felt vintage and bookish.

To finish off the backdrop I purchased a wooden sign that said “A New Chapter Begins” and spray painted it black. I did have to super glue some broken pieces on it, and some pieces I had to re-enforce in the back with toothpicks, but it was worth it. I secured it to the backdrop with glue dots the morning of the event.

I used ChatGPT to create “The Tale of Alabama” and “The Tale of Baby Griffith” graphics that I then ordered as DTF prints from Honey Pop Designs. I used a handheld heat press to secure the design to the arch. The trick was to keep the temperature at 300 degrees, keep the press on the transfer paper and never let it touch the wallpaper directly, and to press firmly for 15-20 seconds in each area of the graphic.

I used a round table from the venue and placed over it a green lace tablecloth. On the table I used thrifted hardcover books (all with colors matching the rest of the theme: Brown, beige, blue, and green) stacked to different heights. On top of one stack was a “Guest Book Sign” in a floating frame and on top of the higher stack was a book with a simple fold and babies breath added into the folds. I also added babies breath into the books on the primary book wall.

The finishing touch was a large green journal with aged pages for signatures and letters for the family the shower was hosted for.

Ingredients to a ‘Next Chapter’ Guest Table/Backdrop

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The next area I worked on was the main backdrop where we would have the family open up their gifts. For this I made another backdrop, if you haven’t already guessed it, this event was made with alot of DIY and love.

For this backdrop I used 2 more sheets of plywood and made 2 stands each in the same method as the backdrops above. I painted them each with a primer and 2 coats of an antique white. I thrifted another 27 soft cover books (I’d round that up to 30 to be safe) and found 14 complimentary blue solid hard cover books thrifting as well.

I started by laying the backdrops face up on the ground side by side and laid out all the books and re-arranged until it looked out I wanted. Once I was confident in the design I stapled them onto their board. For the books on the seam I located which board the book had the most real estate on, and stapled it to that backdrop only so they could be transported separately.

Next I ordered a DTF print of the lettering “Our Next Chapter” in gold and transferred using a handheld heat press.

To finish off the backdrop I stapled live silver dollar eucalyptus, stuck stems of blue and white babies breath into each open book’s spine, and stapled a brick of WetFom and floral wire into a corner and filled with more blue and white babies breath.

In front of the backdrop I placed a blue and green round rug, 2 rented vintage chairs, and 2 pedestal tables on which one I placed 4 hardcover books and one folded book with babies breath and on the other a white basket for cards.

Ingredients to a ‘Next Chapter’ Main Backdrop/Gift Area

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The next major section to focus on was the food table. I wanted to keep this simple but magical, and thankfully my lifegroup supplied all the food so I only had to focus on the decor for this table.

The first step was finding a tablecloth that would create visual interest all on its own. I found the perfect patterned green and white tablecloth and purchased two of them. Pro Tip: Make sure you always iron your linens for events to keep a professional look.

I made a page table runner by gluing book pages to a long sheet of wax paper with spray adhesive. I ran this across the length of the table and let it drape down the side.

Across the table we placed wax paper and laid out the breakfast items like charcuterie. We placed stacks of 2 hard cover books throughout for height and styled the food on top of those as well. Along the backend of the wall we placed blue and green vases and folded books with babies breath.

We served an orange juice, iced coffee, sodas, waters, and we had a small cake along with the rest. We used gold tongs along the table for serving and simple white and gold plates, cutlery and cups.

For more visual interest I DIY’ed these floating book pages by stringing pages and hot gluing each page onto the fishing line. I then used magnets to hold the pages onto a metal pipe above the food table, but it could also be attached to the ceiling depending on the venue you are working with.

Ingredients to a ‘Next Chapter’ Food Table

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This event was child-friendly and we knew we had alot of kids coming. So I setup a couple of tables for kids to color and a basket of blocks for them to play with off the side of the shower.

Ingredients to a ‘Next Chapter’ Kids Area

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Believe it or not, we had more tables before even getting to the normal tables for guests to sit- we used 2 tables for the games. My husband came up with the most fun, complex, and hilarious baby shower game that we got compliments on from EVERY SINGLE adult guest. For this game he required two tables that we were able to hide off in the back, but I still needed it to match the rest of the event. For this I used the same tasseled tablecloths as the kids table, and also used 3 sage cheesecloth runners per table.

Ingredients to a ‘Next Chapter’ Game Table

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Finally it was time for the tables the guests would sit at. We set up 6 tables with 6 chairs each. I wanted variety so I created 2 different tablescapes and organized them as pictured below.

The green tables were decorated with a green patterned tablecloth and stacked thrifted hard cover books.

I stacked 6 books (white, brown, beige, green, or blue only) and on top added an open book filled with blue and white babies breath. To create the open stacked book I stapled the top pages together, glued a page on top to cover the staples, then hot glued a 1″ corner brace onto the top book in order to hold it open. On the backside of this stack I stacked another 3 books, and then another open book filled with babies breath, facing the opposite direction of the first. To insert the babies breath I created a small cage with floral netting, stapled it into the open book and inserted the babies breath.

I added one stem of silver dollar eucalyptus into each open book and added one green vase and one blue vase (one on each side) of the 2 stacks of books. In these vases I placed white and blue babies breath.

I tried to make sure that the top open faced book on the pile was one green, and the other blue so that there remained visual color interest.

Ingredients to a ‘Next Chapter’ Guest Table (Style #1)

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Lastly was the second style of table settings. For this I thrifted 90 thin soft cover books. I removed the cover of each book, and dyed the books in coffee, allowing them to dry a full 48 hours before storing.

I used a beige tablecloth for each table and 2 green table runners each. Across each table runner I stacked approximately 30 dyed books with a couple of inches visible each. I stacked these across the length of the runner.

On top of the books I placed a babies breath garland that I sprayed with blue floral spray to allow the flowers to be both blue and white, matching the rest of the decor. We also placed sprigs of babies breath into the garland to give it a more organic look.

I repeated this 3 times, alternating the direction that the runners were running (as seen in the diagram at the beginning of this section).

Ingredients to a ‘Next Chapter’ Guest Table (Style #2)

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All in all this is easily my favorite event to date. This event is a book-lovers dream and full of DIY to help hone your skills and keep things cost effective. I love the versatility of this theme and how elegant it wound up being. To purchase an editable digital download invitation for this theme you can follow this link. For a full inventory of the printables for this event visit my Stan Store: https://stan.store/AllOrSomething.

I hope this helps inspire your Next Chapter event and takes out the guesswork. Happy Reading!

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