Bridal Showerness

Phew! The weekend is over & the shower was a huge success! My mom & I had a blast getting everything together, cooking, baking, decorating...it was a lot of work but it was also a ton of fun!I think all the little details really helped to make the day special for everyone...and I'm glad I was able to put the time & energy into it that Erin deserved.

The pink & green color palette was woven throughout the entire house...and thanks to my parents' tremazing kitchen redesign last year, the slab concrete counter-tops & cabinets even matched! 

There are a ton of great resources for planning something like this, and honestly, the information overload can sometimes be overwhelming...I know I spent entirely too much time cruising tons of wedding blogs and event blogs looking for good ideas! And yes, it did pay off, but you don't need to drive yourself (and your loved ones) crazy over the details! What I've found, is that the small details were what really made the event. 

My best friend Erin, loves all things funfetti, so I decided to make give away treats for the guests...funfetti cookies for everyone! The mix was available at the grocery store for next to nothing, baking them was super easy for non-bakers like myself who are much more comfortable cooking than baking, and simply putting them in cellophane treat bags from Target & tying them with some pretty green & pink 

ribbons brought the whole thing together. They looked lovely & were delicious! I also decided that most people don't like the gifts & favors they receive at showers so cookies were a tasty alternative. The money we saved not having to buy gifts for everyone was put towards a donation, on behalf of the shower guests, in memory of Erin's

grandmother. We placed tent cards on the tables with a little note about the donation to the hospice and passed around a card for all the guests to sign. It was important to us to remember Erin's grandmother during the shower, and I think this was a great way to honor her memory. 

I used all the leftover ribbons from the treat bags to tie around the champagne glasses we used for the mimosa's, bellini's, strawberry lemonade & limeade... this was a nice little detail, but also helped the ladies keep track of their glasses! 

   My biggest problem with the whole event

 (and I realize how lucky I am that this was my biggest gripe) was keeping the darn paper lanterns hanging from the ceiling. I needed to use something that wouldn't peel the paint off of my mom's freshly painted ceilings, but was also strong enough to hold the weight of the lanterns. I consulted several websites, and very few actually offered any advice on how to hang them. After trying several options, we ultimately used masking tape. It did the job for the most part, but we did have to re-hang a few several times and the tape looked clunky...but I think it was fine. I'd be interested to see what others have used & if they stuck since I'll definately be using the lanterns again- they looked so great!

We played a few shower games, which I think everyone enjoyed and were a good way for people to get to know each other & how they knew the bride better. I had everyone email me a story about Erin ahead of time, then during the shower, they were passed around & read aloud for Erin to guess who had written what. There were a lot of laughs with that one! We also had her fiancee answer some questions about her to see if she could guess what he would say. For each answer she got wrong I had planned to make her wear something ridiculous pulled from the closets in my house, but her mother surprised us all by bringing an AMAZING video of Erin dancing to "Cold-Hearted Snake" in 3rd grade that did just the trick! Her mom also brought another video of the two of us from elementary school that didn't get shown, but I know I will see it at my own shower someday :)

Overall, I was thrilled with how everything turned out and the bride-to-be loved it, which was most important! I loved hosting the event with my mom & realized how much fun I have doing things like this...I'm going to have to put all the fun things I learned throwing Erin a shower into good use again sometime soon with another party. Or quit my job to become an event planner or florist! I guess sometimes you need to step away from your computer desk...