Old, New, Borrowed, and Blue Bridal Shower Brunch

Last month my cousin Shawn married his longtime girlfriend, and high school sweetheart, Megan. They have been together for so long and Megan is just so wonderful, that's I feel like she's always been a part of our family. I threw her a small bridal shower with just the women from my family to help her celebrate that special time. I am so very excited that she is officially part of the family now!

I did a spring/floral theme (the shower was in April and the wedding n May). I planned it at noon and that helped dictate a fun brunch menu. And of course a brunch menu needs mimosas!

 

I set up this cute mimosa bar. It had a couple different kinds of champagne and lots of different juices! Orange, orange-pineapple, cranberry (which I believe is actually called a hibiscus, not a mimosa), and pomegranate juice. I also included some fun sliced fruit for garnishes on the glasses. We had some non-drinkers there too and they thought it was fun to have a variety of juices and garnishes to choose from too.

 

Trying to have some more 'brunchy' food, I started with a parfait bar. I had vanilla yogurt, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, granola, chocolate chips, pecans, almonds, grapes, and bananas. I do have some vegan family so I also had soy yogurt, dark chocolate chips, and I made sure my granola was vegan (Bare Naked Granola). I love 'bars' because it looks nice and is fun for guests to make their own food, and its less work as the hostess since you don't have to put together 30 individual parfaits, or whatever item you set up as a bar.

 

Also, here's a fun Waffle Bar that I did awhile back for another party ( I feel like it kinda fits in here....)

Butter, Strawberry jam, Nutella, Peanut Butter, Whipped Cream, Apples, Strawberries, Blueberries, Chocolate and Carmel Sauce, Bananas, Macadamia Nuts, Powdered Sugar, Coconut Syrup, Maple Syrup, and fresh fruit

 

(Sorry for the Waffle Bar sidetrack, back to the bridal shower brunch.) I also had croissants and meat and cheeses (vegan English muffins with avocado and tomato for the vegans). And I made cute little mini-omelets in a muffin tin. I call them Ham Cup Omelets.

 

The recipe for these is here http://berriesofwisdom.blogspot.com/2015/04/mini-ham-cup-omelets.html

The possibilities for these little omelets are endless and they are just so cute and individual!

 

 

I did a little bit of an Old, New, Borrowed, and Blue theme for the shower too.

 

 

I hung up a bunch of OLD pictures of the couple, which is always fun to see.

 

NEW was obviously all the nice, new wedding gifts.

 

BORROWED was a journal/notebook. We passed it around and everyone wrote their marriage advice for the happy couple ( borrowed advice....Get it?)

 

And did my dessert table all in BLUE. Luckily this party was around Easter time so it was very easy to find candy with  blue wrappers or even blue donuts.

 

 

We also did a "Panty Raffle" for the bride. Very similar to the "Diaper Raffle" for baby showers, but with panties for the honeymoon. For every pair of panties brought for the new bride-to-be, you'd get a raffle ticket. The winner of the raffle won this fun prize (bottle of wine here, but I will use Martinelli's or one of those plastic tumblers with lid/straw for parties for non-drinkers, and measuring spoons, candle, hair ties, chocolate, sometimes a gift card)! And did specify ahead of time that the panties do need to be new and clean :)

 

 

This party was fun and I will definitely use an Old, New, Borrowed, and Blue theme in the future for more Bridal Showers. I really liked it and it was fun to have old pictures and share our marriage advice. I will also be doing a lot more parties at brunch in the future. Brunch food is fun and I was very impressed with myself for coming up with some vegan and vegetarian options. AND Congrats to Shawn and Megan! I love you guys and wish you the happiest life together!!

 

 

Pink Lemonade Party: The Lemonade Stand

I forgot about this in my last blog post, the lemonade stand!!! My very amazing best friend Adrienne had her husband build this adorable lemonade stand! And Adrienne made sure to include every detail from the pink lemonade with real lemons in it to the real flowers and the money jar. I couldn't have asked for a cuter set up! And Adrienne took these great photos too. And she made the awesome invite for the Pink Lemonade Party, using these super cute pics!

Pink Lemonade Birthday Party

My daughter was born on my mother's birthday and my daughter's first birthday was also my mother's 50th birthday! Both are very special birthdays, so I decided to combine the birthday party! However, my mom had no idea that the party was for her too and was very surprised when she showed up and saw that it was her 50th birthday celebration too.

I decided to go with a Pink Lemonade theme. That gave me lots of options; everything pink and yellow and lots of lemons! Very cute!

Pink and yellow tablecloths, candy, cookies, and Pinkalicious and The Pink Drink

 

 

This was my cute dessert table that was inside the house. I am in love with my cakes, which were created by Sprinklebelle Cakes (in Utah) http://sprinklebellecakes.com/  I had a 2-tiered main cake with pink ombre ruffles and 2 smash cakes; one for my 1-year-old daughter and I got my 50-year-old Mom her very own smash cake!

 

 

I was so in love with my cakes!!! Adorable and so delicious too!

These were some of my centerpieces. I filled mason jars with assorted pink and yellow candies, put some twine around the top, and stuck fun sticks in them! I had different  '1' s and '50's, lemons, and of course everything was pink and yellow!

 

I also used every other cute jar, candy dish, bowl, and serving ware I had to display my cute pink and yellow candy. I used colored ribbon or the twine on everything.

 

 

 

Cookies too! Pink wafers and iced lemon cookies. And frosted cookies too!

 

 

 

 

 

I made tons of these cute pinwheels! I just used all sorts of different pink and yellow printed scrapbook paper. I hung them outside from our canopy covers and taped them inside around my dessert table. (Sorry I don't have a lot of pictures of my outside! My tables and centerpieces were so cute too.)

 

 

 

 

 

I had these cute signs to welcome guests and for the gift tables. I had to separate the 1-year-old's gifts from her 50-year-old Grandma's birthday gifts. SunLithographing (In Utah) printed these up. They are always amazing. And my super talented friend Adrienne designed them for me.

 

 

Adorable water bottle labels! Also printed by SunLitho and designed by Adrienne.

 

 

 

 

 In Korea the first birthday is a huge deal! They place several items in front of the child; dollar bill(wealth and fortune), pen (excellent writer), a book (good student), and piece of yarn (long life) and whatever the child chooses will predict their future as an adult. My daughter chose the pen first, then headed over to the book. Looks like we have a scholastic on our hands! We gave the same choices to my Mom, she chose the dollar (that's no surprise if you know her....)

 

 

 

 Highchair Time!

 

My daughter was so excited to have her smash cake!

The highchair had a cute banner that read "I am 1". The highchair banner, happy birthday banners, and centerpiece pieces were all made by GiggleBees Etsy shop. She did a great job.

The cute headband and happy birthday ribbon came from the dollar store. Sometimes I forget about how awesome the dollar can be, especially for party supplies! Oh and her adorable shirt! The number 1 with lemons! My daughter's birthday outfit came from LadyBugsDragonflies Etsy shop. And of course Grandma needed a special birthday shirt too, it was her special celebration also!

 

SMASH CAKES!!

 

Pink and yellow napkins and plastic ware. And of course......

 

PINK LEMONADE!

 

 

I can't even begin to document everything I did for this fun party. I love how everything turned out and I had so much fun putting this whole party together. I also want to thank my amazing husband and my friend Adrienne, who both helped soooooo much!

 

 

 

Photo credit: PB&J Photos by Jaime www.facebook.com/PbjPhotosByJaime

 

 

 

 

Adrienne's Bridal Shower

My best friend Adrienne recently got married. I was one of her Maid of Honors (technically, its a Matron of Honor since I'm married, but no on really cares about that anyway.) Now Adrienne had been with her fiance for awhile and they had already been living together for a long time. And they have everything. But really, everything. The stuff that makes you say "Who owns stuff like this??" You know stuff like a convenient store professional grade hot dog roller, a sand volleyball court, a giant walk-in safe (and a giant walk-in hidden pantry), a deep-fryer (the big kind, the one you use to deep fry your Thanksgiving turkey), beer on tap that is kitty-corner from the popcorn maker, and they have like, 12 dogs. They did not need anything.

How was I supposed to throw my best friend a nice bridal shower? Toasters, gravy boats, butter dishes, and other standard bridal shower gifts were not needed at their house. They had all that stuff, right alongside their dragster race car.

So we decided to throw Adrienne a 'Pamper the Bride Shower'. After all, planning a wedding is incredibly stressful and what Bride doesn't need some pampering?

I sell a line of beauty/make up/skin care products called Beauticontrol. And when I say sell, I really mean I get a discount on products for myself and my friends. This was the basis of our Pamper the Bride shower. If you want to do something similar to this for a friend, you can call me and I will gladly show up at your party with all my spa and make-up products and do an awesome spa party, or you can call a local Beauticontrol consultant in your area (or a consultant from a competing make-up and spa product MLM could work too).

On the invites, we told the guests that they could bring a gift that would pamper the Bride or they could get her something off her wish list at the shower. This is nice for guests because they don't have to shop for a gift, wrap something, or plan ahead. No one really likes to plan ahead or be prepared. And this is nice for the Bride because she gets stuff she actually needs and wants, she just picks out the things she wants ahead of time. This idea can be used for other types of showers too; Pampered Chef, Tupperware, erotic toys, etc.

At the shower I did a spa party. We put on face masks, foot cream and special socks, eye pads, hand treatments, lip treatments, neck wraps and all sorts of other fun things you could only do with a bunch of girls. We pampered the Bride and all the guests too. And its super fun to get pictures of all your friends looking silly.

The party decor was super cute too. (I wish I had more pictures, I really need to get better at documenting my cuteness.) I used the Bride's wedding colors, coral and champagne for everything. I put coral(ish) roses on the tables as centerpieces, coral and champagne tablecloths, napkins and plates. My favorite thing was my party favor table.

This table was set up with cute spa items that the guests could take home. I put nail files, lip gloss, lip balms, bath loofahs, hair ties, nail polishes, and scented candles out on the tables with gift bags to fill up. I had a lot of fun getting this all put together.

We didn't really play any silly shower games. We only did one (sort of) game, and its one of my favorites. While the Bride is opening up gifts, we wrote down everything she said. Then when all the presents are opened, we read the things she said out loud as "Things that will be said on the wedding night" (this also works at baby showers as "Things said on the night of conception").  We got some great ones at Adrienne's shower, some of my favorites were:

"I'll have Terra write you a thank you card for that"
"Can I use this as a pot holder?"
"You'll be so jealous when you all have severe carpal tunnel and I don't" (I think this was in reference to some sort of hand mixer... Yes, she got some random kitchen items too, it wouldn't really be a true bridal shower without at least one.)

I wish I could remember more right now, but it was really funny. And it was cute to see people get creative and really try to find gifts that would Pamper the Bride.

And what other Bride would open all her gifts while wearing a face mask? Such a good sport! I love you Adrienne, and congrats to you and Jeff! I wish nothing but the best to you both!