Wedding Veil Favors and Decor for Bridal Showers and Bachleorette Parties

One of my best friends is getting married on Saturday! I am a Bridesmaid so I have had the honor of helping with the wedding and throwing her some fun parties! I briefly wrote about her Cinderella Bridal Shower already http://www.berriesofwisdom.blogspot.com/2015/03/cinderella-bridal-shower.html, but I wanted to make another quick post about some cute favors I made for her Bachelorette Party over the weekend.

This whole idea started because I originally wanted little flasks for all the girls, but that is very expensive. So then I wanted little empty mini bottles and was going to fill them up myself, but that also seemed expensive and my friend Amy didn't like the idea of giving 17 girls 3 oz. of booze each to carry around in their purse... And then we decided that water is more of a necessity during Bachelorette Party shenanigans.

 

These were so cute. All I used was white tulle (from the dollar-store), white ribbon (dollar-store), and I found the little dresses at the dollar-store. I would have cute a dress out from the Cricut paper cutter too, or you just do the veil alone on any bottle and it'd be adorable! And a hot-glue gun. I'm really into my hot glue gun these days....

 

 

 The little bottle in the front is full of Bourbon, that one was for the Bride.

 

 

We also made little survival kits for the all the girls at the party full of everything you might need on a night out: band-aids (which we used quite a few of), hair-tie holders, ibuprofen, mints, granola bars, etc. and we put a crystal light energy packet in each bag too to go in the water.

 

 

 

 

These would be cute at a Bridal Shower too, even at a wedding. Or you could just add the veil and/or dress to little mini-bottles of alcohol too. Or anything. Lotions, soap, etc.

Cinderella Bridal Shower

 

 

My bestest friend from college, Julie is getting married! Whoo-hoo! I am so very excited for her, especially since I helped set her up with her fiancé, Wayne. Julie has loved Cinderella since she was a little girl and before she was even engaged (she might not have even had a boyfriend at the time....) but  I decided that when the day came for her to get married,I would throw her a beautiful Cinderella themed bridal shower.

 Cinderella's Glass Slippers (filled with Sixlets candy)

This tray of party favors and candy is one of my favorite things at the party. I just think the mice and treat bags turned out SO CUTE!

 

 

I am so happy with how everything turned out for this party. It was so cute and fun and exactly what I envisioned. My friends Adrienne and Amy helped me set up the party, and Adrienne helped with a lot of the party details too.

 

I'm waiting to get all my pictures back from Amy, who always takes great pictures of my parties. But I was so excited about this, that I couldn't wait to post SOMETHING! I'll do some follow up posts with all the décor, how-to's of how and what I did, recipes and everything else.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Clementines and a little celery stick make an adorable pumpkin! I think I would make these for a Halloween party too.

 

The food was beautiful and delicious! The main protein dish were Ham Cup Omelets, you can find the recipe here http://berriesofwisdom.blogspot.com/2015/04/mini-ham-cup-omelets.html. Stay tuned and I will post how-to's and recipes from this shower!

 

 

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!!

 

 

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!