Spring Baby Shower

In high school, I had a core group of about a dozen friends.  For whatever reason, we called ourselves 'the crew.'  A couple of these crew members got married and recently, two of them (or their wives actually) became pregnant!  How special is it that two great friends are starting their own families at the same time?!  I decided a celebration was in order!  As you can see from this blog, party planning is a thing that my family really enjoys to do.  Usually it's a team effort but since this one was for my group of friends, it was mostly a solo gig.  I was so excited that I couldn't make myself wait on the prep work...  I immediately became inspired and went to Hobby Lobby (love that store!) and picked up some crafty things to start my invitations. 

 I went to my parents house for a weekend at the beginning of the planning period and was again inspired!  I love putting my own spin on gifts so I came up with the idea to take plain white onesies and personalize them for the second generation of crew members!  My mom taught me two stitches and I did my first embroidery project ever! 

The two pregos with their personalized onesies!

My table spread

Cadbury eggs!  Easter is the PERFECT time to throw a pastel baby shower

Pulled pork bites with queso fresco and cilantro

I tried to think of something cute to do with the extra three onesies in my pack of five.  Inspiration struck yet again!  I put them up and added doilies for my mantle decoration. 

Two parts white grape juice, one part ginger ale.  Delightful!

 The entry way to the family room as you walk in the front door

 

Both sets of soon-to-be parents were so kind and gave me delicious gifts for hosting :)  It was a wonderful pastel-colored day!

Tea Party Bridal Shower

A classy bridal shower for a classy lady.  Chelsea loved the idea of a tea party themed shower and since she was the bride, we complied with her wishes (even though we usually prefer that these things be a surprise)!  The tea party theme was absolutely beautiful!  So classic and delicate.

Each of the center pieces was a unique tea pot, brought from the homes of family members.  Table runners were made from a gorgeous floral fabric that just happened to match the china perfectly!  Love when things work out like that!  The take home gifts for this shower were little hand crafted packets that held several different kinds of tea - special "teas" for Eric and Chelsea:  Humili-Tea, Integre-Tea and Honest-Tea to name a few!

We added a single dainty flower on each plate for simple elegance.  There was no shortage of pearls and lace for this tea party.

Scones were served for tea time along with two artfully decorated cakes (brought in from Chicago) and some adorable and tasty jam cookies with tops that looked like buttons!

The bride wearing her mother's wedding dress and hat because she's so fun!  

We encouraged the guests to bring along a fancy, old-fashioned hat to wear!

Chelsea's bridal hat was a lovely vintage sun hat adorned with fresh flowers and tulle.  Completely perfect for the theme!

Nautical Bridal Shower

Bringin' it back to one of our earlier bridal showers.  Chad and Natalie met on a Royal Caribbean cruise in late 2003.  They kept in touch through the years and developed a beautiful relationship even though one lived in Australia and the other lived in Michigan.  When they got engaged and chose to have their wedding on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship, it wasn't too difficult for us to decide on the theme of this shower!  

Pre-party:  setting up the entrance

For our entrance, we sweet-talked our way into borrowing a store's ship wheel!  We recreated the Royal Caribbean logo, some waves, added netting and pennants and made a balloon canopy.

In keeping with the nautical theme, we 'servers/chefs/planners' wore sailor hats with navy and white outfits.  The bridal hat for Natalie was a sailor hat decorated with a tulle veil on the back and delicate white flowers and pearls. It was very cute and I'm bummed we didn't get a picture of it!

Royal Caribbean names all of their ships "----- of the Seas" (i.e. Adventure of the Seas, Brilliance of the Seas), so we cleverly dubbed the deck the "Matrimony of the Seas"

Another play on words!  'Love me Tender' is obviously an Elvis love song and a 'tender' is another word for a boat.  This is where the gifts were placed.

Our menu consisted of Starboard Side Salad, Fruity Bahama-bobs, Parmesan Seabiscuit and Chicken of the Sea Salad.  Dessert was a Tiki Tart and our take home gifts were Life Savers.  Don't forget to check out the cups - each one with an anchor drawn on! We're all about the details :)

I loved our center pieces!  Each table had a tin bucket filled with sand and a few shells.  Each of the buckets were decorated with a handcrafted, hand cut out, Royal Caribbean logo.  My favorite part of the center pieces were the nautical flags that spelled out L-O-V-E in international maritime code.

Vera-Bradley-esque Bridal Shower

Can you guess the theme of this shower??  If you guessed Vera Wang you would be incorrect... it's Vera Bradley!  Since we are thrifty (as noted in the post below), we decided to make our own Vera-Bradley-esque embellishments.  We crafted pennants, table clothes and runners, napkin rings, name tags and take home gifts for each of the attendees from colorful fabrics!  A trip to the garden provided our fragrant centerpieces.

For our Vera Bradley brunch, we decided that a mimosa bar would be the perfect beverage choice.  Decorated with the bride and groom's monogram, this table didn't need much more color because of all those fresh fruits and juices!

Mango, orange and peach juices could be mixed with blueberries, strawberries, mango and pineapple.  Oh and don't forget the champagne! 

In keeping with our secondary and somewhat unintentional theme of fruit and alcohol, our dessert menu consisted of lemon ricotta cookies and champagne cupcakes with a buttercream frosting

We like to make an entrance so we manipulated chicken wire into a whimsical wedding dress!  You may see this little beauty in future posts!

Rustic Bridal Shower

Family is very important to us.  When it comes to bridal showers for family and soon-to-be-family, we make sure the theme is totally unique to each personality!  Lindsey married into our family and had a beautiful rustic theme for her wedding.  We took that idea and ran with it, making sure that we stuck with the same concept but went a different direction than the wedding - just to spice things up! 

The shower was held in a lovely cottage in South Haven, MI.  We adorned the entrance to the party with a sweet collage of pictures of the happy couple, along with a rustic bench.

It is our family's tradition with the nieces/cousins that the bride receives a wedding hat.  Each hat parallels the theme of the shower - always unique and always adorable! 

 We had a fully homemade menu for the shower luncheon, complete with homemade lemonade and Mom's famous iced tea!  We ain't from the South but we sure do make a mean sweet tea!

    

We found, repaired and painted an old piece of a picket fence because we love being thrifty (and we're good at it too!)  Flowers were definitely utilized because really, how can you be rustic without bunches of flowers?  Custom made napkin holders were garnished with sprigs of fresh greenery (a.k.a. weeds)... straight out of the garden next door!  Don't worry, we asked permission first :)

 

And now on to everyone's favorite part of any bridal shower - the dessert.  We served lemon pound cake with fresh lemon curd, sun-ripened Michigan strawberries and a generous dollop of whipped cream.

For take-home goodies (and as a friendly encourager to end the party haha!), we potted thyme in individual terra cotta pots.  It was a wonderful day and a successful party!