Thursday, April 19, 2012

Kelsey's Bridal Shower: the details

As you might have noticed in the last post, we used Kelsey's K monogram for the shower theme and we brought it in a lot of places.  So here are some more of the details from the shower, this post is definitely picture heavy ;) Things started out with the wreath that I made for the front door out of tissue paper flowers.  
Monogram wreath
I was inspired by the picture below from Pinterest and then I made a ton of little tissue paper flowers and tied them to a piece of poster board that I cut out in the shape of the K from the shower monogram.
 Cute wreaths
When guests entered the house, they found a silver mirror hanging with the escort cards.  The sign at the top says: "Find your table ...then find your Monogram" meaning find your table with your escort card and then find your monogram at your place setting.
Escort cards
The table numbers were created from wooden numbers that I got at AC Moore and painted with pink paint. I drilled a 1/4" hole in the bottom of each and inserted a dowel to be able to place each number in the vase.
Table numbers for centerpieces
 I created each centerpiece by hand with all of the flowers that we got at local shops. I love arranging flowers and making these low centerpieces was a lot of fun.  I tied pink ribbon around each centerpiece vase and added Kelsey's K monogram to tie into the theme of the event. 
Table setting
Then, once the guests had found their tables, their personal monogram was tied to a place card favor on top of their dessert plate.  I  filled clear boxes with different types of pink candies and tied them with silver ribbon and a card with their monogram.  As I mentioned before, the china and silverware was collected from different members of my family, the picture below is our wedding china mixed with my mom's sterling silverware.
Monogrammed place card favor
Table 1
Table 2
Since it was a really nice day outside, we had 3 more tables outside on the deck. Here I mixed up the pink and silver tablecloths and we had two square tables and one round table.  The centerpieces and table numbers were the same as the other tables.  I also used different silverware and china for each table out there as well. 
Tables outside
Round table with silver tablecloth

Inside, I decorated the mantle with lots of different glassware, including mason jars, bud vases, etc and filled them with different pink flowers. I placed all of this on top of wide pink ribbon that I had draped over the mantle.  I also hung the letters of Kelsey's new monogram from the mantle with pink ribbon. 
The mantle and gift opening area
To the left of the mantle and gift opening area was the gift table.  I covered the table in a pink tablecloth and by the start of the shower, this table was overflowing with gifts!
Gift table before the guests arrived with the rest of the gifts
As you might have seen before, I painted the K monogram by hand on the table runner that was on the food buffet. It took a lot of patience, but I think it was worth it. I loved how the pink runner looked on the silver tablecloth and differentiated this table from the guest tables.
Hand painted table runner
We had so much delicious food and I think everyone really enjoyed it.  There were so many options for sandwiches, quiches, fruit and veggies. It was really good and still pretty healthy for you! 

The dessert bar was also really fun.  I printed out a sign that said Love is Sweet and placed it in the middle of my bulletin board then filled the rest of the space with lots of pictures of Kelsey and Brandon.
Dessert bar
We had a ton of wonderful desserts and of course everything tied in with the monogram theme.  The cake from Sweet Memories had a replica of the monogram painted on a fondant topper.  Each of the jar desserts also had a monogram on the lid.  
Cake!
More of the desserts
I mentioned the drinks before, but we had a bellini bar to create your custom drink creations and lemonade and iced tea in large mason jar dispensers.  I created custom stir stick flags with Kelsey's monogram for the drinks and we had gray and white paper straws available for the sweet tea or lemonade.
Drinks at the bellini bar
Strawberry lemonade and sweet tea in mason jar dispensers
The decor and food was really great, everyone was pretty wowed. But, now down to the actual events of the shower! When the guests arrived, everyone had a chance to get a drink and mingle and we played an icebreaker game that actually went over really well.  We played the "what's in your purse game?" and it was fun!
What's in your purse game
Each guest filled out a card and got points for having certain items with them in their purse.  It was pretty amazing that multiple people got over 100 points!!
Playing the what's in your purse game
After lunch, we played a game that is a spin on the traditional toilet paper wedding dress game.  Instead of toilet paper however, the groups each received a bag with various supplies so that they could fashion their own more realistic wedding dress. Each bag contained satin, tulle, various types of white ribbon, silk flowers, bobby pins, safety pins and scissors. 
Wedding dress game bags
We gave the groups about 15-20 minutes to make their creations and it was a ton of fun.  We got a lot of really unique dresses and some pretty successful dresses. After their dresses were complete, we had everyone gather together in the living room for a fashion show to show off each dress.
One of the model brides 
Fixing the bride's veil
Wedding dress fashion show
Then, after all of the dresses had been shown, Kelsey got to pick the winner. It was a lot of fun and then she posed for a picture with the models. 
Kelsey with all of the model brides
While Kelsey opened her gifts, the guests played Bingo. Each person filled out a card with items they thought she might receive, then as Kelsey opened her gifts they marked them off. The first person to get 5 in a row won! It was a fun way to keep everyone interested in the gifts that were being opened.
Gift bingo
After opening all of Kelsey's wonderful monogrammed gifts, we played one more game before the event was over.  Sarah, the MOH, had asked Brandon 20 questions before the shower and we asked Kelsey the same questions to see if she could get them right!  The guests had to guess how many of the 20 questions they thought Kelsey would actually get right. Brandon happened to show up right before we started this last game, so he got to listen to Kelsey try to come up with all of the same answers.
The bride and groom
It was a wonderful day and I know everyone had a lot of fun celebrating the bride-to-be, Kelsey

3 comments:

  1. I saw you got your cake at sweet memeories? I am looking for an anniversary topper for my husband and I for our first anniversary. We were inbetween the moving process so we didn't save ours. IS the place good?

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  2. Yes!! I can't say enough good things about Sweer Memories. We got our wedding cake there and it was still so good 1 year later. Anyways, I think you would be really happy with whatever flavor you pick. Also, ask about their dessert cakes, they come in a number of flavors, they're much cheaper than having a custom cake made but they're still really good. I think that would work well for an anniversay cake, we do them for birthdays often.

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  3. The shower was beautiful! It was so thoughtful of you to put so much thought, attention to everything and to make it such a special shower for her!

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