I've attended my fair share of bridal showers, they can be a lot of fun. I however have absolutely no experience in planning a bridal shower. So, I was at a loss when I volunteered to plan a bridal shower for a dear friend of mine. I wanted to have a themed shower. The theme: Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.
(My friend's favorite color is blue.)
It all began with the
invitations, but there was still the small detail of the shower itself!
I needed ideas, I needed inspiration, badly!
Well, to my dismay, there just wasn't much out there in the world wide web befitting to this theme. So I thought that I would share what my friend (Marianne)and I were able to come up with. The bridal shower was beautiful. I hope that you will be inspired by some of our ideas when planning a bridal shower of your own.
This is the welcome table, the guests see this as they arrive.
In keeping with the theme of "something old" , we decorated using lots of doilies, burlap, lace and twine. We made a twine garland to hang over the welcome table, and over the bride to be. We wanted the bridal shower to have a rustic, but feminine feel.
What I did learn from searching the internet was a little bit about bridal shower etiquette. DUH! The welcome table should include a displayed pictured of the bride. Also, display the invitation. We also chose to have an advice/well wishes board (in lieu of a guest book) on the welcome table for the guest to take a card from the clip, and write advice, or well wishes for the bride to be. This ensures that the bride will have a special keepsake from each guest. The well wishes board was made from an "old" cupboard door. :)
Marianne and I used the trusty ole hot glue gun to adhere lace to mason jars, then tied a piece of twine around each one. We filled the jars with flowers, and displayed them around the room.
In keeping with the "something blue" part of the theme, we served up "blue" desserts. Blueberry topped cheesecake, blue velvet dessert cake, and blueberry yogurt covered pretzels. ( not pictured)
Menu cards were placed around the tables listing what was being served. The cards are free printables found
here. We displayed the cards on small easels found at Micheal's craft store.
We also served the fruit kabobs in mason jars that had been covered with burlap and paper doilies.
What I did not know but wish I had known, is that the kabobs should have been assembled the day of the shower, NOT the night before. The fruit caused the paper kabob sticks to become limp. Hence the reason why they are flopped over the jar. It did not however affect the flavor of the fruit. And in the end still looked okay, more like flowers . Hey, sometimes you just have to roll with it.
Even the utensils became a beautiful accent piece to the theme of the shower.
The party favors were so much fun to put together. I ordered glassine bags from ebay, stamped a lace image across the bottom of the bag. Then filled the bags with "blue" gummy bears. My neighbor stitched paper doilies (that had a hint of distress ink applied to the edges) across the top of the bag to seal them.
We then clipped the magnetic clothes pins along with a vintage themed ticket to the top of the bag. The tickets are another free printable from
Miss Cutie Pie's blog found
here.
The clothespins were purchased at my local dollar store. I then painted them white, and stamped an image across the top. I finished them off with a coat of clear acrylic spray paint. This made sure that the ink from the stamped image would not smear.
Lastly, I hot glued a strong magnet to the back side of each clothespin and tied a piece of twine around each one.
The bridal shower was truly a memorable experience, both in the planning, preparing, and the event itself. I thoroughly enjoyed every moment.
I'm linking to the following parties:
paper pad. All of the paper used for this card is from the "fine and dandy" line. It has such a fun whimsical feel with a vintage charm. 
