anticipation events bridal shower Archives

Last weekend I headed out on the road again to put together a bridal shower for one of my dear friends, Melissa. We hosted it at Amy’s house and ran with a sugar and spice theme. Melissa’s wedding colors are red and pink so we used those along with some teal to create a lot of sweetness. I made the invites and it’s sort of where the theme began. I drew three kitchen canisters labeled sugar, spice and nice so when you opened the envelope, this is what you saw:

A red envelope lined with pink and white striped vintage wallpaper (which I bought at a thrift store at least a year ago and just KNEW it would come in handy some day. I was right. Also, Melissa hates thrift stores and I love them so HA my friend.)

I printed the details in “empty” canisters on a separate sheet of paper and cut it down to size. I sewed a blank sheet to the canisters and stuck the info in the pocket…and viola! All the necessary info. is tucked inside the canisters for safe keeping.

I even rigged up my sewing machine using a popsicle stick so I would get straight lines, genius! My OCD would not have handled that well otherwise. I was pretty proud that I got all the lines to line up perfectly — small victories my friends.

At the shower we served sweet and spicy foods and I made signage with our little logo on it with teal card stock and more wallpaper.

DIY bridal shower It was a brunch shower and I just could not resist the cereal bar pun. I cut them into heart shapes and dipped them in white chocolate with pink sprinkles. Why the heck not, I say. I used light pink, dark pink and red ribbon to make a super simple table runner down the middle of the table…

Inspiration comes from my clients all the time! I had recently done a wedding where we hung up paper lanterns in the tent and it inspired me to create a red and teal and pink filly lantern for this shower. Cheap paper lanterns, tissue paper, a circle punch and my trusty glue gun was all it took!

Every shower needs a fabulous cocktail so for brunch drinks I made a “Bride to be-llini” which was a pomegranate bellini garnished with fresh blueberries and watermelon cubes and a “Mis-mosa” (her nickname is Missy and you wouldn’t have been able to resist that either.)I haven’t done a candy bar in a long time and realize they are sometimes overdone, but when you have a sweet and spicy theme, it just works. I gocco’ed these little bags for guests to fill up on their way out.The bride got some candy to go for herself and the Mr.!Amy made an awesome game of the “spice” variety and Melissa even got a few gifts to boot!

Three weeks until the big day and all they have to do is move into a new house in the meantime!

So you’ve already seen the invites and read about the inspiration for the coffee and wine themed shower and bachelorette party. Here’s how it all came together.

I decorated using the brown and pink scheme from the invites and made deceptively simple but pretty stinking awesome coffee filter poofs. Whitney’s sweet mom kept calling them peony’s which just made my crafty heart sing. (When in doubt always bring a mom to the party—they are the best at gushing over the details!) I hung clusters of them over the kitchen table and island where most of the food action was happening.

We served lots of delicious brunch fare: french toast casserole, egg bakes, croissants with apple butter, honey and jam, coffee cake muffins and fresh fruit skewers!

Lots of mimosas to wash it all down and an artsy shot of the glasses by one of the bridesmaids, Megan.

We (of course) put together a hard-core coffee bar that included hot and iced coffee, vanilla and caramel syrup, soy milk, skim milk, half and half and some homemade vanilla whipped cream.

Each guest picked up their own personal coffee cup for the morning which doubled as their favor. Each coffee mug had a picture of the guest with Whitney and Whitney got a special little one with a picture of her and John! I used a special paper to transfer the images to the cups and baked them on so they’d be permanent. (I also made her three extra so she would have a set of four: one of the two of them, one of Whitney, one of John and one of their dog Duke. Awesome.)

We set them up on the kitchen table with bowls of chocolate-covered espresso beans to munch on and extra coasters for people to use during the party.

Whitney hates to be the center of attention so we just played a few games that wouldn’t embarrass her. The ever-popular guessing game, this time using coffee beans and a coffee filter for holding guesses.

And then while she opened her presents guests participated in a homemade BING-O game dubbed “WHIT-O” that really took a lot of the attention off of staring at Whitney opening gifts. Plus, Whitney’s future sister-in-law won and could not have been more ecstatic. Both of the game winners won coffee mugs filled with flavored coffee samples and iced coffee blends.

I’m just getting over my caffeine buzz now. Less than a month to go until their big day. We can’t wait to celebrate your love again in June!

weddings + events + style
chicago +
worldwide

PARTY WITH US
ON SOCIAL MEDIA

DIY sugar and spiced themed destination bridal shower

@anticipationevents

weddings + events + style chicago + worldwide

PARTY WITH US ON SOCIAL MEDIA

@anticipationevents

weddings + events + style
chicago +
worldwide

PARTY WITH US
ON SOCIAL MEDIA