I shared last week how in July I planned and executed my very first bridal shower. I've helped with multiple wedding and baby showers, but this was my first go at planning the entire thing. It was a ton of work, and in an effort to make it easier for the next person I thought I would share my theme, games, and menu.
THEME
Teal
My friend's wedding colors are mint, peach, and grey. I loved the idea of going with a mint theme for her bridal shower but mint is really hard to find unless you special order everything (and who has the time/money for that?), so I landed up going with a teal theme instead.
I loosely went with the tea party theme but that really only extended as far as the tea sandwiches... it sounds nice though doesn't it?
Designing a theme doesn't have to be hard or expensive. I suggest choosing one main color and a couple complementary colors and then perhaps a theme to guide your menu.
Keep it simple- the simpler your theme, the easier it will be to plan.
DECORATIONS/INVITATIONS
I created the bridal shower invitations using my favorite design tool of all time, PicMonkey, and emailed them out instead of sending them via snail mail. I know a lot of people are still fans of snail mail but I'm not one of those people. Sending evites worked beautifully and helped keep me within budget. One day I'll do a tutorial on how to make evites in PicMonkey because it really is so super simple and produces great results.
{This was the shower evite; sorry about the black boxes covering information}
Having a teal theme worked out really nicely with white and black accents. I bought teal, black, and white balloons at Walmart, as well as teal, black, and white paper goods (napkins, plates etc.) and streamers. We twisted the streamers along the tables and added balloons around the room. The mother of the bride found this lovely chalk banner that is reusable and that was the perfect final touch. I can tell you from this bridal shower and my own that decorations need not be a big deal or big expense. There are so many other things to take in on the day that keeping it simple is really the best idea.
I used PicMonkey to design cards for our food items and little signs to place by the table as they walked in.
"BEST IDEA EVER" (according to the bride)
I placed blank envelopes at the table right as people walked in, and instructed them to address an envelope to themselves. I later collected the envelopes, put blank thank you cards inside and handed these to the bride. She has pre-addressed thank you notes which makes things SO much easier for her, and in her words "was the best idea ever!"
I almost skipped this step, but then thought that my goal in all of this should be to help the bride and help her enjoy her special day. If I can decrease her stress by giving her pre-addressed envelopes, then I should totally do it. I got a huge pack of really cute blank cards at Hobby Lobby and was glad that I decided to implement this simple idea into the bridal shower.
MENU
I had a really hard time with the menu because I love food but I didn't want what I prepared to take a long time. The recipes I chose worked really well and provided enough food for everyone on a decent budget. It's really easy to get overwhelmed by all the lovely ideas on Pinterest, especially in the food category, so I would have an idea of what you're wanting to do before jumping on the Internet to look.
Egg Salad Sandwiches - This is your very basic egg salad sandwich recipe that turned out great. We cut off the crusts of our bread to add a little more elegance, and I doubled this particular recipe.
Cucumber Tea Sandwiches - I CANNOT find the original link to this recipe so I made a google document where you can access the same recipe. These have a couple more ingredients than most of the cucumber tea sandwich recipes I found but they're things you most likely have on hand (Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice etc.). They were absolutely DELICIOUS and I highly recommend them.
PB & J Sandwiches - I needed one more tea sandwich and decided on these because they're easy, both kid and adult friendly, and cheap.
**We prepared the mixtures of all the sandwiches the night before the shower and made the actual sandwiches the morning of the shower so that the bread wouldn't get soggy.
Turkey wraps - This was a recipe that a friend from work told me about and it was SO easy to make. They were a huge hit and will be on my list for my own lunches/snacks that I take to work!
Crockpot meatballs - There are several variations of this recipe but this one is my favorite because you only need three ingredients. We made them the morning of the shower and these were very filling for everyone at the shower.
Veggie platter with dip. The dip I make is one 16 oz container of sour cream with one packet of dry ranch mixed in. It's delicious with veggies or chips and we make it probably once a week during football season. We bought veggies that were in season and chopped them up and put them in a platter that we got from the dollar store.
I had planned on including a fruit tray in our menu, but because I was on a limited budget decided to skip it. Between the twizzlers and mints we set out for snacks, along with cake, no one seemed to miss it.
Tres leches cake. This was the choice of the bride, and one of her guests so graciously bought it for us at a bakery. It was delicious and beautiful, and the only thing I can say is do not attempt to make a tres leches cake for a bridal shower unless you've done it before (it's time consuming and really easy to mess up).
Mint lemonade. This was an idea I saw on Pinterest and it worked beautifully. You just add a bit of blue Kool-Aid (or in our case blue water flavoring because we couldn't find blue Kool-Aid) to lemonade and mix until you get the right color of lemonade. It worked brilliantly with our theme!
Iced tea. We bought cans, it was the easiest way to go.
Water. This was a must for this non-alcoholic bridal shower.
WAYS I SAVED MONEY:
- Kept decorations simple and bought all my balloons, streamers, and paper goods for under $1 each
- Bought white paper cups and had a sharpie next to them so that people could label their cups (eliminating the need for multiple cups for each person)
- Sent evites instead of snail mail invitations
- Kept the menu simple... unless you promise them lunch on the invitation, don't feel like you have to provide a four course meal!
If you need more bridal shower ideas, check out my Pinterest board here.
What are other winning shower recipes that are simple and easy? Have you ever planned a bridal/baby shower entirely on your own?
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