Weddingbee boards

A couple months ago I hosted a garden tea party bridal shower for my girlfriend, Rose.  (I'm her Maid of Honor.) Ladies were asked to wear dresses and froofy large hats and a pretty darn girly event was thrown. Rose is very well loved by all of her friends for which I am extremely lucky because I had a TON of offers to help. Of course I accepted. (Momma didn't raise no fool!)

Anywho... welcome to the giant post of doom!!!!  (With pictures)

These were the invitations which I created based on a kit from Mimio in Pasadena and then accentuated with items from Paper Source.

Prep and Details

The style for this shower has been kinda brewing for a while. It got reinforced when I spoke to a girl who wanted to do a vintage style theme for her wedding and so I started collecting milk glass and depression glass. Much of the olive green glass is actually owned by Rose. So, I figured green and pink would be a good combo with accents of yellow. And of course, when I saw the gorgeous blue glass at the flea market in Pasadena, I knew that had to be used too.

The hostess snack plates I found at a few thrift stores with some hunting. I was really lucky in that the plates and cups come in a set of four and each set I got was intact. The plates date back to around the 50's and are by the Federal Glass Company. I got each set for around $5 per set. 

The pink satin linens were purchased from http://www.cvlinens.com/ and were actually cheaper to purchase from them than to rent them. Initially I tried to sew my own napkins. HA HA HA HA HA!!! THAT was a joke. My fabric was super slick and it took me over an hour just to make ONE. Since I was already renting chairs, I called up Jennifer at http://www.dressmychair.com and rented satin apple green napkins at $1 each. The runners however, I did make on my own. Fabric was 40% off at JoAnne's.

I also wanted to hang some adorable shabby chic mini chandeliers above the table. I got these babies for a great price at http://www.amazon.com using my gift card. The bottom I accentuated with a slightly larger crystal drop from the flower market, and then put roses in the candle holders. (I learned my lesson from the last event and used floral glue to make sure they didn't blow out. Love that stuff, doesn't damage the flowers, still holds it in, SUPER easy to clean off.)

For decor around the yard, I reused fabric banners I had made for a previous event. I also reused the fabric strips I had cut for another event to decorate the chairs but never got to fully use. Hooray for recycling!

For the main centerpiece, I have this wrought iron tree with votive candles that I got from Illuminaries several years back. I spray painted the tree to match the blue glass, added roses into the votives, and hung dessert teas from the branches by Tea Forte, the Dolce Vita collection. (LOVE their Coco Truffle and Vienna Cinnamon tea!)

Amongst the vintage vases, I had large vintage style gate keys which I got online from Pottery Barn.

For napkin rings, I had bridesmaid Julie and friend Anne make mini tissue balls. Thanks Martha Stewart! Favors included tea for one sets from http://www.englishteastore.com and tea trays from http://www.teaforte.com. ALSO, Rose's mom brought down extra virgin olive oil, and blue cheese or garlic stuffed olives from Napa (where she lives). SOOO yummy.

Another detail that was made in advance was a recipe book. Rose recently remodeled her kitchen and she wanted useful gifts that she could use, but didn't really want anyone to spend money. So, I suggested a cookbook where each girl could contribute a recipe or two, and that way guests who couldn't make the shower could still participate. I collected the recipes and made the book via http://www.blurb.com

Activities!

Rose collects two things.... snow globes and rubber ducks. I knew she had gotten her hands on a bunch of blank rubber ducks with the intention of doing 'something' with them. I asked to use them thinking how appropriate it would be for each girl to decorate one to add to her collection so she could remember her shower each time she saw them.

Also, if you know this couple at all... costumes and photo sets are a BIG thing for all of their parties. (One of the reasons why I requested big hats from everyone.) I also thought it appropriate to create a simple photo set for her shower. Rose's brother, Sky owns Red Dawn Media http://www.reddawnmedia.com/ He was kind enough to come over and set up a white back drop, lights and a camera in the garage. Julie and Anne then made huge tissue paper pom poms using the 20x30 tissue paper I purchased from Nashville Wraps http://www.nashvillewraps.com/

Food!

Julie and Rose's mom were amazing in the kitchen. I set them loose in there after handing off recipes and ran away to the office to go put flowers together. Everything was so tasty! We tried to be good keeping in mind we had some restrictions, including the guest of honor not able to eat dairy or liking onions, a vegan friend, and a pregnant woman.

Menu included:
1. Egg Salad Sandwiches
2. Cucumber Mint Tea Sandwiches
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Cucumber-Mint-Tea-Sandwiches-12337
3. Minted Radish Tea Sandwiches with Lemon Mayonnaise
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Minted-Radish-Tea-Sandwiches-with-Lemon-Mayonnaise-11856
4. Smoked-Turkey Tea Sandwiches with Arugula Mayonnaise
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Smoked-Turkey-Tea-Sandwiches-with-Arugula-Mayonnaise-101681
5. Mini hot dogs wrapped in buns (Trader Joes)
6. Veggie Platter with dairy free creamy garlic dressing
7. Fresh fruit platter
8. Lemon Tea Cakes and Cranberry Tea Cakes (From Martino's Bakery)
9. Mini Cannolis (Martino's. Seriously, I didn't like cannolis until I had one from here, AMAZING)
10. Fruit Tarts (Portos)
11. Flowerless Chocolate Cake (Portos)
12. Lemon Bars (Meg)

Quick note, I also got these fantastic little chalk boards from an Etsy seller gfout. http://www.etsy.com/shop/gfoutHe was fast, and they were adorable. Perfect for putting signs next to food!

The trays which we used to display desserts were on loan from Kristeen of http://www.kristeenlabrotevents.com

For drinks we had:
1. Wine from Napa
2. Hot tea
3. Basil Lemonade (Had my doubts on this one while making the syrup.... but SO GOOOOD!!!) (Can sub in Agave.)http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/drink/views/Basil-Lemonade-238928
4. Iced tea using half ceylon gold and half pomegranate blackberry iced tea bags from tea forte.
5. Strawberry Peach Sangria
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/drink/views/Strawberry-and-Peach-Sangria-232542

The apothecary drink dispenser was on loan from Kristeen. (She got it from Z-Gallery.) The other two dispensers I got from Amazon thanks to my gift card!

Full Party Setup!
Food Table

A HUGE shout-out goes to bridesmaid Julie for going with me at 5AM on Friday to the Flower Market down town, keeping my floral budget in check, and helping prep the flowers.

Girls in hats!

The Guest of Honor

Time to eat!

Tea drinking!

Very serious duck decorating!

Gift Opening!
April gave her the most AWESOME gift ever. She made the picture herself, drawing Rose complete with a race number (she loves running and races), her viking hat from the Warrior Dash (an obstacle course race), mud run type clothing, her fav color as a background and of course, rubber ducks. 

Rose also collects knee socks. As in, she used to do a sock of the day photo. I think she had enough socks to wear new socks for almost a year and post photos. Julie and I helped add to her collection, including some socks she could wear while getting ready for her wedding.

I love this sweet 1st edition cook book that Joanna gave her. It has old school recipes along with advice for being a good wife.

And of COURSE, we took photos in the photo set! There were a ton of props to play with also.
 

Mother and Daughter. And the girls in the family!
 

Rose and two of her bridal party, myself and Julie
 

Then we started playing with props...
 

Showing off our ducks!
 

A huge thank you and shout out go to:
-Rose for being awesome and helping clean up.
-Bridesmaid Julie for going to the flower market, prep, setup and cooking.
-Friend Anne for setting up, ironing and clean up
-Hubby Andrew for being so tolerant of our home being used to host, helping set up, and being our photographer.
-Friend April for helping clean up
-Kristeen of http://www.kristeenlabrotevents.com for loaning her pretty food trays and dispenser, and using her contacts to get my chairs from http://www.dressmychair.com
-Sky of http://www.reddawnmedia.com for setting up and loaning equipment for the photo area
-Rose's Mom, Louann for buying food, bringing down delicious Napa treats and helping out in the kitchen
-Rose's FSIL, Stela for being an awesome sugar momma
-Friend Meg for her delicious lemon bars.

Seriously, none of this would have been as awesome without their help.