flower shower

I know it's been forever since I've last posted but I have a legitimate excuse! Gianfranco bought me Sims 3 for our 2 year anniversary and if you've ever played the Sims, you'll know where the hours in my evening have gone.

So without further delay, I present the little details from Nancy's shower...

First, the invitation. If you've been following my blog you won't be surprised to know we ordered these cute "Here Come the Bridesmaids" invitations from Tickled Pink Design. Once again, I can't say enough about this place! The stationery is affordable and adorable and the customer service is great. Since February, I've already ordered 3 sets of invitations and have been really pleased with all of them. Below is a copy of the invitation that was framed by one of Nancy's mother's friend's. Look how cute!

Included with the invitation was this poem, which was (mostly) written by yours truly:

"Nancy will want her house to be spic and span
And in order to help, we've come up with a plan
Of a wishing well of items to pick up the dirt
Like sponges and dusters and Windex to squirt
Paper towels like Bounty or detergent like Tide
Will all be appreciated by our soon-to-be bride
So wrap it in tissue paper and your name do not spell
It's just a little something to wish Nancy well!"

To make her wishing well a little less traditional, I copied this creative idea from my sister's future sister-in-law's shower. We took a mop and stuck it upside down inside a hamper. I blew up a picture of Nancy's face and taped it to the mop so that the yarn looked like Nancy's hair (even though she's a brunette!). We also tied an apron around the mop to give the illusion of Nancy's body. It was quite a hit!

Next were the favors. Luckily for us, Nancy already knew she wanted lip balms so all we had to do was find the cheapest vendor. Danielle, Nancy's cousin and Maid of Honor, found us a great deal at Accent The Party. Definitely check them out!

Of course, these weren't her favors (those aren't their names!) but I wanted to give you an idea of what they looked like.

Nancy loves Gerbera daisies so we thought using them as a centerpiece would make our bride happy. I had seen a picture of gerbera daisies in a square vase with green lime slices floating around in the water. I fell in love. Unfortunately, these centerpieces didn't really fit in our budget so we decided to use tall vases from Ikea instead. We still added in the limes and for an extra effect, we placed them on round mirrors.

I think they came out really pretty!

Initially, I had suggested assigned seating for the shower. I thought flower chocolate lollipops would be a cute way of leading guests to their seats. In the end, my future mother-in-law decided against it (which she later regretted - so words of wisdom!) but we had already bought all of the ingredients so we made the lollis anyway.

Using flower molds, we first "painted" the inner circles with yellow chocolate and let them set. Once they were hard enough, we then filled in the rest of the flower with different colors - red, pink, orange and purple. We covered them in clear bags and stuck them in a long green styrofoam board. When we were originally conceiving this idea, we were going to glue fake grass on the foam board to give the illusion of a "garden" but since we were only going to hand them out at the end of the party, we decided it wasn't necessary. Either way, they still came out adorable and delicious!

Now if someone can show me how to upload files on Blogger, please let me know! I'd love to share the games we played: "Wedding Word Scramble," "Purse Pursuit" and "A Lesson In Nancy." If not, the first two can be easily found online and the last one is just a personal version of "How Well Do You Know the Bride?" We also found out how well Nancy knew Jay, her fiance, by asking him questions before the shower and seeing if Nancy could match them. For every right answer she gave, she got to kiss a blown up picture of Jay's face. For every wrong answer, she had to chew another piece of bubble gum. All in all, she did pretty well!

It was a great shower and all the hard work paid off. As I mentioned in my last entry, having all of the bridesmaids work together was really the key to success. Brainstorming, creating and executing everything is too much for just one person. I'm glad we didn't have to learn the hard way!

Stay tuned for more wedding plans...

shower post-mortem

Yesterday was my future sister-in-law's Bridal Shower and while she wasn't quite surprised, she did seem to have a great time. Everything turned out just the way we planned; the food was delicious, the games were entertaining, the centerpieces were beautiful and the bride was blushing!

So after organizing my first bridal shower, what did I learn?

• It takes a bridal party to plan a shower. The Mother of the Bride or the Maid of Honor would go crazy if she had no help from the bridal party. Between wrapping favors and managing the RSVPs, the entire bridal party remained involved. I keep reminding Momzilla that as much as she loves party planning, she won't be able to do it alone. She'll need to consult with the bridesmaids on advice, opinions and just plain old labor. And while my bridesmaids are all good friends, that isn't the case with every bridal party. Sidenote: Planning the shower may also give the girls a chance to bond before the big day.
• Sweat the small stuff. While you shouldn't agonize over the tiniest detail, it's important to keep organized because there are so many little things involved with a shower. Parties in general require attention to detail but bridal and baby showers tend to follow a "schedule" of serving food, playing games and opening presents. We had to remember a poem for the Wishing Well, garbage bag for the wrapping paper and pens for the games. Good thing there were so many of us or else I'm sure we would have forgotten something!
• Wear a watch. I'm sure most bridal showers experience the same "mistakes" of spending too much time on silly things and not enough time on the important things. In retrospect, we waited too long to bring the bride to the party (partly my fault!) and we didn't give ourselves the time we needed to open her presents. And while most guests hate sitting through hours of unwrapping, it's nice to be able to spend the time thanking each guest after opening the present. Otherwise, you're being rushed through the entire thing!
• Bring sexy back! Okay, maybe this doesn't apply to ALL showers but I was certainly surprised by the fun reaction to all the lingerie she got. We had hung up a clothesline and pinned on lots of sexy panties for her to keep; we even displayed one of her fiance's boxer shorts! And although I was a little nervous about my future family's reaction, I had no need to be. They played right along and even gave a couple of naughty contributions themselves (one of her grandmother's friend's gave her a sexy nurse's uniform!).
  
  

I'm sure there are lots of other lessons I learned but for the sake of this entry, I decided to keep it short. In the next one, I'll show all the creative things we made for the shower in case you want some inspiration.

In the meantime, do you have any other thoughts or advice for planning a shower? I have to plan at least two more next year so any words of wisdom would be appreciated!

sister of the bride

Just a quick announcement that my sister and Maid of Honor, Lyndsey, got engaged tonight! It was such a great night and her fiance really surprised her!

She and he had come up to visit me and Gianfranco for some dinner and board games. After quite the long sushi dinner (waiting for a table took nearly an hour!), we came back to my apartment and began to play Cranium, Lyndsey's favorite game. Her fiance was dealt a "Creative Cat" card that required him to sculpt an item out of clay for her to guess. He molded the clay into the shape of an engagement ring and when she correctly guessed it, he then got down on his knee and pulled out a real one!

Once she finally said "yes!" we went to surprise Momzilla. You can only imagine her response when she saw the ring on my sister's finger! There were no words, just a loud scream. Then she ran upstairs and quickly found the shirt she had been dying to wear - a white tee-shirt that reads, "Mother of the Brides." How fitting.

So now I'm super excited! Not only am I planning my wedding to the love of my life, but I'm doing it alongside my best friend! Momzilla is ready to pass out with excitement and Dad, well, let's just say he'll have to start cutting back on some luxuries!

I'll keep you posted but in the meantime, I wish nothing but love and happiness to my sister and future brother-in-law!