Leslie’s Bridal Shower

Late Saturday morning, my mom and I hosted a bridal shower brunch for my sister! We had way too much fun planning the shower, prepping the food and getting a little crafty.

My mom and I really enjoy crafting and did as much as we could during the week or two before Leslie’s bridal shower so we weren’t too overwhelmed on Friday night. My sister’s wedding colors are peach and creamy whites, but my mom and I used mint green as an accent color for her shower since we know she likes that color a lot, too!

As everyone began to arrive, guests helped themselves to mimosas, peach sangria and citrus-infused water while we chatted away.

To make the peach sangria, I combined five cans of peach seltzer water, two bottles of moscato, 3/4 cup peach brandy and lots of sliced peaches. It was delicious!

I bought the mason jar mugs that served as everyone’s glasses at Hobby Lobby and the peach paper straws from TJMaxx months ago. I wrote everyone’s names on the mugs with white paint pen that could easily be scrubbed off after the shower so everyone could keep their mug and reuse it without their name on it forever and ever.

As guests mingled, they could take a moment to add a word of marital advice to the advice board!

I owe my contribution to the board to my mother-in-law who once said, “When in doubt, talk it out. If you can talk about everything you can work your way through anything.”

My favorite piece of advice on the board came from Leslie and Ross’ five-year-old flower girl, Ava.

When I asked Ava if she wanted to offer her advice to the bride-to-be and her groom, she said yes and I helped her spell her words of wisdom as she wrote them down. “Be nice to each other.” So simple, but I think we could all learn from that one! 

We also had an informal game sitting out for guests to play that included old pictures of Leslie and Ross. I think everyone enjoyed looking at the throwback photos in this one!

Cutie pies!

After about 45 minutes of catching up, we were ready to eat.

($3 buckets from Target!)

Guests dug into an assortment of brunch food, including a yogurt bar, the most incredible quiche from Pie Heaven in Jacksonville (<— seriously unreal!), fruit kebabs, glazed doughnut holes, honeycomb and citrus goat cheese, whole wheat croissants and more.  

  

We tried to label everything and keep a consistent look which was easy thanks to stickers we had made by my friend Allison who also made the adorable koozies for my sister’s bachelorette party. (Here’s her contact information, just in case any of you are in the process of planning a party and want some personalized items: portobluegifts@gmail.com. Allison is great!)

 

We had a few tables set up with super simple baby’s breath centerpieces. (We also had baby’s breath placed around the large room in glass lantern jars.)

The baby’s breath worked really well since we were able to buy it the day before and not worry about it wilting at all. Thank you to Michaela’s wedding for inspiring this idea!

While everyone ate, we played a trivia game where guests answered a series of questions to see who knew the most about Leslie. Three of her bridesmaids took the top three spots and claimed a prize from the basket of prizes my mom and I put together. Just incase you’re looking for bridal shower prize ideas, the most popular prizes in our basket included cookbooks, candles and stackable bracelets.

The next game was the hit of the shower: 10 Questions about Leslie and Ross!

My sister answered the questions along with everyone else and her answers served as the answer key. It was a lot of fun and we laughed pretty hard at some of her explanations.

Then it was time for presents!

My mom and I set up a cozy little area of the room where everyone gathered to watch Leslie open her gifts.

Mother of the bride + Mother of the groom! Random fun fact about Leslie and Ross: Both of our parents have the same first names!

I tried my best to fulfill my maid of honor duties and take down notes about the gifts Leslie received to make thank you note writing easy on her after the shower.

The first gift Leslie opened was a gift from everyone at the shower.

A personalized recipe box filled with recipes!  

When I sent out the bridal shower invitations, I included a recipe card with them for everyone to fill out a favorite recipe to send back to me so Leslie and Ross have a solid collection of favorite recipes to enjoy together in the future. Leslie seemed to love flipping through the recipes and she received a great assortment of entree, appetizer and dessert recipes from the women in her life who love her most, including the women who couldn’t attend the shower for one reason or another.

Two of Leslie’s girlfriends, Allison and Christina, were super sweet and transformed the bows from Leslie’s gifts into a bow bouquet for Leslie to carry down the aisle during the rehearsal the day before her wedding.

My mom said she read an article where Martha Stewart advised using the bows to make a bow hat for the rehearsal which made all of us laugh.

No thanks, Martha.

I think the most creative gift award went to my mom who put together this “woman” made completely of household supplies including an ironing board, a mop (for the hair), an apron and more.

My mom and sister made something similar for my bridal shower and I thought it was so unique! 

I gave my sister a random assortment of gifts, but my favorite item was the cheapest of all of them. Go figure!

Isn’t that mug fun!? I ordered the “I <3 RC” mug (Ross’ initials, obviously) from my friend Allison after I saw a similar one pop up on Kaley Cuoco’s Instagram account a month or so ago. (Yes, I totally follow random celebrities on Instagram.)

After Leslie finished opening her presents, everyone was ready for cake and we all dug into vanilla, chocolate and hummingbird cake.

We initially planned to copy this sprinkle cake and use Leslie and Ross’ wedding date on four cakes in place of the number 5, but the pastel icing and white sprinkles made it really hard to see the numbers on the cake, so we scrapped that idea at the last minute. Oh well!

We weren’t sure how long the bridal shower would last and were pleasantly surprised when we still had guests hanging out and chatting away at 4:30 p.m.

The bride-to-be with me and my mom and her new extended family:

(Ross’ sister-in-law, Ross’ sister, Ross’ mom, Leslie, my mom, me and Leslie’s future niece whom I adore!)

It was such a wonderful way to celebrate Leslie and Ross’ upcoming wedding, which is now officially LESS THAN A MONTH away! The countdown is ON!

Reebok ZQuick Giveaway Winner

Congratulations to…

• Phyllis: “I would choose the Foggy Grey/Purple Vibe/Pure Silver/White pair. I’m a teacher, and I would love to have a casual shoe I could wear at work from time to time. Thanks!”

Phyllis has already been emailed. Hope you love the shoes!!