Bridal Shower Part 5: Other Ideas

A few other random bridal shower ideas that are not necessarily crafty, but definitely added to the shower.

1: Mimosa/Bloody Mary Bar

Different kinds of juice, a few types of champagne, and some diced fresh fruit made for excellent morning mimosas. Bloody Mary mix and Vodka for those of us who take our mornings a little more seriously. (Mike Ditka's KickAss Mix is my favorite.)

2: Pretty Gift Bags

A row of these on a low table behind some seating really helped to brighten up the space.

3: Picture Cupcakes 

Love this! Other SIL printed out pictures of the couple from throughout their relationship, taped them to toothpicks, and stuck them in the cupcakes that served as dessert for the shower. 

Bridal Shower Part 4: Games and Activities

On with the SIL's shower! Next up: bridal shower activities. We didn't want to overwhelm people with games, but we did do a few very fun things.

#1: He Said/She said

Inspired by this post I found on Pinterest. Forms were made using my creative energies on MS Word...no fancy graphic design for this girl! Guests choose who they think said the selected phrases about the couple's relationship. Tip: I emailed the lovebirds separately for their responses, and included way more "starter sentences" than I needed... and was thus able to take the most interesting/funny ones for the game.

#2 According to Groom....

Similar to #1. This is my other SIL's creation; not sure where she got the idea. Put large pieces of scrapbook paper on a wall with "starter sentences" that the groom has previously completed about the bride and their relationship. Guests use post-it notes to stick their guesses for how he completed the sentence. (We had people write their initials in the corner so we knew who wrote what.) Whoever guesses the closest to the groom's answer wins!

#3 Date Night Ideas and Advice for a Happy Marriage

This is super easy but very worthwhile. Pretty paper bound with ribbon for guests to write advice to the bride-to-be.

Bridal Shower Part 3: Coffee Filter Flower Centerpieces

Hello craftsters! I'm back in action in the blogging world... AND now I am Broke Craftster, M.A. No more grad school for me!

Time to finish up these long-overdue bridal shower posts. If you recall, my wonderful sister-in-law allowed me a plethora of crafting projects at her shower in March. I was able to make use of the coffee filter flowers previously discussed in this post. We made a LOT of them, stuck them in cheap glass vases with some candy as filler, and each guest was able to take a few home as a part of their gift. This was a super-easy (and budget-friendly) centerpiece solution and was perfect for the occasion.

SIL also saw an idea for place settings on Pinterest that ended up working out really well. She went around to some thrift stores and picked up mismatched, very pretty china plates, which she then used as for the place settings. Each guest was able to take home her plate as a memento. Cute!

Bridal Shower Part 1: Doily Runner

Hello Craftsters!

I had an extremely exciting weekend filled with the culmination of TONS of craft projects. The occasion? My awesome soon-to-be sister-in-law had her bridal shower/bachelorette party, and (as she is so understanding and accepting of my crafting obsession), allowed me free rein in coming up with some decor (and by "come up with," I mean take directly from Pinterest). I won't put everything up at once... don't want to cause anyone to have a crafting overload!

Craft #1. Here's the inspiration (just a pic, no link, sorry!):

And here is my version:

Lace Doily Runner

Cost: Free (doilies loaned from my friend Lindsey's mom)

Rating: Excellent

Comments: This looks great! Calling it a craft project may be a bit of a stretch, since all I really did was lay doilies out on a table, but it looks really good! (This was the table that held all the food at the shower.) I believe in the inspiration photo the doilies are sewn together; I tried this and they bunched up a lot, so I decided it wasn't worth it.