Wedding Shower Planning

Last Saturday I threw my first ever wedding shower, and I am so happy with how everything turned out!

My brother-in-law, David, is getting married in July and J and I are both standing in the wedding. In a short period of time David's fiancée, Tracey, has become one of my favourite people. They've decided to have their wedding in our church which is older and hasn't had many updates over the past 15 to 20 years. In order to get the church ready for the wedding without spending a fortune David and Tracey have been doing a lot of the upgrades themselves. The church is looking amazing, but it's taking a bit of a toil on them and their wedding planning/preparation is a little bit more stressful than it is for the average couple. Because of the added stress I really wanted to make sure Tracey's shower was perfect and something she would really enjoy. (I like to think I was pretty successful.)

I decided to go with a morning shower and serve breakfast type foods. I think this surprised some of the guests, but it worked really well. Months ago Tracey had pinned an image of a yogurt bar to her wedding planning board on Pinterest but in the end they decided to go with a candy bar. Since I knew she liked the idea of a yogurt bar I knew that was something I wanted to incorporate. I served vanilla yogurt with three different types of berries and granola. I love the chalk board easel and galvanized pail that I picked up at Micheals. The serving dishes all came from Dollarama. It was a big hit! We also served four different types of muffins made by my mother-in-law, some fresh fruit, and mini cinnamon rolls.

For the decorations I tried to go with a bit of a rustic theme. I made two banners (one said "Thank you" and the other said "From Miss to Mrs") using a free printable. (You can find it here.) It was so simple, and I love how they turned out. One of the other bridesmaids painted the "62 days" canvas and I just love it, it worked perfectly.

I also made a display of pictures of David and Tracey using paper doilies, twine, and clothespins. (I totally got that idea from Pinterest, you can see the original post it came from here.)

I painted mason jars and filled them with artificial flowers for centre pieces, and I covered water bottles with pretty duct tape so they'd look a little classier sitting on the tables. (I used this tutorial for help painting the mason jars. I ended up deciding not to distress them because I liked how they looked as they were.)

For the favours I bought little bottles of shower gel and stuck tags on them that said "From Tracey's shower to yours" and for the guest book I had everyone sign a white plate with Sharpies. (I used the oil ones as I've found they tend to fade less than the regular ones.)

And of course we played games! Tracey's sisters created a "Who Knows her Best" game and a "He said, She said" game that used their past Facebook statuses. We also played wedding pictionary,  "What's in Your Purse" and of course we played the clothespin game. I put all of the prizes in brown paper bags with purple tissue paper so they would match the theme of the shower.

I will admit that the shower may have consumed my life for a couple months. I work full-time so it felt like every day off was spent doing something shower-related but I didn't mind in the least. It turns out I really love planning events like this! Luckily one of the girls at work is going to need a baby shower soon and my brother is getting married next year. ;-)

I hope that this post helped a little if you're planning a shower! Let me know if you use any of these ideas, or if you have any ideas for the next shower I'll need to throw.

Planning a Bridal Shower

Some days, as I'm scrolling through Pinterest, I get a little sad that it wasn't around when I was planning my wedding. However, now that I'm planning a wedding shower for my sister-in-law to-be  I get to take full advantage of the wonder that is Pinterest.

Tracey's shower won't be until May, but I've got so many great ideas already! Here are just a few of the things (I think) I've decided on...

Burlap & Lace "Bride-to-Be" Sash | I haven't decided if I'll order this adorable one from Etsy or if I'll try to make my own, but this sash is absolutely perfect from Tracey. She's a country girl at heart so we'll be going with a rustic theme, and our bridesmaid dresses are a pretty plum colour.

Burlap & Lace Invitations | I love these invitations! I love the colours, the fonts, the style, EVERYTHING. As soon as we nail down all the time/date details I will be ordering these. I just can't get over how perfect they are.

Burlap Countdown | I thought this was just really cute. I'm looking forward to making some of the small, personal details that Tracey will love. I'll probably make a similar "sign the guest book" sign, but I haven't figured out what kind of guestbook to go with yet.

Picture Garland | I think this idea is really sweet. I've already asked the groom-to-be to start gathering up as many photos as he can. I'd really like Tracey to be surprised when she's sees the pictures on it. It looks so simple to make too.

I've got so many more ideas floating around in my head, I can't wait to put it all together. Have you planned any showers or parties recently? Any tips or things I need to make sure I remember?

Wife 2 Wife; All in the Details

I decided it would be fun to link up with Kelly and Cheltee for their Wife 2 Wife link-up this month. Today's topic is our favourite detail from our wedding. I couldn't pick just one, so I picked two.

The first detail I picked was my flowers. We used a lady who worked out of her home for our flowers. (She no longers does wedding flowers or I would definitely be sharing her website with you!) I told her I loved gerbera daisies, the colour pink, and gave her ribbon that matched our colours. Dad picked up the flowers and brought them to my aunt's house where I was getting ready with my bridesmaids. When I opened the boxes I was absolutely blown away. I was so impressed with the flowers. Flowers weren't that important to me, but looking back now they are definitely one of my favourite details.

My other favourite detail was my veil. It was actually my mom's veil that she altered herself to be more like what I was looking for. I loved knowing I was wearing the same veil she had, and I loved how beautiful it was. And it was so different from what I was seeing in all the bridal shops. Originally I hadn't been planning on wearing mom's veil because it had kind of a weird hair piece attached but when she offered to alter it I was thrilled.

I can't believe I'll have been married for 5 years next month!