My brother, Tyler, is getting married this August and I could not be more excited! I was especially excited when my mom asked me to help her throw the bridal shower. You all know ya girl loves to throw a party! Tyler’s fiancé, Megan, likes things simple for the most part. She also loves rosé and champagne, so I thought putting those two things together would make for the perfect theme! It was also both specific enough, yet also vague enough that I could easily tailor my decor to the theme.
The Planning
I had two months to get my decor and ideas in order, so what did I do to start? I began pinning ideas of course! Once I had my main inspiration and set my budget of $200-250 (strictly for decor and invitations), I made a mood board. This would be my main plan. Additionally, I crudely photoshopped together what it might look like with some of the decorations.
The Invites
The invites were the very first thing I took care of. I made the general invite on Vistaprint in gold to match the Champagne, and then made the gift list with rose gold to match the rosé. For the gift list, we did a 24 hour theme where guests had to bring a gift that related to the time of day they were assigned. For example, guests that had a 7:30-9am time slot purchased breakfast-related gifts. I also asked on the gift list that guests wrap their gifts in pink, white, or gold wrapping paper in order to match the theme and they all did so! It made the gift pile look so beautiful since it all matched the decor. I used this floral template I purchased on Etsy to make the gift list, but I adjusted the colors in Photoshop to be more pink. I then just printed it on Matte paper and used double sided tape to put it on glittery muted pink scrapbook paper. Finally, I bought a Rifle Paper Co recipe tin and took out some recipe cards and included them in the invitations. I actually got really lucky, because I found a brand new recipe tin at a yard sale for $2!!! Unheard of.
The DIY Decor
I decided that I would start by making the welcome sign since it seemed to be the easiest task I could do at home. Of course, instead of working from hardest to easiest, I worked easiest to hardest, haha! I headed to Home Depot to pick up a 2’x2′ plywood board and some wood stain. I also went to Joann’s to pick up a white paint pen. I applied two coats of stain on the board on each side over the course of two days, then I taped it off, and tried my best to imitate a calligrapher.
I vastly underestimated how small I was writing “Welcome”. Originally I wanted that to go all the way across. Then I thought I’d just put “to” so “the celebration of” would go underneath below, but I realized if that were the case, I wrote “to” too far to the left. In other words, that’s why my “Welcome to the” part looks odd, haha! It was my mom’s idea to say “the celebration of Megan and Tyler” instead of “Megan’s Bridal Shower”, because they could then reuse this sign for the wedding. Aside from my errors on the lettering, I think it turned out pretty good! My finishing touches were adding a garland of fake flowers draped on top and laying it on a cheap easel.
The next thing I moved onto was the backdrop. I found this beautiful backdrop on Etsy, but in an effort to save money, I decided to make one myself. I found two lace fabrics at Joann’s in white and muted pink, and a gold sequin fabric on sale. Protip: always google Joann coupons before you make your final purchase. I was able to save 40% off the lace fabrics! Once I had my fabrics, I just cut them into strips and knotted them at the top around a small piece of rope.
I alternated three to four pink and white strips before adding a new gold strip. Once I was at their house setting up for the shower, I put five command hooks evenly spaced on the wall and just draped the rope over those hooks. On the outside hooks, I tied the rope in knots around them. I then added this rose gold “CHEERS” mylar balloon banner on top of it to make it more festive. I got it from the Dollar Store, which is why it looks kind of deflated. Dollar store mylar balloons tend to be hit or miss. My sister and I taped up the holes after we blew air into them, and that helped a bit, but ultimately some air still came out. If there were one thing I were to do differently with this backdrop, it would be to hang it higher. Nobody ended up taking full body pics, so it wasn’t important for it to be close to the ground. As a last step to this part of the party decor, I packed up my ring light and set it up. Megan and Tyler’s house was pretty dark, despite all the windows, so this definitely made a huge difference! Not to mention it was a huge hit with everyone.
My last big at-home project (as the rest of my DIY projects couldn’t take place until I was actually in Oklahoma due to travel-reasons) was the wisteria flower hanging centerpiece. I used this tutorial to make them, as well as using her tutorial’s suggestions for where to buy the crepe paper from. It was a very easy tutorial to follow! My one gripe was that it was very time consuming. I even had poor Tom help me make a couple of strands! I would generally come home from work and make a strand or two every few days. I then used this tutorial to make the crepe paper leaf garland that I draped over top of it. That tutorial wasn’t so clear. I borrowed a friend’s sewing machine and she kindly reminded me how to use it (thanks Antonella!) Even with her help though, we were both thoroughly confused by the tutorial. I just wish it had a bit more detail. Regardless, we ended up cross-stitching on the whole thing and tried to organize the leaves so they were facing outwards.
When making the flower strands, I made sure to make them at varying lengths. I liked that in nature, wisteria seemed pretty uneven and I wanted to imitate that. I also picked this two tiered wreath frame, because it essentially had two hoops and two different heights. This really helped give the flowers more dimension and height difference. Finally, I had nothing else, so I hung it up on a command hook (lol). If I could’ve, I would’ve bought a removable ceiling hook. Since command hooks don’t really curl up, I ended up draping the yarn over the hook and then using packing tape to hold it in place. It looked slightly janky, but literally nobody noticed. Everyone was too busy looking at all the pink flowers draping in their faces to even focus on the tape! I’ll take the win. One more thing to note was that I ended up hole punching a bunch of my scrap paper from the flower project. This created a good amount of some really cute high quality confetti! I ended up sprinkling it on the tables mixed with this confetti as well.
My last big project was the balloon arch. I had never built a balloon arch before and I was anxious, but I’m pretty proud of how it turned out! It was also surprisingly easier than I expected. That being said, make sure you have a balloon pump or invest in one of those nice machines that blows air in for you. I bought this balloon arch kit from Amazon which had everything I needed and included clear instructions! I spent a couple of hours the night before blowing up and tying balloons, attaching them to the strip, hanging them via more command hooks (and having one balloon pop right in my face), and then gluing on the mini balloons to try to fill in the gaps. It gave the shower the wow factor I was looking for!
Once all the big projects were done, there was the matter of the smaller ones. My mom had purchased a cute “love” sign that had lights on it, as well as a pink letter banner. My sister arranged it to say “Bride to Be” and she helped me hang the cute little pink paper garlands I bought from the Dollar Store.
The Food
My mom really killed it on the food with this one! She spent the whole day Friday and the entire morning on Saturday cooking – all the way up until ten minutes before the party! Some of the dishes she made were quiche, baked ziti, shrimp cocktails, and Caesar salad among many other things. She provided all the super cute plates, napkins, and serving dishes. We ordered the mini “cupcakes” from Nothing Bundt Cakes. We ordered flavors in chocolate, vanilla, red velvet and funfetti. I stuck some adorable cupcake toppers from Meri Meri into the cupcakes, but unfortunately they seem to be out of this particular style (although they have plenty of cute similar ones).
I also sprinkled the table with more confetti, hung a rose gold “Sip Sip Hooray” mylar balloon banner from the Dollar Store, hung some cute party fans from the ceiling fan, and prepped the alcohol. I put a bottle of rose and a bottle of champagne in this silver bucket with floral ice cubes. I used 2 of these ice cube trays, put some real roses in them, wrapped the ice cube trays in seran wrap to hold the roses in place, and put them in the freezer. Once it was time for the party, I ran them under warm water to prevent the freezer burn they started to develop when exposed to air.
The Games
We played four main games during the shower, all of which included prizes (kindly provided by my mom). The first and most important game was the rose game. Each girl that came in got a red rose. Nobody was allowed to say “Tyler”, “Bride” or “Jeep” (Megan is obsessed with her car). If someone caught someone else saying one of those 3 words and called them out on it, they would obtain all their roses. Even if someone lost all their roses, they are still technically in the game, because they could catch someone else’s slip up and get back in the game. This game lasted until the end of the party. The person with the most roses by the end won all the red roses and a beautiful crystal vase to hold them in. It was extra fun too, because all the girls used their roses like they were on The Bachelorette!
Aside from this ongoing game, the first game we played was “Him or Her”. We had a series of statements on a sheet, along with a mustache or kiss lips next to it. You had to circle which one you thought was the right answer. For example, one of the statements was “I sleep in later” and you would either circle the kiss lips for Megan or mustache for Tyler. I had Tyler and Megan fill out the answer sheet together. One of Megan’s guests, Maureen, had the most points and got to pick out a prize! My mom wrapped all the prizes, so she had to pick one without knowing what exactly she was getting.
The next game we played was Bridal Scattergories. There were topics and you had to come up with 4 options for each topic that started with the letters “L” “O” “V” and “E”. For example, for honeymoon locations I wrote “Lithuania”, “Oklahoma”, “Vegas” and “Europe”. We gave points to the most unique and original answers, and next, Lauren got the most points and was able to pick a prize.
The last game we played was bridal bingo. I printed out blank cards for everyone, and they had to fill in their own ideas of gifts she might get before Megan started opening anything. Once she started, people were able to start checking things off. We had two winners for bingo! Lauren won again and walked away with a picture frame, and Morgan won an English Tea kit.
Enjoy Yourself!
Once the shower starts, you’re still hosting, but don’t forget to enjoy yourself! I loved watching Megan open all her gifts, watching the girls love the photo booth area, and I enjoyed taking pictures of everything. I also had great conversation with all the girls and got to know some of my fellow bridesmaids! Also though – don’t forget to give a little toast!
And lastly, here’s a shot from after everyone left.
What did you guys think? Did you love it? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
Cameron Butler
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