If you caught our post last week about our Beach Themed Bridal Shower, you know that this past Saturday I organized a shower for my best friend, bride-to-be and guest blogger here, Sarah. Her parents and I have been working out the logistics of it all for about three months, so it was incredible to see all our hard work come together for one awesome party! But like actually, the shower was so much fun and it really solidified that my best friend is getting married!!!

Decor

Pinterest was a huge help when it came to decorations! If you search “garden party bridal shower” you’ll see just what I am talking about. Her mom and I decided on a pastel pink, lavender and white color scheme which quickly turned into a lot of pink and white with hints of purple. Looking at parties on pinterest, there were certain ideas we definitely wanted to incorporate into our design like having one big table with elaborate centerpieces, a photobooth wall, fun drinks and tea party themed food. For the centerpieces, we settled on a mix of fake and real flowers, a burlap runner, succulents and some pretty perfect floral plates. Because this shower was only for the ladies from Philly (Sarah lives in Nashville currently and her fiance is from Dallas, TX), the guest list was pretty small which made having one big table easy! The real flowers were originally going to be big bouquets of baby’s breath since (I thought) it’s generally inexpensive. However, white roses ended up being cheaper for way more flowers ($4/dozen) at a local produce store. Other decorations, like little ceramic birds, were super cheap (less than $1 each) because they are a spring item and landed in the clearance section at the craft store when they started making room for summer items. The succulents on the tables doubled as favors for each guest! We were able to pick them up from Ikea for less than $3 each! We jazzed them up with some ribbon that was also in the clearance section for about $0.50 a roll. I wanted to add several personal touches to the shower. Sarah’s favorite actress by far is Audrey Hepburn, so this quote was perfect for our garden party theme! The print was made by one of my best friends from college! She does everything by hand and has a mix of pre-made prints and ones you are able to personalize yourself! Check out her Etsy shop here! Other personal touches included a string of photos brought by the guests that had favorite memories, quotes and words of encouragment written on the back for the bride to keep! We used clothes pins to attach them onto twine that was strung above the deck. To set the tone for the day, I put on “French Cafe” pandora station which was perfect! You’ll have to take a listen to understand what I am talking about but think accordians and violins. The photobooth was a hit and probably one of my favorite parts of the shower. We used white sequin fabric and attached it to a curtain rod and added fun pom-poms and tassels! Some of our props included giant letters and a picture frame. The pictures ended up looking super cute in the end!

Menu

 The menu was a mix of Sarah’s favorites (marked with an asteric below*) and your typical tea party/light summery foods and drinks

Drinks

Prosecco with Strawberry Sorbet

Strawberry Margaritas*

Mini Wine Bottles

Lemon Water

Food

Sushi*

Chicken & Edamame Chopped Salad

B-L-Tea Sandwich

Turkey, Brie, & Cranberry Sandwich

Tomatoes & Cous Cous Salad

Strawberry Lime Salad

Dessert

Lemon Tea Cakes

 Strawberry Macarons

Chocolate Ganache Macarons

Activities

When it comes to bridal shower games, it’s really important that you know the bride, and Sarah isn’t the biggest fan of bridal games. We didn’t have a ton of activities because we were having so much fun dancing and taking pictures with the photobooth but there were a couple of things we did do that were a blast. The first and best was croquet, which was hilarious because none of us had ever played before and we were a few mini wine bottles into the night. We also did your standard toilet paper wedding gown for the bride. I had Cards Against Humanity as a back up just in case we ended up getting tired of being up on our feet.

Overall, everyone had so much fun and I am so thankful that everything ran smoothly. I really couldn’t have imagined that it would turn out as well as it did. Thank you again to Mr. & Mrs. Rademaker for all their help with the planning and design and for cooking as well as my sister Kate for baking the super yummy desserts! Most importantly, I am thankful that Sarah got to REALLY feel like a bride which in itself was worth every second of planning over the last few months! So cheers to you Sarah! Only 83 days until you’re Mrs. Buchanan!