Julie's Bridal Shower

I know I said I was going to post more often last week, but then blogger had all of it's issues during the only free time I had to write last week, so this time it's really not all my fault! :-P Now that my sister's bridal shower is over, I'm sure I'll have a lot of free time to post!



Anyway, Saturday was the shower! I was so excited to plan it for her (along with my mom and some help from the bridesmaids and family members!) Her wedding colors are black, white, and teal, so we wanted to go with that for the shower too. Except, we used black, white, and a mixture of different blue colors.

I was so stressed out the week of the shower and had a few breakdowns due to the fact that I've been extremely sick with what I think must be allergies, and also the fact that things just kept going wrong. But in the end, everything seemed to come together, and I think Julie really enjoyed her shower!

So here is a breakdown of the shower:

Venue:
We had the shower at the brand new cafe in our church. It is a beautiful little room with a fire place and a whole wall covered with floor-to-ceiling windows looking out into the canyon. I thought it was the perfect place to have it!

Food:
Ham and chicken salad sandwiches (in croissants), veggies and dip, fruit, crackers, and cheese. I am so thankful to everyone who made food, because it turned out to be so delicious!

Beverages:
We kept it simple here: lemonade, water, and my mom brought her Keurig so people could make different kinds of tea or coffee. It worked out great!

Dessert:
Going along with our summer-y theme, instead of cake or cupcakes, we served strawberry shortcake for dessert (my mom's idea) made by my Aunt Beth, and my cousin Rachel made whipped cream to serve with it. It was TO DIE FOR. The picture speaks for itself.

Favors:
For favors, we gave everyone a bag of homemade truffles in the wedding colors, wrapped in little baggies with blue ribbon. We made Oreo truffles, and two kinds of cake balls using Bakerella's recipe. A post devoted to the truffles is coming your way on Wednesday! I think they were a hit :-)

Centerpieces:
I guess we wanted a classy/summer-y/slightly country feel to the shower, so we went really simple for the centerpieces: Mason Jars filled with daisies and tied with a blue ribbon. I originally wanted to dye the Mason Jars blue, because I found a tutorial online. However, the glass dye I needed was too hard to find, so we ended up nixing the idea. I think they turned out cute anyway, and I currently have one in my dining room and one in my living room. We had a lot left over. I love daisies...daisies are the friendliest flower (name that movie!)

We also used some other flowers (I forget what kind these are!) to decorate the counter where all the food was. In a blue Mason Jar...at least we had 1!


Games:
We just had two games: 1.) Trivia about Julie and Andy. Some were questions about the wedding and their relationship, and some were things that happened to either Andy or Julie, and guests had to guess who matched with what items. If that makes sense. We added some funny ones to keep it interesting. Like the fact one of them (COUGH julie COUGH) wrote all of her letters upside down until she was 6. I'm sure she'll be super happy I put that out for the world to see :-P

2.)We also played bridal BINGO, where you fill in the BINGO board with things you think the bride will receive as gifts, and then check them off as she opens them.

For the prizes I just bought soaps or candles from Bath and Body Works.

Details:

Mom and Julie made this amazing sign using stick-on wall decals. Isn't it awesome? (Julie, like me, loves birds, and is using some understated bird details in the wedding)

And I made this "Bride-to-be" banner with ribbon and scrapbook paper. My mom added the tulle bows to the sides.

I made these food labels out of more ribbon and scrapbook paper

Random pictures from the day:

This is me arriving at the church about 2 hours before the shower started. I was so relieved to have made it to the day of the shower with no major catastrophes! As I said before, I had kind of a rough week leading up to Saturday, so it felt good to be able to just enjoy it all with Julie on the day of the shower. All the stress was gone at this point!

The bride-to-be looking excited as the guests arrive
Pictures were hard in this room with the huge windows!

My cousins: Stacey and Anissa (both bridesmaids), my cousin Rachel, and Stacey's holding my newest baby cousin, Elin (Rachel's daughter)

Julie with her sea of gifts

...opening them...

And about 45 minutes later...

The happy couple! Andy came at the end to help Julie ship all of their loot to Akron

Here's a shot of Julie with all of her bridesmaids:

And one more shot because it's so cute: my cousins Hudson and Elin...apparently all the excitement wore them out! Too cute.

Overall, it was such a great day! I hope Julie enjoyed it, and I'm so excited for she and Andy to begin their lives together. The wedding is on June 25, so it is coming up pretty quickly! After the wedding, they are going on an 11-day trip to Scotland! I may be slightly jealous...

Congratulations, Julie and Andy!