michelle paige blogs: Bridal Shower

Wednesday

Time Themed Bridal Shower

Come take a look at this 'time themed' bridal shower I co-hosted at our church.

Invitations were sent out as well as posting
the information in our church's bulletin.
(I crafted the invites using PicMonkey and adding a bit of ribbon.)

TIME for DECORATIONS!

I decorated with the bride's wedding colors...pink, gray, white and black.
I hung pink and silver curtains to make the backdrop.
The circle banners were cut out of cardstock
and sewn together on my sewing machine with regular thread.

I tried my hand at the trendy chalkboard art I've been seeing everywhere.
I made the image I wanted on the computer and printed it out.
I drew grid lines on the image and on my chalkboards.
Square by square I copied the images with plain white chalk.
(The bride-to-be is a teacher, so I knew she would appreciate the chalk art.)
Using cotton swabs and water, I erased all the stray lines...
and called it good.
(Although I love the look, I don't think more chalkboard art is in my future--takes too long!)

TIME to EAT!

I baked up a few different flavors of cupcakes and frosted them all with
pink butter cream frosting and sprinkles.

I printed out little toppers that said...
TIME to EAT!
TIME to PARTY!
TIME to CELEBRATE!
TIME to get MARRIED!
TIME to LOVE!
(Click here for link to print your own.)

Using pink and black stirring straws cut in half,
I taped the circles on the straws using decorative washi tape.

The cookie clocks were made from Nabisco's Famous Chocolate Wafers.
I piped on the numbers and the hands of the clocks with frosting.
(You might recognize them from this post...click here.)

Each cookie clock was set into the frosting
on top of each regular sized cupcake.
(By the way, never do this the night before...the cookies will get soft and break! I just happen to know.)

Because the shower was at 10am,
we asked many guests to bring brunch food items to share...and boy, did they!
Wonderful pastries, egg dishes, fruit and cookies arrived. (Church ladies are the best!)

I had signs around the room saying various TIME phrases, like
TIME for LOVE.
I printed these out on tagboard,
cut them, and taped them to pink and white paper straws.
They looked cute sitting in pink tissue inside metal polka dot pails (from Target).

TIME for WISDOM!

Set up next to the cupcake display was a table filled with pink paper circles
that said, "Take TIME to..."
Each guest was asked to fill in a bit of wisdom for the bride.
The circles were clipped onto the branches.

TIME for a PHOTO!

Mother of Bride with Bride-to-be, Alyssa!

If you've read my blog before, you know I can't have a party without a photo booth!
I hung a sheet over a rolling divider and draped sparkly netting, crepe paper,
paper circle banners and a few paper fans on top.
I had black frames for the guests to hold.

I tried so hard to get every guest's picture, but I can think of at least 3 people that were there--
that I missed...(or were they purposely avoiding me?!)

TIME for a DEVOTION!

At our church we love to have a short devotion time during the shower.
A friend and mentor of the bride gave a lovely 'time themed' talk
on waiting, patience and the blessings that come from it.

TIME for SCRIPTURE
I printed out scripture that had the word TIME in it.
These circles were scattered on various tables throughout the room.

(To print out your own TIME scriptures, click on the links below:)
2 Tim. 1:9, Acts 1:7
2 Cor. 6:2, Ecc. 3:1
Esther 4:14, Heb. 10:12
Hosea 10:12, Isaiah 46:10
John 17:1, Prov. 17:17
Psalm 31:15, Psalm 62:8
Psalm 9:9

TIME for a GAME! TIME for MUSIC!

Can't have a shower without a game, right?
My co-host, Meghan put together a collection of 10 songs that
had something to do with 'TIME'.
She played just a snippet of each song and we had to write down
the name and the artist who sang the song.
The winner received a clock necklace.

Here's the song picks:Rock Around the Clock --Bill Haley
Time in Between --Francesca Battistelli
Big Time --Rush
One Time --Justin Bieber
This Time for Africa --Shakira
Good Time --Owl City
Time of My Life --Bill Medley
Takes a Little Time --Amy Grant
Longest Time --Billy Joel
Sunshine and Summertime --Faith Hill

TIME for GIFTS!

We made the gift table look like a clock.
Each guest decided on a time that their gift would be used.
They set their gift on the appropriate hour.
I had sticky labels to mark their gift with the appointed time.
The bride opened the gifts in order.

A special gift was this beautiful quilt handmade by
the Quilting Group of our church. Gorgeous!

TIME for a MEAL!

Many ladies in the church contributed money towards the group gift.
We purchased the bride's china, flatware and goblets and set it out for everyone to see.
She also received 4 sets of her everyday dishes!
(Her beautiful china pick was Vera Wang Wedgwood Grosgrain.)

TIME to GO!

After all the gifts were opened, the party was over...time to go.
Each guest was given a candy watch as a favor.

I made little circle tags that read,
"TIME to Go... Remember to take TIME to pray for Alyssa and Matt.
Thanks for celebrating with us!"

We're out of time...

Thursday

Quick & Easy Bridal Shower Invitations

I love making invitations that are cute and fast! If I can avoid glue, even better! Check out these simple bridal shower invitations I made for my mom’s church friends.

This bridal shower has a bird theme (if you ask me, you always need a theme!). We used some 'birdie' wording on the invitation: 'Come help us ‘feather’ their nests.' and 'The ‘lovebirds’ are registered at…'

Using my parent's computer, I simply added some basic clip art to the party information (Word document) and printed it out. I trimmed the paper to fit the purple/pink cardstock color I found in my mom's stash. I then punched two holes through both the paper and the cardstock.

I threaded the ribbon, (every invitation in my opinion has to have ribbon!) through the holes and tied on a purple feather. Purple is the couple’s wedding color.

I had my ‘build anything, do anything’ dad help me finish all 80 of the invites! His hands were a blur! We had feathers everywhere!

What a fun shower theme to have birds, birdcages, nests, etc. Very trendy at the moment. _________________________________

This next invitation and bridal shower theme is a bit different.
My mom's church friends want to have a bridal shower for the pastor's son's fiancee'.
She happens to live in AZ and can’t make it to the party in WA State. Mom's friends are not letting that (the guest of honor not coming) stop them from having a party.
So, after much thought, we came up with a ‘bag’ theme. We asked each guest to bring their shower present in a bag, so everyone can peek inside at the gifts. I tried to make the

invitations look like gift bags.

I used more scrapbook paper from mom's stash and taped on tissue paper that I crinkled up. I then stapled the invite (again, Word document with clip art) right on top of the tissue paper. Stapling is so much faster than gluing!
This time I made my husband and daughter help me. (I always look for help when mass producing cards! If you're standing around, I'll put you to work!)

I punched a hole on each side to tie on the ribbon handle. I forgot to include on the invitation where the couple was registered, so I added that with a slip of paper that looks like it’s coming out of the bag (I got my sister-in-law to help with that task.).

These invites will be hand delivered, so there's no need for envelopes.
Won’t decorating be fun for this 'bag themed' party. Think multi-colored gift bags displayed throughout, gift bag shaped cookies (with licorice handles) and ‘What’s in the Bag?’ games? I could even see making a cute banner out of gift bags strung together! (Maybe they'll get the groom to come?)
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Once my mom saw how quick the shower invitations were going, she put me to work on a birthday invite. My parent’s adorable foster child is turning 2 years old soon.
A ‘Pink Party’ invitation was needed...this time I only needed to make a few.