Dogpile on Daddy!!!!

A Very Vintage Bridal Shower

The table was long enough to comfortably hold 16, so the centerpieces were spread out down the center.  The Bride is a Professor of Literature, so vintage books were held open with keys from my Grandfather which tied into the theme, "He's got the key to her heart..".  The table was so long we couldn't find a single cloth that worked, so instead we found reproduction vintage sheets and draped 3 across, sticking with a light pink/light blue color scheme.  We also didn't have enough of one single set of china to use for everyone, so we mixed up four place settings from our Grandmother's china, my Mother's china and the Bride's Mother's china.  We did the same with the silver.  It gave the table a very cute vintagey mix & match look.  You can also see the favors, which doubled as placecards.  I filled jelly jars with Hershey's kisses, covered them in a coordinating fabric, tied them with ribbon and added two tags.  One had the name of the guest and the second, hanging right behind the first, said "The key to a good marriage is lots and lots of kisses!" once again tying in the "key" theme.

The kitchen island served the food.  We had 3 types of little sandwiches on mini-croissants,  broccoli slaw  and fruit salad for lunch.  Then as the guests watched the Bride open gifts, we swapped out the lunch spread for the dessert spread, which you can see in the pic above.  We kept it simple by picking up some of the Bride's favorite varieties of See's candy, plating all 4 types on their own plates.  Then I made some Madelenes, one of the Bride's favorite and some white mini cupcakes topped with a dollop of lemon curd and topped with tiny marshmallow flowers.  We made the small cake on the pedestal simply as decoration...but also in case we ran out of cupcakes.  I'm really bad at guessing how much food people will eat!  The apothecary jars were filled with strawberry cheesecake taffy (because it was pink) and malted strawberry milkballs (also because they were pink).

My brother and close friend/cousin to the Bride, who acted as our bartender for the event.  For beverages we set up a Mimosa Bar.  There was Champaign and Diet Sprite for a base, then we had frozen cubes of orange juice and berry punch (both frozen concentrates from the store).  We put a frozen cube in the bottom of the glass and poured the base over it for a cold, refreshing drink!  It worked out well and everyone seemed to enjoy them!

The gift table, before the guests arrived.  A few balloons, a potted plant tucked inside a gift bag for color and our gifts.  My Mother (the floral), my Brother (the white),  Moo and Toots (the brown and pink) and mine (the Cross-stitch which I didn't wrap so we could use it as decoration since it was in theme).

Another thing we did for the Bride.  I included a tag with every invitation that said "The key to a happy marriage is..." and asked the guests to fill them in and bring them to the party.  Of course there were extras for those who forgot, then they all went into this apothecary jar for the Bride to take home.  We thought it was a sweet way for everyone to share little bits of marriage wisdom with the couple.

The Bride and Moo.  While she opened her gifts, Moo was given the very important job of making the ribbon bouquet for the Bride.  With some help from the Maid of Honor (who just happens to be Moo's favorite cousin), the end result was just beautiful!

Moo was quite excited to be included in all the party prep and the party itself.  She even got to have coffee with her dessert, just like all the grown-ups.  Don't worry, it's just milk, but she did get to drink it out of a real teacup.  Moo and Toots were the only kids at the Shower, since I'm the only one with kids (so far), but I think they did very well.  My Mom and I had a lot of fun throwing this shower for our sweet cousin (well, my sweet cousin, her niece) and we can't wait for her sister to tie the knot so we can do it again!  I'm thinking nautical...

P.S. I know there's not a lot of pics posted here, but that's because all of the other ones I took have lots of guests in them and I didn't want to post them without permission.  I know I hate seeing photos of me that other people post (they always seem to be bad!)  So out of respect for the guest, I didn't post any.  Sorry!