My adorable mom and I threw
my niece a bridal shower. She is the first girl in the family to get married and we went all out. She loves "vintage" shopping and fashion, so we went with a retro theme. I designed (while Mom watched kids so I could think) the invites using the
apron image from
the crafty clip (recolored to match our theme) and got them printed at Costco. My mom helped me pick up, address, stamp (with
pretty stamps), stuff, and send them. I love how they turned out.
Then while Jason was working super late one night, Mom and I baked! I had loved a pie in a jar that I got for
valentine's day from Steph and decided they would be a great treat - pie and canning jars, what could be more retro?! Fortunately, they could be made ahead! We used apple and cherry pie filling and some lovely sugar. I made my first ever
from-scratch pie crust earlier that day and we set up a serious assembly line after the girls were in bed then stuck them in the freezer! Thank you, Mom!
Jason scooped
small ice cream scoops that I stored overnight in a mini-muffin tin covered with plastic wrap to serve with the pies. (It's all about ease, so the hostess can actually enjoy the party, right?!) I had my family (who arrived early) tie little ribbons on the cooling pies so they were cute and could be eaten right out of the jar. YUM!
The rest of the food was kept pretty simple. Coke in bottles, water with lemon, and mint infused limeade (thank you mom for making the mint infusion and Steve/Jen for donating the mint from your garden) were our not-too-sweet drinks. They were served in coke glasses and with
paper straws.
I filled my apothecaries with retro candies for the guests to grab on their way in an out of the party! So, I guess there was more sweet.
When the guests arrived, they got into retro character. Many did come wearing the requisite pearls and aprons, but others borrowed from my Moms stash. She dug out all her old (vintage/retro) aprons, washed and ironed them for the affair! Most were used for wearing, but I did use some for decoration. (Yep, I know you wish your mom was this cool too!) The extra aprons were hung on a coat tree in the entryway between the mirror and the table set out with pearls and red lipstick!
After getting all dolled up, the guests moved on to the photo booth. I set it up in the main room (
basement shower curtain as backdrop) and asked my niece (bride's sis-in-law)
Heather to take the pictures. I had cut chalkboard thought and speech bubbles with the silhouette and set out a few other retro props. It is fun to have a record of who came!
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| Props! |
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| I only took 1 pic - the picture of Heather |
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| The Bride-to-Be |
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| I think Sara took 4 pictures |
While waiting for guests to arrive we played the "What's the White Stuff?" game. (Thank you for the idea, Andrea.) My mom did the game! She said she remembered playing this game when her friends were having showers, so it was truly retro. All I did was print out sheets from her list and cut out some letters. Mom went all out filling jars with different white kitchen items! Can you believe she found 14?! It was adorable and a great time! We gave red oven mitts as prizes.
To earn her gifts, Nicole had to correctly answer questions that I had also asked her fiance. Oh, and I made her open them while wearing oven mitts that she got to take home. It was hilarious and memorable! (And yes, our gift was retro too: the girls selected a fondue pot from her registry just by chance.)
Decor was a lot of fun! We had balloons outside and just inside the entryway. I used some of my mom's wonderful aprons all over. I re-used valentine's "Love" banners, made a new "Mr. & Mrs" banner, designed a subway art for her, and used the oven mitts! It was adorable!
My sister was thrilled! My niece loved it! Everyone seemed to have a fun time! I think it was a success!! Oh, and here are pics of my Mom and me - we came!
(More pics, including all the photobooth ones, are currently on
the site and available for download.)
