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Thursday, June 28, 2012

A Peacock Bridal Shower


It's been FOREVER since I posted something it seems!
That's because I've been busy on bridal showers! Hopefully
I can post them quickly because they are all so stinkin' cute =)

In March, my sister and I threw a bridal shower for a good friend of ours,
Lauren. I came up with the idea of using Peacock feathers - we immediately fell in
love with the idea and had such a fun time putting things together for it =)

We printed the invitations on cardstock, cut them to fit envelopes we already had, then
hot glued ribbon and a peacock feather to each.  It's a little hard to see the print on
the invite, but at the top, this is what it says:
Before the Miss
Becomes a Mrs.
Let's shower her with
love and well wishes!

I really wanted to use silver chargers at each place setting. Problem is, I
needed 60 of them! I had 16 of my own and my friend Jerica had quite a few that
she let me borrow. And then I hit the jackpot...  I was talking about the shower with
my friend Evie and told her that I had about 60 people coming to the shower but only
had about 30 chargers. She told me that she had TONS of silver chargers - enough
for me to use them for the shower! How crazy is that? I was so excited!!

We made napkin rings by hot gluing a peacock feather to a glass bead, then
gluing the bead to a small black hair twistie. So perfect, yet so inexpensive.
We even had someone ask where we BOUGHT the napkins rings!

Evie came through in a big way AGAIN, because she had over 90 peacock
feather plumes that she let me borrow for the shower!!! I put a few plumes in a tall
vase (from my wedding) with some glass beads in the bottom, and the centerpieces
were pretty much done!  Our church already had a TON of this beautiful teal fabric
 that was PERFECT for a Peacock themed shower. We cut a few small pieces and
 puddled them in the middle of each table, set the tall vases with feathers
on it, and added a couple tealight candles. Now they're done =)

The tables just didn't look finished, and we decided that the chairs needed sashes.
The mother of the bride and another friend of ours came to help the day of the
 shower, so we put them in charge of cutting fabric into strips and
tying them to each chair with a knot. It was the pop of color that we needed.
Now the tables are complete!!

My sister found an idea on pinterest on how to make a giant poster.  Click
here for that link.  We got permission from the photographer who took
some of Lauren (and Josh's) engagement pictures before blowing up the picture.
We hung it from the basketball goal with fishing line, so it looked like it was
floating. Up close, there were some bubbles where it didn't quite lay right,
but it really wasn't too noticeable. It was a great focal point behind the buffet table!
We draped teal fabric around the picture to add a little color, and that was all it needed.

My FAVORITE part of this shower was the monogram that I made.
I printed the couple's initials onto a transparency sheet and then
projected it onto cardboard. I traced the letters out with a pencil,
then cut each one out with a box cutter.  I spray painted the letters silver,
then painted silver glitter over that so they would shimmer.
I made two sets of these monograms to be displayed in the room.

We ended up putting lots and lots of duct tape on the back of each letter to
hold it up. That seemed to work perfect. We had just enough teal fabric left to
drape the monograms, and then had some extra feather plume vases that we
added to the mix.  We covered some small columns in black fabric to elevate
the vases, and added a few candles. I think it turned out so pretty!!

I also really loved this display that we made.  We used different boxes and
benches to create varying heights. Then we set out engagement pictures, candles,
the favors and the door prizes. It was such a cute part of the shower!

The favors were earrings, and to wrap them, all we did was cut a small
 square of tissue paper, poke the earrings through, put in a clear baggie and
 tie with curling ribbon. We passed the basket of favors around for everyone
 to pick out a pair while Lauren was opening her gifts.

There were three door prizes: 1 for the first person to RSVP,
1 for the number of gift that Lauren chose, and 1 for the number of
gift that Josh chose. The boxes are from the dollar store, and I just
added a few feathers and a ribbon rosette to each box.
The prizes were all different scarves that were peacock colors with
coordinating earrings. Secretly I wanted to fix the prizes so that I would
win, because those scarves were so stinkin' cute! Oh well.

I absolutely LOVED the game that we played at the shower... I saw
something similar at a friend's wedding last year, and adapted it to work
for the shower. Josh, the groom, was such a good sport and since he was
going to be at the shower anyways, we decided that we would use him for the
game. We cut out two sets of J and L initials.  Lauren and Josh had to sit
back to back, and when we asked a question, they had to answer using
the letters (whether it was true of Josh or Lauren). It was so funny, and sweet,
to see how they answered! Some of the questions were:
who is in charge of the remote?
who is most likely to eat sweets for breakfast?
who is the biggest flirt?
who is the better dancer?
who said "I love you" first?

Everyone really seems to enjoy watching Josh and Lauren play the game,
and I didn't really hear any complaints that the guests didn't get to play any games.
One of the most amazing parts of this shower was that I didn't have to do ANY
of the food! Ha... that is my least favorite part of throwing showers. Anyways,
Josh's family offered to make the desserts - and did they ever! There were
so many desserts that tasted just as good as they looked! Thanks Patty and family!
And Lauren's brother works for a catering company, so he and Lauren's mom
got all the food and drinks. I told them I wanted to have alfredo and spaghetti,
a salad and bread. They went above and beyond my expectations! Everything
was absolutely delicious - when the caterers finished cleaning up and left during
the shower, they got a round of applause from all the guests =)



Rebekah made these cute little pillows for the chairs that Lauren and Josh
would sit on to open presents. She cut squares of fabric, cut a lot of slits,
then tied the fabric around existing pillows. A felt heart and a feather
finished the look. So cute!


I made a couple wreaths to go behind the gift opening section.
We used foam found in the plumbing section at Home Depot - stuffed
the foam with grocery bags so it would stay in the circle that we wanted.
Wrapped the foam with black fabric, and then added a pretty feather
stem that I found at JoAnn Fabrics. They were just the right touch.

We were so glad that we were able to throw Lauren and Josh this shower...
we've been friends with both of them for a long time and it was such a joy
to do this for them. And Lauren's expression when she saw the room made
it all worth it - she cried! 




And yes, I DID go and buy teal pants just to wear to this shower. So what?!?
And I got feather earrings for me and my sister to wear =)
Hope you enjoyed looking at this shower! Have a great day... & God bless!