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!

Gala 2012 aka Adult Prom

This past weekend I went to a Gala that was a fundraiser for the

Paramount Arts Center in Ashland KY. It's basically a bunch of old

people getting dressed up like they are going to prom. And I eat it up!

It's nice to see my hubbie all dressed up in a tux, and I love everything

about dress shopping, picking out jewelry, shoes, and a hairstyle.

I found my dress for a GREAT price - $100!!! I spent another $5 to get it hemmed

and have the strap taken up.  I found my earrings and bracelet at a store in New

York when I went there with some friends a few weeks ago - everything was 50% =)

I already had shoes and a clutch that worked perfectly and I did my own nails and makeup. 

Anyways, my mom and dad wanted to see us all dressed up, so we stopped by their

house on our way to the Gala. And of course, we stood outside and took "prom pictures."

My husband, who is 33 years old, even got asked which prom he was going to when he

picked up his tux! We had lots of fun at the Gala and even won two items from the

silent auction. We ate good food, although it didn't quite fill Isaiah up - our "afterparty"

was going to the Wendy's drive thru!

I definitely hope we get to go back next year... I'll take any excuse to get dressed up!!!



Candy Mini-Reception

I haven't posted anything in a while... but that's because I've been so busy

planning bridal showers! I will have to get better at posting them, because they

are just too cute... anyways... this past Sunday, my church had a little reception

to honor a couple who served as Interim Youth Directors for the last 14

months. So I put together a few decorations to go along with the reception.

It isn't too over the top, but it's still adorable.

We thought something fun to decorate with would be candy... who

doesn't like candy?!? I decided I was going to make gumball topiaries.

They turned out super cute.... but I'll be honest - it was HARD to make them!

My sister had a bunch of these little pails that she painted bright colors for me.

I put a piece of floral foam in the bucket, stuck a dow rod in it, and covered it

with glass beads.  I hot glued gumballs to a circle styrofoam and then put the gumball

circle on the top of the dow rod. The final touch was a simple bow around the dow rod.

Making these were more difficult than I thought, because the gumballs didn't stick

so well to the styrofoam. They kept falling off and I had to re-glue a LOT.  Also, the

gumballs were pretty heavy, so the circle would have a tendency to lean to one side instead

 of straight up. I even had one dow rod go straight through the top of the gumball circle.

Also, hot gluing the gumballs was messier than I thought - glue strands were everywhere

and I spent a lot of time picking them off the gumballs.

After I made four of the gumball topiaries, I decided to make things easier

on myself and made the rest of the centerpieces with blowpops. This took

about 5 minutes total, and the blow pops could still be eaten after they served

their purpose. I put glass beads in the bottom of the pail, bought a half circle

styrofoam piece, and stuck the blow pops into the styrofoam. Added a bow

around the pail, and it's done.

I made a couple banners to hang at the reception using a Cricut. They said

"thanks john & amy" and "you did a SWEET job!"

I didn't want the reception to look too girly... so I decided to use blue as the main

accent color. We used blue plates and blue polka dot napkins.  The drink dispensers

had blue fabric in the bottom, and then I put some leftover gumballs on top of the fabric.

I used gray fabric to make "curtains" on the black scrims and white lattice, and cinched

the fabric with blue ribbon and blue fabric. 

My favorite part of this reception was the Candy Thank You Card. I came

up with the wording, and my sister put the card together for me. She took

the pictures before she found all the candy for it, so some parts of the card

have post it notes where candy bars ended up being. But here's what it says:

Dear John & Amy,

We were going to give you 100 GRAND to show you how much we

appreciate you. With that money, we thought you might get a pet KITKAT,

or go on a trip to New YORK, or ORBIT around... 

the MILKY WAY. But... the money slipped right through our

BUTTERFINGERs. We are down to zilch, really, I mean ZERO.

We didn't have an EXTRA WHACHAMACALLIT to sell, and it wasn't

PAYDAY. Then we realized that a WHOPPER of a gift would be to tell you

that even though we sometimes act like AIRHEADS and may have played

TWIX on you, we think you are such a SMARTEE and have taught us

RUNTS in the youth group GOOD N PLENTY about our LIFESAVER.

Hopefully, leading us this past year gave you MOUNDS of

ALMOND JOY!!! From the GOOBERS of youth group

who love ya to PIECES.

Hopefully I'll get around to posting more often... Have a

great day and God bless =)