Destination Bridal Shower and Beyond

Living hundreds of miles away from engaged friends can make it difficult to be involved in all of the showers and parties that lead up to their big day. But I wasn't about to let that stop me when my friend Jade got engaged last year. Instead, I decided to get in cahoots with a couple of her local Chicago friends and create a shower/party extravaganza all in one day. That way I could still be involved, but I wouldn't have to offer my first born to American Airlines.

So we planned a late afternoon couples shower and an evening karaoke bash. And to keep the overall day cohesive in theme, I designed the invitation suite below.


With help from an amazing group of Chicago friends, I arrived in Chicago with all of the groceries purchased, all of my supplies safely stored from shipment, and a beautiful home ready for us to take over.


To go with our picnic theme, we created individual picnic baskets by lining wood berry baskets with inexpensive gingham fabric. We then filled them with chinese take-out containers filled with orzo salad, mini sandwiches on challah rolls, and fresh cherries. Plastic forks were rolled in red napkins with a contrasting band of tissue paper and twine tying it together.

For drinks, we used a GIGANTIC mason jar as a punch bowl to hold my new favorite summer drink - lemonade with sweet tea vodka.

And the sweet thing that topped off our day was Hip Hostess's signature chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream icing. To make our cupcakes look like flowers, I dyed the icing green and topped it with a lollipop. Then using double sided tape, I adhered little green leaves that I had pre-cut from cardstock.

For decorations, we filled the space with lots of tissue "poofs." They are super easy and cheap to make. Here are the instructions.

Both the shower and the karaoke party were a huge success. I'd love to show you pics from karaoke, but none of them passed my self-imposed censor. Just know that we were all Rock Stars.