So here is a secret that is not such a secret: I love hosting parties!  Love, love, love having kids/folks to the house and all the ruckus and preparation that comes with it.  So when Tori (our eldest) picked a date for her bridal shower, I was jumping for planning joy. Unfortunately, Denver is a bit too far of a commute from Philly so I flew in for an awesome weekend of food tasting, er, I mean, checking out venues for her bridal shower.  Kensington Quarters totally had that rustic industrial feel she was looking for and we couldn’t have been more pleased with the upstairs room, their service, the food, and great atmosphere!

It was a definite given that the favors would be cookies.  Thought Tori would like a little bling like the ring…

Since I had to ship things across the country, the prep for the shower could not be too complicated.  Tori’s colors are blush, gold and white so I made a bunch of full sized tassels using instructions through Oh Happy Day! (The tissue paper pack was a set found at Target). I spaced the tassels on simple twine and ran them along the stair railings and the gift table. Thanks Kendra for getting all this set up!

I dipped various sizes of mason jars in gold paint (jars and paint from Target) and sent them to Pure Design Florist  (Pure Design saved my backside because I had quite the time finding a Philly florist that was close enough to the venue to deliver and also open on Memorial day weekend!).

One of the bridesmaids, Jill, is a graphic designer.  She worked her magic to create the templates for the games we played.  I asked her to  1) use the rustic look of wood and lights at Kensington and 2) put a &%$)! load of information on small sheets! The cards were absolutely perfect! Game playing was apparently informative, seasoned with splash of competitiveness; thanks to future Mom-in-law, Johanna, and sister-in-law, Melina, for providing the gift baskets for the lucky winners!

Another bridesmaid, Joan, brought bunches of balloons, decorated with witty words.  I’m a sucker for clever words appropriately placed.

We brought Byron upstairs for the latter part of the shower.  The almost.bride.and.groom got mini white boards (thank you once again Target) to play our version of “the newlywed game”!  POSITIVELY HYSTERICAL! SO MUCH FUN! (Google ‘newlywed game questions’ or ‘newlywed game questions bridal shower’ and you will get more ideas than you would ever need).  I typed out many questions and the bridesmaids took turns picking a question to ask.

Tori likes clean lined, structured designs with just a kiss of bling.  So we got this cake from the wonderful Whipped Bakeshop in Fishtown. Not only was the cake delicious and beautiful, Whipped Bakeshop was super wonderful to work with.  The topper came from Communicakeit.  I fell in love with it as soon I saw it on Instagram; it had just the right words and shine for the occasion!

Our (not such a) baby girl!

Tori and her sister/maid of honor (so lucky to have these two daughters)!

Thank you to all of the bridemaids and Johanna for such a successful bridal shower! Your help and collaboration made things run smooth as silk! …. sorry Melina isn’t in this picture 😦