Sandy and Adam are great adventurers so it makes complete sense that their wedding would be in a lush, exotic tropical setting. For their bridal shower, I thought of dreamy, soft watercolors accented by their silver rings. The silver was from TMP and the watercolor was various mixings of Americolor‘s moss, leaf and forest green, and ivory with water.
For a happy engagement party, add cookies to bring the bling. Okay, I get it; the RING is the bling. Still, I can’t help but put my own sweet spin on bRINGing the bling. Shine on, you crazy couple!
You get a purple, and you get a purple, and you get a purple. I guess these purple cookies had to stand in for Oprah at this bridal shower. Hey, it’s The Color Purple, one way or another.
These sweet cookies were for the children attending their wedding. Alex (of Alex and Ashley fame) is an incredible, uber talented graphic designer who whipped up a beautiful floral, rustic theme for their wedding info site. I referenced those florals and golden touch he added when creating their cookies. Did I mention how Amazing and Awesome “A & A” is to cookify?
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 😦
The City of Brotherly Love’s (Philadelphia’s) perhaps best-known landmark is LOVE itself — the Robert Indiana sculpture is in John F. Kennedy Plaza, not far from City Hall. As an odd side bar, LOVE was installed in 1976 but briefly snatched away in 1978; popular demand brought it back to where it stands today.
Since the wedding was in Philly (even though ordered and picked up in Buffalo), all was right in the karma world.
The request was for a tray of engagement rings to sweeten up a bridal shower. And I did make rings, putting my little twist of a heart shaped cutout in the middle. But , as always, I couldn’t leave well enough alone. I wanted to include just a few designs to personalize the platter. I had seen some beautiful wedding photos where the couple had their hands in the shape of a heart so…. this is my cookie take on that theme.
This is the platter before it got wrapped up for delivery. Late night photo so not the same quality of light. Got to make a photo booth one day…
The bridal shower invitation showcased a mixer with a electric green background, the theme being all things kitchen. So I “whipped up” 10 dozen KitchenAid mixers for the favors. Each cookie was about 3.5 x 3.5″ and she wanted the traditional shortbread flavor.
I used luster dust and almond extract (though vodka or and clear extract will do- flavors barely are noticeable if at all) to paint the mixing bowl and strip and used an edible ink marker to outline the cookie.
This is what 120 cookies look like.
Bagged and tagged. And Patty wanted 10 on a plate too. Assuming that was for her own enjoyment 🙂
So this centerpiece platter is a perfect example of how my brain plays “association.” I latch on to a thread (spring time bridal shower and the bride.to.be’s love of happy flowers) and off my thoughts go! What is happier than daisies, right? Jump to “he loves me”, “he loves me not.” No negativity at such a happy occasion so that becomes “he loves me lots.” Which also rhymes with “we’re tying the knot.” And you pick a petal, so a big cookie that does so too, why not? And as I think of multiple daisies, I start humming the song “Daisy Bell” (circa 1892, thank you Harry Dacre). ***Google “Daisy Bell” and you will find a fun story about the origin of the lyrics– it always comes back to either love or money or both! Or Hal from the movie: 2001, a Space Odyssy*** Floated around the idea of using the “I’m half crazy” part but opted for a more appropriate “give me your answer” nod to the wedding vow “I do!” and placed that with the bicycle built for two! Back to picking things, the bride picked the groom and visa versa and Bob’s your uncle, platter is planned! Anyway, hope you’re not half crazy following my creation process. um. Enjoy the pictures, at least?
Amanda and Ryan are tying the knot! Requested were engagement rings and hearts with the wedding colors of red and silver to be incorporated. There were 4 dozen cookies in their baker’s box of cookies (like to get a feel for how many are in an order and what that looks like) along with the “A loves R” favors (the 3 cookies fit into a long pretzel bag, then tied with ribbon). Sweet!
Mama Mayer Bakery 