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.
Tag Archives: bridal shower
May I ask you a Favor?
Caroline and Donnell had a fairy tale romance so their wedding favors had to step it up to shine like this beautiful couple!! Caroline chose two different designs; both had parchment colored background and a white floral to mimic their invitations. She couldn’t decide between “Mr & Mrs” or “hello LOVE” so why not have both!
Mr & Mrs:
Hello Love (based on stencil by Killer Zebras!):
Tori’s Bridal Shower
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 😦
A Hunk, A Hunk of Burning Love
Okay. So it’s actually “a hunk,” “a hunk,” AND burning “love.” Should have made them peanut butter flavor for the King. No matter. Elvis has left the building. Special thanks to the great Callye Alvarado (the Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle) for the original tutorial and hunky torso idea!
All You Need is Love
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.
Initial Impression
With lots of out-of-town guests attending the wedding, the groom’s mother decided to make up welcome gift bags. One of the treats inside the bag was this little four-pack of cookies. Since mom didn’t want any particular theme, I went with what I knew: the couple’s colors were light pink and grey; their initial’s were “M” and “R.” The bags used were pretzel bags found at Michael’s, Wal Mart, Hobby Lobby, even our local grocery store. They perfectly fit four 1.5 inch cookies!
I wanted the grey minis to be a bit more elegant since the pink ones were simple hearts or initials.
Thank goodness for LARGE tables. Really, really. Some day I’ll own one of those rolling baker stands that allows you to stack cookie sheets. But not today…
Final INITIAL display.
She Sells Seashells
It was a beach themed bridal shower with an invitation that was pink with a white and diagonally striped gold border. The bride.to.be’s name began with the letter “E” and was in cursive on the invite. The hostess wanted “fancy” cookies for the dessert table. Here’s the resulting platter!
A quick look at the individual beach-themed cookies. The “waves.on.the.beach” original idea came from cookie genius Amber of Sweet Ambs. Ridiculously creative and talented.
I did a test to show how slightly different techniques result in a different look. Below is the same cookie design applied 2 ways. For the cookie on the left, I first outlined the different sections with black. This was allowed to dry and before filling in the various yellow hues (waiting to semi-dry between adjacent sections). On the righthand cookie, I applied the white.to.yellow colors first- again letting colors semi-dry before applying the adjacent section. This gives that quilted look. When all colors were applied and dry, I outlined all of the sections in black. The second is a bolder look that I decided to use on the wave as well. No right or wrong…just 2 different methods to achieve the look you desire!
Diamond in the Rough
The country club/golf fund raiser theme was “diamond in the rough.” The client’s only instructions were ‘we want a diamond…’ I asked ‘diamond?’ …not “rough” like a fairway rough or a diamond sitting in a fairway rough? ‘Nope, a diamond. And put it in a bag with a ribbon…100 bags.’ Okay. What could I do with quick efficiency and (because I am who I am) in a design that I had not seen before? Here are the resulting cookies:
(PS: These cookies would also be great for an engagement party or bridal shower!)
I started with a simple superman “s” shaped cookie cutter and flooded them with white royal icing. That dried overnight before I added the blue.ish accents (which only had to dry a short time…like an hour or so) before I free-hand/penned in the diamond outline. I used an Americolor black pen. Here’s a quick pic of the general steps I took to get it done.
Diamonds were my new best friend.
Perfect size for the setting, eh?
Better put a RING on it!
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…
Mixing It Up
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 🙂
Mama Mayer Bakery 